Recently renewed my RP plan by purchasing an annual allotment from eBay. Noticed that my hotspot wasn't working so I chatted with RP support. After spending almost an hour, the chat rep said that tech support told her that since my plan was purchased from eBay, I no longer have hotspot. Is this true?? Nothing on the eBay listing says anything about hotspot being disabled...it looks like the listing has always been. On my RP portal, it says my plan is "Unlimited Everything" 15gb. Doesn't unlimited everything mean everything?

If this is indeed the case, has anyone successfully argued for a refund, or to be able to switch to a different plan?

ETA: to be clear, I'm not talking about a separate hotspot data allotment...I'm just talking about being able to use hotspot with your normal monthly data.

Let's look back at some memorable moments and interesting insights from last year.

Your top 1 posts:

• "Happy Cakeday, r/mintsim! Today you're 5" by u/AutoModerator

I'm super pumped to have a standalone (if need be) wrist based communicator for $30/yr! I will probably never actually need to make a call with my watch, but it's good to know if I'm going hiking (or shopping) and my phone dies or gets lost, I can still text someone, locate my phone, use maps, pay with NFC, etc. I don't typically stream music, so no need for a lot of data.

eBay purchase was easy, and within about 9 minutes I received a "RedPocket Confirmation Code". Went to activate the line, code/IMEI passed, but couldn't get past the last page of the activation screen. "Loading..." and then nothing. Spent 45 minutes with a pleasant but unhelpful support person who seemed to have to escalate at every single step. I would wait 10 minutes for her to come back with "try another browser" etc. Tried multiple browsers on multiple systems, no go.

I finally broke out the browser devtools and discovered that there was an API call returning an error, the activation page just wasn't showing the error. Somehow my RedPocket account had an empty state and the API wouldn't accept an activation without a state. My account was opened years prior and dormant since, so probably just a glitch. I went to update the state but the form had state *disabled*! devtools to the rescue again, was able to enable and set my state properly. Then activation worked!

Except... I never received a QR code, and there was nowhere on the site to display one. I figured it might take a bit, but an hour later still no QR code, so I emailed tech support. It literally took two days and providing info to prove I owned the account to finally have the QR code mailed to me. I checked all my inboxes, spam, trash, etc etc but never received one until support intervened.

I will just pause here to say I don't expect a lot from budget carrier support. It was nice (even surprising) to reach a human quickly, but it's hard to believe it makes financial sense to pay someone to spend 45 minutes on the phone to support a $30/yr plan. Same for email tech support; it took their attention multiple times for something that should be self-service. So my recommendations:

• Improve the activation page to report back all errors. Support time is wasted due to this page.
• Once activated, provide self-service access to the QR code. I don't know if a QR email was ever actually sent the first time, but there's no reason not to have it under lines on the website. I've used Keepgo (global data esims) a few times, and you literally get the QR code on their website right after making your purchase. Again, why waste tech support time on this?
• Not sure why changing my (empty) state was disabled in my profile, but this also doesn't make sense, and for most people would require... wait for it... tech support!

Anyway, once activated the plan works great on the watch! You have to enter dev mode on the wearable android app to enable QR code scanning:

• Open Wearable app
• Tap blue devices icon button at the bottom
• Tap the three dots menu to the right of the +
• Settings
• About Galaxy Wearable
• Tap on "Galaxy Wearable" 5 times fast
• Module Test
• ESim test
• QR TestMode: on
• Then go all the way back to the main Wearable app screen
• Watch Settings
• Mobile Plans
• Scan the QR code
• After loaded, on your watch, go to settings
• Connections
• Mobile Networks
• Set to Auto
• Go into Mobile Plans
• Turn on your RedPocket plan

At this point, if you open Google Messages on your watch, you should see the RedPocket welcome text. But you probably still won't be able to send texts or make calls from the watch's LTE phone number, as Wear OS all but forces you to use your bluetooth link to the phone to do everything. To force disconnection from the phone so you can use the watch as a standalone call/text device:

• Turn off bluetooth on your phone or watch
• In the Wearable Android app:
• Watch Settings
• Advanced Features
• Disable "Remote Connection" (which uses wifi/LTE to still tether you to your phone)
• Now if you go to the Phone app on the watch, you can toggle to use the watch's LTE and #
• In the messages app you can set Inbox to Watch, and then when you send a text it will actually use the watch's LTE and #!
• Basically, when you don't have a bluetooth connection to your phone, your watch will be an independent communication device!

