Why did I get a push message from AT&T saying that they are charging me 0.03 on my prepaid account??

Taxes on the plan would be charged at refill.  

I suspect this is a charge for data.   While it’s a small amount of data for pennies, it can be a nusaince.  

You can call ATT and have data turned off on your line to prevent future charges.  

https://www.att.com/legal/terms.prepaidPlanTerms.html

Pay-Per-Minute Plan:

Voice calls, text messages and data usage charged at then prevailing per minute/per message/per usage rates. Pay-per-use data service available only on basic and messaging phones. If using data service on a pay-per-use basis, account balance must be at least $5.

I am getting charges much larger than that, like multiple 10 cent texting charges that are diminishing my pre-paid account to "0".

It must be a campaign to steal from the customer by AT&T to raise money for the Time Warner acquisition!

But I didn't use data.  I wasn't doing anything.

The frustrating part about this is that as I said before that this is not the first time it has happened and to top it all off there is no reasoning to this charge.  If it were a regular monthly thing, I would expect it to be taken out at or around the same time each month.  The way this charge is, some months the message pops up and then others, nothing.

It is worth noting that I have well over the $5.00 limit on my phone, so your theory about the "using" data when my balance is $5.00 or under wouldn't apply.  Also, when your balance hits $5.00 or less on a prepaid account or you are within 5-7 days of your refill date, anytime you go to make a call, you get a recorded message telling you your balance is low or your expiration date is nearing before your call is placed.

Truth be told, I can't even use data because I have an old school flip phone and most of the applications that I could use like Facebook and Twitter, are configured for smartphones now not old style mobiles.  If you have an old school phone these sites simply won't work anymore because the screen sizes are too big.

I know this is really more info than you need but hopefully you have a better understanding of the situation.

This stuff has been going on for months, way before the merger.  HMMMMMM here's something to ponder.  I heard a long time ago that AT&T home phone users were actually getting charged to access their own voicemail above and beyond the monthly charge for the service.  I know this is probably irrelevant now as most people with home phone service have the wireless box now instead of inside phone lines, but I could see them trying to slam mobile customers without telling them since most of us do access our voicemail.  I don't get VMs on a regular basis but occasionally one of the many scam robo callers AT&T allows access to our phone numbers leaves a message, which means after I block their number I have to go in and delete the number, which if I am not at home means I have to access my VM through my cel and not my landline(Of course you get charged the standard charge per minute for this.).  Still it's annoying if they are finding a way to gouge us even more.  0.03 may not seem like much, but it adds up over time.

What super annoys me is that now I get lots of calls from phantom #s which I don't answer.  I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but there are also alot of bogus push messages coming thru from 3rd parties and yes, you are getting charged for them.  I got one recently from someone claiming to be from  US BANK claiming they needed to speak with me about an urgent matter (I have never used US BANK for anything) I ignored the message and blocked the 800 number they included.  However since they sent the message TO me, I got charged $0.20 for the message which is really shady.

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@lmcbrie66 wrote:

But I didn't use data.  I wasn't doing anything.

Your phone uses data.  

The frustrating part about this is that as I said before that this is not the first time it has happened and to top it all off there is no reasoning to this charge. 

Again, your phone uses data.  

If it were a regular monthly thing, I would expect it to be taken out at or around the same time each month.  The way this charge is, some months the message pops up and then others, nothing.

 Since I can’t law through your phone, I don’t know.  Picture messages, voice activated services, location service, etc, all use data.  

It is worth noting that I have well over the $5.00 limit on my phone, so your theory about the "using" data when my balance is $5.00 or under wouldn't apply. 

That’s not what I posted.  READ IT AGAIN.    I posted a section out of the TOS which said data charges occur when you have MORE THAN $5 balance.  

Also, when your balance hits $5.00 or less on a prepaid account or you are within 5-7 days of your refill date, anytime you go to make a call, you get a recorded message telling you your balance is low or your expiration date is nearing before your call is placed.

 Truth be told, I can't even use data because I have an old school flip phone and most of the applications that I could use like Facebook and Twitter, are configured for smartphones now not old style mobiles.  If you have an old school phone these sites simply won't work anymore because the screen sizes are too big.

 They don’t use much data, but they can use data.  

I know this is really more info than you need but hopefully you have a better understanding of the situation.

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Doesn’t matter if I understand or not, or if you understand or not.  I gave you the solution in the last post.   You can either call ATT, 611 free from mobile, or continue to get 3¢ charges once in a while.