Usage Overage

For about a year now, my family has had problems with overage charges. We started with 10 GB for our WIFI. It was fine for a few months but then we were getting overage charges. So we upped to 15 GB per month. Again, overages were occurring We thought we weren't sure how to handle it. So we upped again to 20 GB. We were fine for a while until we once again began going over. We have tried and tried to get real answers from Verizon but are always talked in circles. I would like some assistance. Has anyone else had this problem? If so how have you handled or gotten it fixed? I think sometimes there are charges in data occurring that we have not used. Any suggestions?

Accepted answers

Verizon_Support

I can understand how getting data charges can be frustrating, lmhagans. Especially, in the middle of the night, while you are sleeping and no one is using data. Your device when not in use, like at night, will ping the network every six hours to make contact with the network to make sure it is ready to go when you are. These data pings are normally only a few KB’s so nothing to worry about. What keeps happening daily, it seems, is the internet is growing. Think about what Facebook looked like last year compared to this year. Selfies and stickies are on the rise and not just with Facebook. There is Instagram, SnapChat , videos that were in SD are now in HD, the list continues. Changing carriers will not change your data use.
Data Utilization really only give a brief insight into how your data is being used. The real way to check you data is to go into Settings and Apps and see how much data they are using, then compare your application data to the data sessions that you pull up on MyVerizon. Those two tools together will take the mystery out of the data charges.
Now to save data or limit your usage, you can turn off cellular data while on WiFi. Some WiFi services have slower speeds and use cellular data to help what ever you may be doing along. For example, if you are watching an episode on Seinfeld and you are on WiFi, try turning off your cellular data. If your WiFi is up to par you will not notice a difference. If your WiFi is slower, you will experience buffering. Also, close out your applications when they are not in use. Some applications are using loads of data, even when you are not using them.
We value you as a Verizon Wireless customer and do not want to see you leave over data charges. I hope this explains the data usage mystery for you. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

AllisonC_VZW
Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport

If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

All comments

Verizon_Support

I would love to provide you with the answers you are looking for, MJP4500.

A year is quite a long time to have unanswered questions. Are you using one of our Jetpack devices for your WiFi?

Have you been able to check our data utilization tool to see how data is being used http://vz.to/1Nd5tw6?

TamaraH_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

lmhagans

I am also having the same problem with data charges. I am getting charges when I am home sleeping and connected to Wifi. I checked the utilization tool and that doesn't help. All it shows is what the percentage of use is. We have only had Verizon for a year. We came from AT&T hoping for better service. We only had 8 GB and we never even came close to using that. Here I am two weeks into our plan and we are at 80% already??? Looks like its time to go back to AT&T. Our bill was much lower with them and I never had to worry about my data usage. They will pay out my contract and I won't have to worry about the usage crooks at Verizon. I have been doing some checking and it sounds like this is a common problem. The other odd thing is that I am having accruing data every 6 hours (i.e. 6:13 and 12:13). I am on a lot of survey communities and I really hope I get a cellphone company survey soon.

MJP4500

I have used the data tool and like Imhagans below it has not helped. It shows the reoccurring charges at strange times. It has even shown minimal charges on the account when the device has been powered off. I am looking for other wireless providers because I feel I am being cheated out of money and data. We used to not ever go over and now we go over every month and usually very quickly. It makes no sense. The product we are using is the LTE internet pictured here.

Verizon_Support

MJP4500,

Thanks for visiting our community member forums. We appreciate your concerns and want to help to clear up any questions you may have. The way data is measured over out network is in 6 hour metered sessions. This can be affected by a device being off for long periods of time, where you may not show a session. It is normal when reviewing your data usage to see a time that you may not have actually been using a device. The time that you see in the report will be the start time of that session in EST time and the amount of data shown is going to be total amount of data used from that point for the next six hours forward. For example, if you saw a time showing 3AM, but didn't even power up your device until 7AM, this would be normal and would be the actual usage from 7AM when you turned it on until 9AM, which is the end of that measured session. I hope this helps.

EricW_VZW
Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

Verizon_Support

If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

TandK-M

We have also experienced the same issue. Started at 10GB and was fine then overage so increased to 15GB and same pattern now we are at 20GB with 7GB data overage and still have a week before start next months data activity. Something is not right as we have used like half of that data in last 5-6 days but it took over 2 weeks to use the first 10GB of data - if something does not seem right it probably is not - Verizon you need to do a system check on your monitoring and collecting of data usage as it is messed up!