Constantly bumping into your monthly data cap? If you’re an AT&T wireless customer, you may want to consider a new program the carrier now offers called Data Perks.
Earn free data by shopping, taking surveys and downloading other apps through the Data Perks app. Users can transfer up to 1 GB of free data to their AT&T account each month.
The carrier says the app initially will include offers from brands like Fandango, Hotel Tonight and Rosetta Stone. One example offer: You can earn 124 MB when you spend $50 or more on shoes at one of the partner stores.
If you weren’t already planning to buy shoes, this is not a good way to earn free data, since it costs much less than 50 bucks a month to add gigabytes of data to your plan.
And don’t go thinking you’re going to be able to stream Netflix for hours with your free data. That 1 GB cap is good for one of the following categories, according to AT&T’s online data use calculator:
- 11,600 emails
- 34 hours of streaming music
- 68 hours of surfing the web
- 3,000 social media posts with photos
- 4 hours of streaming standard definition video
The free data also isn’t automatically applied to your bill. You have to transfer the earned data into your account in 25 MB increments. And once you transfer that data you lose it if there’s any left at the end of the month.
If you’ve transferred the maximum amount of monthly data, any data left in your Data Perks app account can be used the following month. Earned data does not expire “provided you enter the app and verify your eligibility at least once every 12 months,” according to AT&T.
One more thing: The data you use while browsing pages within the Data Perks app don’t count against your monthly data cap; however the data you use completing offers outside of the app counts.
