Hotspot usage

You can put money on your HOTSPLOTS account in one of the following ways:

1. Sofortüberweisung

(Immediately available, minimum of EUR 2.00)

If you have a bank account in one of the following countries, you can use the service of "sofortüberweisung" to initiate a bank transfer from your bank account to us:

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, UK, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland

The money will be immediately available in your HOTSPLOTS account. You will not need to wait until the bank has transferred the money to ours.

2. Credit cards

(Immediately available, minimum of EUR 5.00)

With your Visa, MasterCard or American Express you can put money on your HOTSPLOTS account and use it right away.

3. Direct debit

(only available in Germany) (Immediately available, minimum of EUR 5.00)

For "verified customers" (e.g. hotspot operators) we offer the direct debit option. You tell us your account information and we charge the desired amount conveniently via direct debit. You automatically become a verified customer if you put credit on your account via a money transfer, thereby allowing us to verify your bank account information. We have to take this precaution to protect us and the hotspot operators from people who provide false account information. Please note that the direct debit option is only available in Germany.

4. PayPal

(Mostly available in less than 1 hour, minimum of EUR 6.00)

If you already have a PayPal account, this is the easiest way to put credit on your hotsplots account.

1. Enter the desired amount and hit the PayPal button.
2. We will then redirect you to PayPal, where you can quickly and safely put the desired amount on your HOTSPLOTS account.

Sometimes PayPal does not process the order immediately but keeps the money for a couple of days until some kind of inspection is finished. For regular users we recommend to use Money Transfer or Direct debit.

5. Money transfer

(Takes a few days to process, minimum of EUR 5.00)

If you choose bank transfer, we will provide you with a code to enter into your transfer form. As soon as the transfer has been received in our account, we will credit the amount to your HOTSPLOTS account. This top-up method takes a few days – even in the case of a real-time transfer – meaning you will not be able to use the desired credit immediately. Once you have successfully transferred money, you, as a then-verified customer, will also be able to select direct debit for your next top-up – in this case, we will credit your balance immediately and debit it from your bank account within a few days.

1. The internet surfer chooses the hotspot WiFi. In Windows you can use the function "Choose a wireless network".
   A quick start guide for Android and iOS can be downloaded here.
2. Initially access to the internet is denied. After trying to connect to a website for the first time, the surfer is redirected to the HOTSPLOTS server. This connection is always secured by SSL-encryption. All information about the user is stored only on the servers of HOTSPLOTS.
3. The login depends on the location owners choice:
   • Direct login: The user accepts the terms and logins with a single click.
   • User login: The user authenticates himself to the HOTSPLOTS server with his username and password. If successful he is authorized for internet access. It the hotspot isn't free of charge the user has to pay in some money to his user account before that. The billing works on a prepaid basis. Many hotspots can be used for free.
   • Ticket login: At many hotspots you can get so called Location Tickets. These tickets provide a username and password, so no registration at our website is necessary.
4. Every few minutes and at the end of the session the hotspot sends information about traffic and duration time to the HOTSPLOTS server. This data is used to calculate the session's costs, which are then withdrawn from the user account.

If you use the internet at a location with an active FlexiFlat, you do not need to purchase it separately. Initially, your account will be charged at the standard time or data rate set by the location operator until the limit of €14.95 is reached.

Once you reach the amount of €14.95 within a calendar month, you can continue to use the internet free of charge at all locations with an active FlexiFlat until the end of the current calendar month.

You can tell which locations offer the FlexiFlat by checking the tariff information in the login window.

You will automatically be logged out if you are disconnected from a hotspot for longer than 10 minutes, for example if you leave the reception area or switch off your laptop.

However the most exact and safest way is to actively logout on our server via http://logout.hotsplots.de

This page shows not only the logout button but also information about the status of the current user session, i.e. remaining time and data volume.

Bank transfers in EUR between two banks in the EU may take up to three working days between debit of the customer's account to the credit on the user's HOTSPLOTS account. The HOTSPLOTS account will be credited in the morning between 08:00 am and 12:30 pm..

If the transfer is submitted to the bank in writing, the time until crediting may be extended by one day. Banks and HOTSPLOTS only book on working days from Monday to Friday.

The comfortable direct debit is offered to registered customers who have charged their HOTSPLOTS account at least once by bank transfer.

For payments of prepaid money we offer bank transfer for customers in the EU with EUR bank accounts. For contracts of hotspot operators it might be possible with bank accounts in other currencies, i. e. GBP bank accounts in the UK. Please contact our accounting department for assistance in such a case.

If the direct debit fails, e. g. because of wrong bank data or a lack of credit balance, HOTSPLOTS has to pay a fee for the return debit note. Hence HOTSPLOTS charges the amount of this external costs per return debit note.

With every login or logout at a hotspot, time, name of the hotspot, MAC address of the hotspot router and client computer, public IP address of the hotspot, local IP address of the client, transfered amount of data and depending on the type of authorization username, ticket number or MAC address are stored.

HOTSPLOTS does not record content or visited URLs. These data are protected by the secrecy of telecommunications in German law.

During a session stored data are updated every ten minutes. The interim information of finished sessions is deleted daily.

After logout data that is not needed for billing purposes is temporarily stored for technical maintenance and support. In an effort to reach an optimum between privacy protection and quality of service we go clearly below the legal limit of seven days. At the moment we delete these data after three days.

All data that is needed for billing purposes is deleted monthly if it is older than five months and the bill is paid without objection.

Until these data are deleted the hotspot operator can view some usage data of his hotspots in the customer area. He has access to the data of his own sessions or those of the location tickets he created. Data of other sessions is shown anonymised, i.e. without username or even real name.

You find further information in the data protection policy of our website..

Our hotspot system combines user-friendliness with a multi-layered security concept. To enable barrier-free access for all end devices, our hotspot SSIDs are operated without encryption. Your internet access is only enabled individually after controlled authentication.

A central security aspect of our hotspots is the strict separation between guest access and the internal corporate network. Through active client isolation and a shielded gateway, we ensure that your devices are consistently protected against access from other users as well as access to local (office) computers. These protective features are enabled by default on our pre-configured hotspot gateways to guarantee seamless security for all network participants.

As an additional protective option, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) can be activated on the end device to encrypt data traffic separately.

Furthermore, since the vast majority of modern apps and websites already use their own HTTPS encryption, your data is seamlessly protected along the entire transmission path—from the end device to the destination server—even without additional configuration.

You can find the MAC address in the settings of your mobile device. You can download a short instruction for various Android and iOS versions here: Quick Guide MAC address