I still often get queries regarding this Anti Bill Shock feature from Smart, what it does and what’s in it for subscribers especially new owners of smartphones who stand to gain a lot from it.
To get a clearer picture of what Smart’s Anti Bill Shock can do for you, allow me to narrate a short story.
The first smartphone I handled was the Samsung Galaxy S. Back then I didn’t know that smartphones are automatically set to use mobile data when WiFi is not present. I kept on incurring charges from updating weather and receiving FB and Twitter updates until my friend told me to turn mobile data off. So I did.
Almost done with the story. The Samsung Galaxy S back then was one of the best camera phones and I use it a lot to takie event photos or product shots. One time I had to upload some photos quickly to my Dropbox so I turned on mobile data thinking it won’t take 30 minutes (10 pesos) for the upload to finish. What I didn’t know was that my data plan at that time was set to KB-based instead of time-based and I uploaded MB’s and MB’s worth of images. Imagine the shock I had when I got my bill. It was thrice the amount of what I regularly pay for my monthly postpaid plan.
That’s bill shock. Getting a ridiculous amount in your monthly phone bill just because you can’t resist playing with your new smartphone without knowing how data charges work.
What Smart’s Anti Bill Shock do is put a cap of P1,200 when your data charges reach that amount. You can still continue to surf on your phone but you will only need to pay a maximum of P1,200 for data charges for that month. You still have to pay for your regular monthly phone bill and other carrier expenses (calls, SMS, roaming, mms, etc.).
So how do you enable this Smart’s Anti Bill Shock protection?
You don’t. You will automatically have this feature when you subscribe for an iPhone Plan or Data Lite plans and on regular and consumable plans w/ Always on Packages.
Also, for Smart Bro SIM Plan 495 subscribers, there’s the anti bill shock cap of P999 on your allowable 50 hours of data use per month.
Despite Smart’s Anti Bill Shock protection, it’s still much smarter if you know how to manage your smartphone. Here are a a couple of tips you can apply once you start using a smartphone for the first time:
- Turn off mobile data when you don’t need it or if you’re not subscribed to a data plan. It’s usually found in the Network settings of your device. Do this especially when you’re roaming unless you really, really need to connect to the internet.
- Turn off auto-sync on your e-mail, calendar, updates, etc. if you don’t need it or if you’re usually connected via WiFi.
Smartphones are really powerful and convenient to use but it won’t be if you’re not smart enough to use it. Not unless your have wads of cash to throw around for data charges.