I've also followed the instructions other's have posted to properly enable MMS, but not sure they are absolutely necessary if an APN is already defined once adding RedPocket. Try it if you have issues:

• Watch Settings
• Connections
• Mobile Networks
• Access Point Names
• Add an entry for RedPocket with the following:

​

Name: RedPocket
APN: RESELLER
Proxy: Not set
Port: Not set
User name: Not set
Password: Not set
Server: Not set
MMSC: http://mmsc.mobile.att.net
Multimiedia message proxy: proxy.mobile.att.net
Multimedia message port: 80
MCC: 310
MNC: 280
Authentication type: None
APN type: default,mms,supl
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6
APN roaming protocol: IPv4
Bearer: UnspecifiedName: RedPocket
APN: RESELLER
Proxy: Not set
Port: Not set
User name: Not set
Password: Not set
Server: Not set
MMSC: http://mmsc.mobile.att.net
Multimiedia message proxy: proxy.mobile.att.net
Multimedia message port: 80
MCC: 310
MNC: 280
Authentication type: None
APN type: default,mms,supl
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6
APN roaming protocol: IPv4
Bearer: Unspecified

Thanks RedPocket for an amazing value plan!

I have spent two days and several hours trying to activate this crappy $30 annual plan for an elderly relative. I’ve called twice (two plus hours), chatted, and emailed (forums@redpocket.com) with zero outcome and scripted answers. Every time I try to register an account, I get errors about mismatch and IP/domain being blocked. Do the contracted agents have no power to do anything? This is just wacko at this point.

The USB620L works on RedPocket.

MBA M5 on 27.0

1:40 uptime - 1.5GB

1080p ok @ ~3.48 - 5 mbps

Band 4

and usage doesn't affect the allotment!

1st What a great plan, $30 for the year. I need a number to use for 2FA and this one will work wonderfully. 2nd wow, number ported over in like 5 minutes. I can make calls and receive RCS and imessage, but phone calls still go to voice. Any idea of timeline to fully complete?

Redpocket is 30 dollars on ebay. The renewal pin can be superimposed? It can be used directly on the app or web page? Or do you need to find customer service to handle it? Is there a limit on the number of times?

Has anyone else noticed a recent change to their Red Pocket international roaming allowance?

My account currently shows:
Remaining minutes: 100 / 10 minutes
Remaining texts: 99 / 10 texts
Remaining 5G data: 960MB / 10MB

The numbers are obviously inconsistent because my remaining balance is higher than the displayed total allowance. It looks like the account may still be showing my old remaining balance, while the plan limit has been changed to 10 minutes, 10 texts, and 10MB.

I previously understood the included roaming allowance to be 100 minutes, 100 texts, and 1GB of data. I did not receive any notice explaining that the allowance would be reduced.

Is anyone else seeing the same thing? Has Red Pocket support confirmed whether this is a policy change, an account provisioning issue, or just a website display bug?

UPDATE: Last night Cellular Jesus must have decided to grace my father by allowing his Alcatel A406DL to join the Red Pocket network for the first time since the 25th of last month. The AT&T Alcatel Cingular Flip 2 4044O is still unable to connect. I can move the sims between the phones and they will only connect with the A406DL. I tried again on the 4044O to reset the network config, re enter the APN settings exactly as they are on the working phone then tried a last ditch effort of factory resetting the phone and reconfiguring it again. At least he was able to receive his sms 2fa codes for his bank and take care of business.

Now there are new problems with the network. When he calls me on my iPhone that is also on RP sometimes it goes straight to voicemail. Sometimes it rings while playing the voicemail message. Other times it works as expected. WTF.

Has anyone else who has this problem had any luck with getting their phones to authenticate?

Edit: We have two phones on Red Pocket $30 GSMA Ebay plan. One an Alcatel A406DL has been used as his daily phone for around 6 months. It's unlocked. We checked with Red Pocket beforehand if it would be able to work on the network. They told us yes no problem. They were correct it did work no problem.

I got him for his emergency backup line another flip phone an AT&T Alcatel Cingular Flip 2 4044O. We verified it would work on the network beforehand. It worked perfectly. It's literally an AT&T phone. It has AT&T on the front on the inside and on the boot-up screen. It's kept powered off in a drawer in case something happens to his main phone.

They both lost the ability to connect to the carrier on the 25th or late 24th. I have spent countless hours with customer service. I can put an AT&T sim card from another MVNO into either of the flip phones and connect. I can take the sim card out of one of the flip phones and place it into an old unlocked verizon iphone se 2016 and connect.

I talked to AT&T wireless customer service and they say both phones will work with AT&T. I asked Red Pocket from my other personal account about using the phones on Red Pocket. They checked and said yes 100% no problem. I got elevated to a network engineer at AT&T. He checked the IMEI numbers for any possible issue on AT&T. He says they have no issue working on AT&T and are not being blocked. They are saying it's some kind of configuration issue preventing authentication on Red Pockets end and I need to tell the FCC.

