Help Losing credit on pay-as-you-go

[Fugee]

I'm not a great mobile phone user and until recently used to get by with an old Nokia pay-as-you go. My iPod Touch recently got stolen, so I was looking for a replacement and thought if I got myself an Android phone (although I had no experience with Android), I could still listen to music and even have a camera, whilst having less in my pocket.

So I bought myself a Vodaphone 845 pay-as-you-go running Android 2.1 the other day and popped my old SIM card in it. The day after I bought the phone, it started beeping at me at regular intervals because it was sending me lots of text messages telling me all my credit was gone. I topped it up with € 10 wondering why I suddenly had no more credit - although there was not much in the first place. To be on the safe side, I turned off a couple of running applications and checked the credit again at the end of the day to find that it had not been reduced.

That night I turned the phone off, but when I turned it back on again, I noticed that the credit was steadily going down. This time I can't seem to stop it. I also discovered that all the services/applications I previously turned off were now running again after the phone had been rebooted.

I can't say I understand the technology (yet), but I assume something in/on the phone is trying to call home (via the SIM card?). But what? I have now also turned off the WiFi and the location finding settings, but the credit is still going down.

The applications I have installed so far ar Market, Google Navigator, and My Tracks.

Does anybody have any idea what could be eating the credit up? And is it possible to stop it?

Thanks in advance

 

[terry_gardener]

i have recently got android phone and using payg sim card.
i added a internet package to have unlimited internet*

must apps on android have some sort of internet access.
email
weather
news
facebook
etc etc

you will have to go to the settings of each app and get it to sync manually, so you decide when to update/access the internet.

you can also turn off the mobile internet setting, on mine press and hold the power button and menu comes up select mobile internet to turn it off.

* = subject to fup

 

[Fugee]

i have recently got android phone and using payg sim card.
i added a internet package to have unlimited internet*

must apps on android have some sort of internet access.
email
weather
news
facebook
etc etc

you will have to go to the settings of each app and get it to sync manually, so you decide when to update/access the internet.

you can also turn off the mobile internet setting, on mine press and hold the power button and menu comes up select mobile internet to turn it off.

* = subject to fup

That shows how much knowledge I lack about mobile phones. I did not know you could access the Internet via a SIM card. I assumed it would access the Internet via WiFi. But then what does the phone do when I'm out or range of my WiFi?

Looking at the applications I've got/had installed, they all say that they have full network access, which I'll assume means that they can access the Internet at will for whatever reason.

I've now deleted everything

, although I saw there was an option in the controls to force the applications to stop. Does that do the same thing?

It all makes the phone seem a bit pointless. You can have the Android O/S on pay-as-you-go, but (almost) everything you install will end up costing you more money.

I'm a bit downhearted at the moment. I can see myself installing doubleTwist and removing the SIM card or getting myself a new iPod Touch.

 

[terry_gardener]

on my htc there is auto sync settings. you could untick background data and auto-sync options which should stop the auto syncing of the apps.

on my phone goto settings - accounts and sync - then untick the above 2 options should be the same on yours as both are using android 2.1.

my phone auto uses wifi when in range but then uses mobile internet when not in range of wifi.

as stated above you can also turn off mobile internet all together by pressing and hold the power button for couple secs and then choose mobile internet, alternatively goto settings - wireless and networks and turn off mobile internet (just untick). this will turn off all mobile internet connections and therefore not cost you anything

 

[Fugee]

on my htc there is auto sync settings. you could untick background data and auto-sync options which should stop the auto syncing of the apps.

I did that, but it didn't help. I just saw that the Vodaphone 360 application was running. I turned that off and am now closing monitoring the

 

[Ozymandias88]

on my htc there is auto sync settings. you could untick background data and auto-sync options which should stop the auto syncing of the apps.

on my phone goto settings - accounts and sync - then untick the above 2 options should be the same on yours as both are using android 2.1.

my phone auto uses wifi when in range but then uses mobile internet when not in range of wifi.

as stated above you can also turn off mobile internet all together by pressing and hold the power button for couple secs and then choose mobile internet, alternatively goto settings - wireless and networks and turn off mobile internet (just untick). this will turn off all mobile internet connections and therefore not cost you anything

As two people have already stated above you can turn off your mobile data, i.e. internet access through your mobile network, hence no more charges for data. You can still use your wireless connection while this is off wifi is completely separate.

Follow terry_gardener's instructions:

Settings > Wireless & networks > Mobile networks > Untick Data Enabled

 

[Fugee]

As two people have already stated above you can turn off your mobile data, i.e. internet access through your mobile network, hence no more charges for data. You can still use your wireless connection while this is off wifi is completely separate.

Follow terry_gardener's instructions:

Settings > Wireless & networks > Mobile networks > Untick Data Enabled

Thanks. I don't quite have the same options. What's still checked for me and I will now uncheck are:

Data Service
A switch to enable all data connection.
And
Enable always-on mobile
Use more power on some mobile networks.

Thanks again. I'm feeling quite inadequate at the moment. I used to have a jailbroken 1st Gen iPod Touch, which I loved. I am hoping I will grow to love this phone even more.

 

[shmoo]

ok what is the point of having internet on your phone if you are just going to turn everything off? and what is the point of putting 250megz of data for a week, why are you paying for other things??? i dont understand... help
wind pay as you go ate all my credit.

 

[snapper.fishes]

Get juice defender or super power. Both apps allows you to set 3g to burst mode, meaning that your phone will only be able connect to the internet once in a while (e.g. Every 30 minutes). This should reduce you data usage significantly.