If you’re a Virgin Mobile customer on a postpaid (contract) plan, we have some good news. Virgin’s already generous included data caps are about to get even moreso; any unused data allowance at the end of the month on these plans will be rolled over into your next billing period.
Virgin Mobile image via Shutterstock
The big caveat here is that you’ll only ever have access to your current month and the last month’s mobile data at any one time — you can’t rely on Wi-Fi and let your data cap roll over for six months at a time, for example. But if you’re on a big plan, like the $100 6GB monster, there’s no restriction on the volume of data that can be carried over into the next billing period.
Virgin calls the free, added extra Data Rollover, and it’s automatically added for all new Virgin Mobile customers. If you’re an existing member, you’ll have to call up and ask for Data Rollover to be enabled on your plan, and it won’t reset your contract — useful when you consider Virgin wants to lock you in for a full 24 months wherever possible.
At the face of it, Virgin looks like a pretty competitive carrier for the average user, apart from some painful rules around international roaming. Here’s Virgin’s own fine print — which is surprisingly straightforward — on data rollover.
Data Rollover: any unused included data rolls over to the next month only, will be used once the next month’s data inclusion has been spent watching cat videos and may be lost forever if you change plans. Hashtag responsibly and enjoy.
Courtesy of our siblings at Lifehacker, here’s a convenient table telling you how much data you get on Virgin’s standard postpaid plans. Use less than this amount in one month, and et voila it’ll add on to your next month’s total quota.
These are the current data allocations on Virgin Mobile’s postpaid plans (all of which run for 24 months):
Monthly cost Data $30 300MB $40 500MB $50 1000MB $60 2000MB $80 4000MB $100 6000MB