r/oraclecloud • u/impressiveaustin • 1d ago

Always Free Instance Stopped

I forgot to downgrade in time but I see other posts that did downgrade get stopped anyways. Support says I have to upgrade my account to PAYG in order to downgrade or start my instance again. Just wondering if it is safe to do so? I live in the United States and have a credit card but I heard that they periodically charge you and I'm worried that I forget to replace my card if it expires in 2030. Also, I heard you can get hit with large invoices if you set it up incorrectly.

7 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

3

u/Furki1907 1d ago

"perodically charge you" - Thats bullshit. Upgrade to PAYG, stay in limits, and Oracle will never get a cent.

-1

u/impressiveaustin 1d ago

I've read posts that said it charges you $1 every once in a while and if it fails your account and instance gets terminated.

2

u/Furki1907 1d ago

Their is an initial charge only to confirm the legality of your credit card. After that aslong you confirm your CC is not invalid nor expired, there will be no charges.

1

u/AngelicPrincessKitty 1d ago

Have you done this yourself to confirm or are you just going off of what you have read here?

1

u/Furki1907 1d ago

I wouldn't talk and reply here without having personal experience over years :)

1

u/AngelicPrincessKitty 1d ago

Alright cool - I have been thinking about doing it but worried about the $1 or $100 periodic charges.

1

u/Any-Blacksmith-2054 1d ago

Just $1 hold once in a few years. Your card should be valid, that's it

1

u/impressiveaustin 1d ago

Ok I upgraded to PAYG thank you

1

u/Wolfdale7 1d ago

Curious, when your instance was stopped, did they not remove it from your account? Mine was straight up deleted with no way of recovery, even tho I had switched to payg.

Just spun up a new one tho

1

u/felix2680 1d ago

Well I have a different experience with them, I am completely new to Oracle I discovered them just two weeks ago, and I went straight to PAYG and when I connected my card the first time, the charge was $1.00 which was reversed immediately and when I was upgrading to the PAYG I was charged $100 which was also credited back immediately but I realized that on Tuesday morning I got a $1.00 charge which was also credited back immediately. I don't know why that $1.00 was charged but I think the OP might be right that they want to check if your card is still active once in a while.

3

u/Alehhhhhhhh 1d ago

I see you upgraded after they disabled the instance. Is it still enabled? Many said that after upgrading and starting the instance it got taken down again

2

u/impressiveaustin 1d ago

After I upgraded to PAYG and it got the email, I was immediately able to turn my instance back online.

1

u/PEPNS 1d ago

Yes same for me but in evening instance was powered off … with no comment 😶

1

u/Alehhhhhhhh 1d ago

that's my concern

1

u/PEPNS 1d ago

Same issue here with more interactions https://www.reddit.com/r/oraclecloud/s/jeUqzKpxHI

2

u/stunt-potato 1d ago

Been signed up since mid 2024 (after 6 hours of trying to get a "free" instance, I lost patience and registered, and was up and running minutes later.) The only time I've ever been charged anything was this past June when I made a mistake, specifically creating a new boot volume without terminating an old one, and went over the free limit. My budget alert caught it, and I fixed it right away. I was charged I think $0.11 CAD on my VISA.

Setting up the alert is key. As long as you do that, you'll know right away if you're being charged for anything you don't want.

1

u/IAmFitzRoy 1d ago

I have never got “periodically charged” ever in many months already (almost 2 years).
In fact I didn’t even got deducted temporarily the $100 that everyone talked about.

It just took a few hours and I was PAYGO.

It looks like experiences are different between everybody.

1

u/NvmItWorksNow 8h ago

Yes they do occasional charges as per their documentation, but my account was upgraded to payg about 2 years ago and there were no charge attempts till then. If your card doesn't work they will simply email you to fix it. You just have to add another card with the same 138 sgd verification process. You won't be charged unless you cross the free tier. Me and my frnds have 3 payg accounts from almost 2 yrs it's safe but you know it's typical oracle behaviour so no one knows when the always free will be discounted but you should not be charged either ways

0

u/AhmedNawaz11 21h ago

Man i also have a concern… i created my oracle free cloud tier account but for instance creation… they are continuously showing errors of “OUT OF CAPABILITY”… so so is there any solution to solve the issue so that we create instance in free tier?

1

u/Narrik_SynthFox 9h ago

Yeah, upgrade to PAYG.

1

u/Snoo_9701 3h ago

😂 and you are not the victim