No one likes bill shock – that unpleasant feeling when you open your mobile or internet bill only to find that you have used your entire data cap and have been charged a significant amount in excess charges. Luckily, back in 2013, the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) started requiring all telecommunications companies to create tools that allow you to more easily monitor your usage.

These tools will automatically send you a notification via email when you hit 50%, 85% and 100% of your data cap, letting you know you are about to incur excess charges for your services and giving you the opportunity to moderate your data usage.

Usage notifications are also useful because they allow you to determine if it is time to upgrade your data plan. Generally, if you are starting to receive 85% notifications every billing cycle, you should contact your service provider and see if there is another plan available that better suits your needs.

Things to keep in mind when it comes to usage notifications:

  1. It can take up to 48 hours for your usage reports to register with your carrier, which means that you may actually use more data before you receive your data usage notification.
  2. Smaller data caps (like those available on mobile plans) are much more susceptible to bursts of heavy usage than larger plans, so monitoring your usage on mobile and connecting to wireless networks whenever possible is highly recommended.
  3. Usage notifications will be sent by default to your primary listed email address, though it can be sent to whatever email address you request. It is your responsibility to check that email address for notifications, and to notify your carrier if you need to update your email address.

I’ve received a usage notification. What do I do now?

The amount of data that we use in both our professional and personal lives varies depending on what we are doing on any given day. When you receive a usage notification, we recommend that you ask yourself these questions:

  • When does my quota refresh? If you receive your 50% usage notification one day before you receive your next data allocation, there’s little to worry about.
  • What have I been using my service for? Have you been updating a lot of software recently or had some guest users bring their laptops around? These things might be contributing to your increased data usage.
  • How can I reduce the amount of data I’m using? If you find that you are getting close to your limit and don’t want to get charged excess fees, sending around an email to other users advising them to use the connection sparingly is usually a good first step.

How often is this happening? If you are starting to get excess charges every month, it’s almost always worth upgrading your plan instead of using the equivalent amount of data and paying excess fees. Contact your carrier and see if they have another plan available that might be better for you.

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