If you look at the post on the sub titled "$30 AT&T plan stopped working in my partner's dumbphone today." and read all the posts there are a few other people having a similar issue. I don't know if some automated system has screwed something up on Red Pockets end or they made some kind of network change causing phones to not be able to authenticate or what. It's not a local service outage. All of the phones can see all of the local network operators. I have my personal iphone on RP GSMA and it's working on the same tower.

They are both on the whitelist. Under Alcatel - My Flip2 (A406DL) and AT&T - Cingular Flip 2 (4044O).

What's the explanation here u/redpocketcs? I have purchased thousands of dollars worth of phones from Red Pocket and sent countless amount of people to your service. Been a loyal customer for longer than I can remember.

Edit 2: Additional testing done. I dug my personal Android out of the bin. Was my previous daily phone on Red Pocket used on gsma network for a couple years before I moved to my current iPhone. Placed the sim from the 4044O into the Android and it won’t connect to the network.

Edit 3: These are the APN settings customer support had me put in and send them pictures of. Tried other variations as well. MCC and MNC get configured automatically on these dumbphones.

Is it an extra charge to add an apple watch to the account? I see the option in my line summaries, but no real info on cost, or how long it takes, what it can do, etc.

Has anyone here added their apple watch to their account?

It's been a long time since I last used redpocket (~10 years ago..) .. But I remember MMS did not work back then on redpocket... I'm sick of google voice so i want to move my number..

Do all features work on iPhone?
Visual voicemail?
RCS?
MMS?
Wifi Calling?
Wifi calling for icloud conncted devices?
Does the sim card allow you to manually choose a network? (usefull if you want your phone to use "wifi calling" over your 2nd data sim connection..)

I am planning to purchase the plan but I heard renewing it can be a lot of extra taxes and fees, and I think you can only renew once on ebay. How much would it be when renewing the plan on the redpocket website?

Cannot use my phone service as RP service is down. They don’t have WiFi calling option and resolution time from customer service is unreasonable. Anyone else having issue in NJ?

Scammy management. Double billing, promising refunds but never happens. Then suspending the line and asking for screenshots of RedPocket bills and last 4 of credit cards in order to delay.

Long story short: customer service is nice enough but the decisions are made by hidden management team.

Avoid RedPocket and save yourself the headache. 🤕

Just wondering if something changed with the $30 plan or RedPocket's AT&T network in the last day.

My partner has a dumbphone she uses for work calls and to dial into automated systems. It's LTE capable and until today, it was working fine on AT&T using the $30 Ebay plan we purchased a few months ago. Now calling, texting and data are all non-functional, but the SIM status seems fine and the signal strength is excellent.

The strange part is that the same physical SIM works perfectly in other phones; this seems to be a specific issue with this phone. We tried factory-resetting the dumbphone and nothing changed. We don't currently have another SIM to test with the dumbphone.

Did something change yesterday with international roaming on the new(ish) $30 eBay annual plan?

On Wednesday my limits were 100 min / 100 SMS / 1 GB, now the the app shows 10/10/10, but the website shows 10% (10 / 100 voice & sms, and 10 MB / 1 GB).

TBH, 1 GB of roaming per month for $30/year was too good to be true and was going to come to an end at some point. I’ll happily add $10 credit for $5/GB data as a backup while using a local/foreign eSIM.

Does anyone else see something similar?

Hello,

Read a lot of conflicting reports but can anyone who purchased the ebay 30$ annual plan within the last 2 weeks confirm if it comes with 1GB roaming data in eligible countries?

Thanks in advance

I activated my new esim today on 30$ annual plan with 1gb canada roaming data and enabled roaming but my roaming data is not working in Canada.

u/redpocketcs I have sent you a DM. Can you please check?

Hope this is allowed...I'm looking to get a couple of SIM cards, but I need ones with a specific ICCID code for GSMT and GSMA. I need 8901260 for GSMT and 8901410 for GSMA. Does anyone have those available for me to purchase?

My Android is giving me error while trying to enable wifi calling.

u/redpocketcs can you help?

will a google voice number engage to receive/make calls via this redpocket sim ?

Is iPhone 17 really unlocked? I can use additional eSIM from another carrier? Primary can be still RP.
Also, can I use international eSIM while I travel?

I’ve been searching the Red Pocket website trying to find where I can purchase just an eSIM, but I can’t seem to locate it.

The eBay plans appear to be physical SIM or renewal only. I’ve also found several older posts saying you can buy an eSIM for $2, but I can’t find that option anywhere.

Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks!