I'm curious how much top-up balance people are leaving behind.
For me personally, between my 4-lines (3 primary lines + 1 test line), I'll be leaving behind around $150 in top-up.
That sucks. But then again, I guess I'd long ago already resigned myself to "losing" these balances. Considering I never hit overages and that my paid plans (Mad BBQ Final Cut x 3) were directly charged to my credit card, instead of drawing from top-up, I knew it was very unlikely I'd ever dip into my top-up. That annoyed at the time (and still kinda does). But then I reasoned that this was the (hidden) price I had to pay to get the unbeatably low-cost mobile service plans I was getting. In the end, I still came out ahead so I guess I was okay with it. But the cheapskate in me sure hates seeing my top-ups go poof like this! :unsure:
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EDIT - This RingPlus announcement was sent today:
So, I wish this had been announced BEFORE I initiated my ports :ohmy: , but alas, a couple days too late for me! Oh well. For anyone else who hasn't started a port yet, it may be worth it to see what comes of this. You'll have to weigh the risks, whether, at this point, you are more afraid of losing your phone number or your top-up!
I signed up when Mad Hot Chocolate Free Plan on January 22, 2017 with a $6 for activation and minimum $5 topup. Good thing i did not invest much from the get go since it was my trial month with R+ but shortly folded.:ohmy:
The mind- blowing thing is that if there are 100,000 or so lines with an average of $15 on each then ringplus are looking at $1,500,000 in unused top ups!!! $1.5million!! Could be even more.
I've got around $20 or less total for my three lines. At one time it was considerably higher, but when switching to the new plans after the legacy plans ended I got on paid plans that drew the monthly payment from the top-ups. So I've been "spending them down" and keeping just enough in each one to cover the next month's cost. The most recent payments came out about 10 days ago so the balance is low (just a little above the $5 minimum) in all three right now.
"Unused" by customers. But I'm pretty sure those top-up balances were used up some time ago and aren't just sitting around in RP's bank account. My guess is that funds from customer top-ups were depleted to pay for operating expenses, in order to keep the lights on. And unfortunately, it appears that wasn't enough to stave off the Sprint bill collectors.
Since our top-ups are nonrefundable, I think they represented only a "credit" towards a limited selection of RingPlus services. And once those services are no longer available, the credits become essentially worthless. That sucks, but that's my layman's opinion on how this official bookkeeping will play out.
Btw, all of this is pure conjecture on my part. I have no special insight into RP's books or inner-workings, but that's my guess on what's happened.
There are places like amusement parks or arcades where you can buy tokens or tickets or "currency" that is good only for use in that establishment. I always viewed the top-ups as buying "RingPlus dollars" that could be used only for paying for specified RingPlus goods and services, and were worthless outside RingPlus. Just as with amusement park tickets, there was no way to get your money back or to spend it anywhere outside the park.
$27 top up on one line started last July, Plus $60 in a loaner phone , which are no longer being accepted for returns.
Which comes out to about $100 with taxes for 7 months of service. More than I usually pay for 4-5 years of cell service,
but, a great learning experience, and I've met great folks and learned a lot on the forum:)
