Watch out — The AT&T App steals money from you if you’re roaming.

I’m writing this while riding in a taxi from Toronto’s airport to my hotel. Before I left my plane seat - AT&T had already lifted me of either $30 or $80 depending on how you look at it.

Roaming plans

I understand I need to pay extra for data while I roam (it’s expensive, but I have ways to mitigate that expense)…all I need to do is tell att that I want a prepaid plan so I get a chunk of data. Typically I choose between 300mb ($60) and 150mb packages ($30) — there are cheaper voice rates between packages — but I don’t care about that.

So…let’s tell AT&T I want a roaming plan. Open their handy dandy MyAT&T app after I get onto the local Cell provider network. The plane is still taxiing. Within 30 seconds I get a notification like this — all good! They’re telling me how to save money:

Then after trying to use the MyATtT app to change my roaming plane — it kept failing with a Helpful message: “Error.” Thanks.

Just after getting frustrated about this on my second try I got this message:

Wait. Wat?

So, I go to check my cell phone usage area — lo and behold I’d used over 100mb somehow (with the ATT app?). In 3 minutes. Was it the App Store? Or was it the myAT&T app? But I didn’t know for sure if that was from my current attempts or from previous trips. So, I took this screenshot:

Then I tried, once again to add the 300mb plan to my account…choose all the option, then press confirm. ERROR.

Back to the app usage area (you need to go out and reload the “page” to update usage stats):

Going through the process of adding a single new plan — took almost 40mb of data. If you signed up for the 150mb, you’ve already used about a third of the data you just bought. Or if you pay a la carte — it’s almost $80 of charges at $2.05 per minute. Or about $10 on the $30 plan.

Anyhow, I have no idea why it uses so much data — possibly pre loading a video or animated gif.

Sometimes in the middle of previous trips, I would go to check on my plan or move it to the higher tier. Oops. No more.

On your next trip:

• Call the phone number to change plans for free
• If you do use the app — ask them to credit you for the data their app used. When I called AT&T, they offered to put a credit for 140mb (if I went over my 300mb).

If only T-Mobile had better reception in my home area…