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Data tokens vs plan upgrade

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Quinatt
Freshman

Data tokens vs plan upgrade

First month with hughesnet. On the 10gb plan and I see that the upgrade to 10gb more is only $10 more. Then I see to purchase 10gb tokens is $30??
Can I not upgrade my plan mid month for the $10 more? I have to buy the hugely more expensive tokens? Pretty sure I’m going to use all 10gb this month but not sure. What’s the best thing to do? Don’t want to have to buy the expensive tokens
6 REPLIES 6
maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Upgrading might be better for you, but you will still have to learn to budget your data, or you'll run out of data on any of the plans.  

 

Quinatt wrote:
First month with hughesnet. On the 10gb plan and I see that the upgrade to 10gb more is only $10 more. Then I see to purchase 10gb tokens is $30??
Can I not upgrade my plan mid month for the $10 more? I have to buy the hugely more expensive tokens? Pretty sure I’m going to use all 10gb this month but not sure. What’s the best thing to do? Don’t want to have to buy the expensive tokens

 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Quinatt 

 

Right now there is actually deal going for extra tokens.  You may have gotten an email about it today.  When you buy 10GB of tokens you get an extra 5GB for free.  

 

When you upgrade your plan mid month, which you can do, the fee will be prorated for this month, so if it's halfway through it should be somewhere around $5 (if the 20GB plan is only $10 more), which will be added to the next bill since you've likely already paid for this month's.  

 

My advice would be to upgrade your plan, as $10 for 10GB more is still a much better deal, especially if you're going to be needing more data than you presently have every month.

Ok that’s a relief to know. I guess the only reason for buying the 10gb for $30 would be for someone already with a big plan. Good to know.
Would steaming a YouTube video even be possible once the data is used up and it drops to a slower speed? Probably different for each service, depending on your signal strength to begin with?

Thanks for your replies. Satellite internet is a pretty terrifying thing for people who aren’t wealthy

Actually, that’s confusing. Why would upgrading to 20gb mid-month from 10gb be prorated to half the price? You’re still getting 10gb more regardless of the fact you only get 15 days less to use it. Maybe I’m not understanding correctly.
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Quinatt wrote:
Actually, that’s confusing. Why would upgrading to 20gb mid-month from 10gb be prorated to half the price? You’re still getting 10gb more regardless of the fact you only get 15 days less to use it. Maybe I’m not understanding correctly.

Because you're paying for the plan, which includes the data, not the data itself.  Basically, at the point you upgrade, your old plan will end and the new plan will begin, with the price of the old plan being prorated because you didn't use it for the entire 30/31 days, and the new plan will be prorated because you aren't going to be using it for the entire 30/31 days.  The difference will be on the next bill, because the bill for the current month has already been generated and paid, as HughesNet uses forward billing.  IOW, when a bill is generated and paid, it's for the forthcoming 30/31 days.

 

If you're on day 15 of a 30 day month of a $50 plan, you've used $25 worth.  If you upgrade on that day to a $60 plan, you're going to have a $25 credit for the second half of the $50 plan that you didn't use, but already paid for, and a $30 bill for the second half of the $60 plan that you will use.  So, a $5 difference from what you had already paid for the month, which will be added to the next bill, which will then be $65.  Of course, these figures are arbitrary and don't include lease fees or taxes, but are just being used as an easy example.

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

"Would steaming a YouTube video even be possible once the data is used up and it drops to a slower speed? Probably different for each service, depending on your signal strength to begin with?"

 

If you're out of data, then streaming is pretty much a no.  When you have data, streaming works no matter what plan you're on.  BUT, it is highly dependent on congestion -- this means if a lot of people are using the system in your area, streaming is harder, and sometimes impossible.