Can Someone Not on Our Plan Use our 4G Data?

[monicakm]

This question probably gets "Dumbest Question of the Month" but we're perplexed as to why the two of us are not making the month on a 5GB plan when we used to do quite well on a 3GB plan. We have 3 employees that ride with my husband every day to work. One is very tech savvy. Without my husband's knowledge, IS IT POSSIBLE for one of them to be using his 4G data on their phone?

 

[Almeuit]

They would have to have access to your husband's phone and be turning on a hotspot or something in order to use up the data. Otherwise no there wouldn't be a way.

Have your husband check under his phone settings > data usage. You can see what is being used on the phone (example of mine below).

 

[sydneycooper1979]

Yes hotspot being on is the only thing I can think of.

 

[Rukbat]

Or someone is using his data very frugally. (Never using mobile data is one way to keep the usage down. If you have wifi set to autoconnect to any open signal, you can still sometimes get and send email that way as you drive between one router signal and the next.)

 

[monicakm]

Hotspot was the only thing I could think of but I had already checked that and it's off. So, it turns out that I'm the culprit (at least this month). I've used 3.5GB and my husband has used 1.3ish GB. We've used 90% and it doesn't start over till the 22nd. I've been setting up my new S7 so that's a good part of it. Also watching videos on the S7. I called Verizon tech support to discuss the fact that they offered me 2 more GB for $10 but last month the offer was 1 more GB for $10. By the time I hung up, I'd changed plans from the older More Everything plan with 4GB to the Verizon Plan (Large) with 6 for the same price. So now we have 7GB (including the free 1GB for a year offer we've had since last Nov). SURELY that's enough!

 

[meyerweb#CB]

First thing is to do what Almeuit suggested, and see what is actually using your data. Without that knowledge, all anyone can do is guess.

But one thing that can suck data for no purpose is background reporting. Make sure the options to send data to Samsung are turned off.

Settings / Privacy and safety, turn report diagnositic info OFF.
Settings Lock screen and security / Other security settings, turn Send security reports OFF.

Here are some more things that do background reporting: Compendium of all sneaky background reportin… | Samsung Galaxy S7

 

[f308gt4]

First thing is to do what Almeuit suggested, and see what is actually using your data. Without that knowledge, all anyone can do is guess.

But one thing that can suck data for no purpose is background reporting. Make sure the options to send data to Samsung are turned off.

Settings / Privacy and safety, turn report diagnositic info OFF.
Settings Lock screen and security / Other security settings, turn Send security reports OFF.

Here are some more things that do background reporting: Compendium of all sneaky background reportin… | Samsung Galaxy S7

Thanks for the link!

 

[k3u]

No, this is not possible without using Hot Spot. I work for T-Mobile and some customers have asked me this exact question before. Absolutely no way to "leech" your data unless Hot Spot is being utilized. The Galaxy S7 could consume more data than his previous phone or maybe he's downloaded a new app that runs in the background or an update to an app that could possibly make it a data hog. Bottom line is there's no way his data is being stolen.

 

[monicakm]

Yeah, it turned out to be ME! Most likely setting up a new phone , watching S7 videos downloading updates.

 

[Devhux]

You may also want to check Settings - Wi-Fi - More - Smart Network Switch and ensure that's turned off. Also, make sure Download Booster is off as well since that will also use more cellular data (Settings - More Connection Settings - Download Booster)

 

[dpham00]

You can review the data usage on the phone to see what is using data

 

[Cakefish]

Some networks offer data sharing plans where different devices can share one single 'pool' of data allowance.

 

[Almeuit]

Some networks offer data sharing plans where different devices can share one single 'pool' of data allowance.

The OP and her husband are already on that . Her issue was they were going through data way faster than normal so she wasn't sure if someone could basically "leech" off of their shared pool of data.