Help! My phone is eating all my money

[Elizabeth391]

Hi everyone,

I really need some phone-related advice. I have a nokia C7, and upon my arrival to Chengdu bought a China Mobile pay-as-you-go sim card. At first the money I topped up with seemed to last a while, but now it is beyond ridiculous- I am using 100rmb in 2 days. I dont really text that much , and barely call at all. My phone was automatically connecting to the network internet, but I wasn’t really using it all that much. The aps I have dowloaded since here are Skype, Whatsap, and a translation ap called Binu.I also have hotmail on my phone.

I tried to google what the problem could be, and some sites said just turn your network internet off, or make sure it asks before connecting to the internet. I have done this, yet since I topped up 100 rmb about 1 hour ago, I have sent 4 texts and already I am down to 60rmb.

Please can someone give me some advice, like are any of these apps known for connecting automatically to the internet? As soon I won’t be able to afford to use my phone at all!

Liz 🙁

[Vincent]

That is ridiculous indeed. Are you sure the mobile data internet is turned off? Turning off wifi won’t fix this problem, obviously.

Let a Chinese friend or colleague call China Mobile for you so they can look up where the usage is coming from. (Check if it is indeed because of mobile internet)

[oh davey]

Hi Elizabeth, it looks like that you are subscribed to some data plan with China mobile. I guess when you asked for a sim card you requested to be able to use data services.

If you are subscribed to such a plan, the company will take so much money off your balance at the beginning of the month. For example, I am with China Unicom and they deducted 150RMB off my balance leaving with a negative balance, so I had to top up.

Maybe this might have happened to you. Either way, I hope you can find a chinese friend to help you put it right.

Maybe another forum member can advise as I am also quite fresh here in Chengdu

[Lino]

Hey Liz,

If you use Skype make sure not to do video chat. Went through my 100 rmb in a few hours last week that way.

Remember that you only get 300mb per top up. Maybe download some app who monitors your internet traffic. That way you would be able to tell if this is due to the internet use.

And as Vincent mentioned, make sure you disable mobile internet, and not just wifi

[JerryS]

Turn off your internet. I had hte same issue recently, best to get this cleared up. I had a bud do this for me, he threatened to sue China Mobile because of this issue.

[Elizabeth391]

Thanks for the advice guys, but unfortunately I don’t have any chinese friends 🙁 just a girl I work with, but I won’t see her until next week. I really want to get it sorted as it is really draining my funds. When I got the sim card I don’t think we asked for internet access, but i am not sure as our schools sorted it out. Is there any way I can sort this on my own? on the connections page, it says network mode- dual mode or GSM, which one shall i put? and in the “data use” part I have put WLAN only, but it doesnt seem to make a difference!

[Vincent]

Here’s a YouTube movie on how to disable mobile internet on a C7:

Nokia C7: Turn off / on data roaming services

If you don’t have a VPN you can just google it.

If that didn’t work, I suggest visiting a China Mobile shop yourself. The big ones have someone that can speak English normally (at least the one on Kehua Bei Lu next to the Giant bicycle shop does).

You can also use Google Translate to translate your problem and then print it out or bring the message on your phone (if it supports Chinese characters). If you do that, translate it back and forth from ENG-CH <> CH-ENG until the translation makes sense. Lol

[Charlie]

I think Vincent’s advice will sort this issue out. This problem is relatively common – the phone is connecting to the internet and exceeding your data plan.

[Elizabeth391]

Thanks all- I have followed the instructions on the video, deleted new aps I had added, and so far my 100 rmb top up hasnt run out, 3 days and counting…fingers crossed!

[Michael M]

Go to the China Mobile shop and try to find out what tariff you are on. As standard most sim cards have a very low data allowance and then charged at 0.01yuan/kb for further data use, which is very expensive.

You can change the tarrif you use to include data and a fixed amount will be taken off your phone credit at the beginning of every month. For example I have a 50Yuan/month data plan which gives me 500MB (about 0.000097yuan/KB!!) I also have a 20 yuan package which gives me something like 300 sms and some minutes too. So at the beginning of every month I need to remember to top up at least 70yuan when this payment is deducted.

The tariff you are on is easy to change at any China Mobile shop, but beware that usually the new tariff isn’t effective until the following month… so watch out for the ridiculously high default charges! Like many monopoly businesses (China Mobile, Telecom etc) in China, China mobile will quite happily rip-off people for something they don’t know about!

Let me know if you need help!

[Author]

Posts