topic Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card in Get Support

Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

RajanC — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 21:57:20 GMT

I'm trying to activate a new account and plan (90 days 20gb 4g plan @ $34/month), but ran into payment issues. Found out public mobile doesn't accept international credit cards. Is it possible maybe to purchase a $115 voucher to be used to activate the service with? Also need to port in my number as well. Thanks

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

snowisfalling — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 21:59:01 GMT

Yes, you can activate with voucher, just a bit more steps:

Open ticket with PM support by direct message them:
https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437
**Monitor your Community inbox (envelope icon on the top right) after the ticket is opened. CS Agent will reply to you there
PM support reply and ask you for the sim card number, an email address used for the activation (login for My Account).
They will activate the account with the sim card. The account will have status SUSPENDED.
PM Support will then sent you the login and password.
Once the account is setup, you can login to My Account and load your voucher to finally activate the service.

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

Yummy — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 22:00:27 GMT

- Get SIM
- Ask agent to open account for you and immediately suspend it
- Buy a voucher
- Pay with voucher

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

wetcoaster — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 22:42:20 GMT

You probably have sorted this out by now, but...

As an alternative to the process above, these prepaid credit cards also come in higher denominations and can be used for activation. You want the available amount on the card equal / higher than the plan cost your signing up for, but after you have activated you can use the remainder on the card for grocery shopping etc. The one I have on file is empty and I just make sure that I'm loading vouchers before renewal.

There are also reloadable credit cards like Canada Post's or KOHO , as example.

Also... Not sure where you are coming from with $115 vouchers for the $102 plan.

* Tax is paid at the point of sale, so you would pay the retailer the voucher value plus tax and load the vouchers to available funds.

* If there's enough in available funds to cover plan cost the system will just take the plan cost, no tax. So, if you go through CSA sign-up as outlined above, I'd just buy $105 (I have not found smaller than $5 increments for "normal" vouchers, I don't have experience with "direct deposit vouchers" / real time top ups). At my local London Drugs I'd get two $40 and one $25 vouchers.

* If it's a mixed payment, ie available funds only cover part of the plan but the rest is charged to the credit card on file, only the amount charge to card will be taxed, which will show accordingly on the card statement.

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

RajanC — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 22:26:26 GMT

this is a really good suggestion will try it out. Thanks

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

RajanC — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 22:39:58 GMT

I just got this reply from cs. Has their policy changed?

Hi RajanC,

Thank you for contacting The Public Mobile Team. My name is Mary, and I'm happy to assist you today.

I'm sorry to hear that you are having issues with the activation. Since we work with subscriptions now. The only way to activate a Public Mobile account is by using a credit card issued by a Canadian financial institution and associated with a Canadian address.

If any other concern arises, We are here at your disposal.

Regards,
Mary
Customer Support Agent

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

dust2dust — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 22:46:34 GMT

That is now true for sign up. It seems to be forced by the postal code filter only allowing Canadian postal codes.
I'm not sure the reply earlier about a temporary set up and then add money with vouchers is true. It was for a while, a while ago.
Then after sign up you can put in a US card. The gift card idea I think is best.

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

________ — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 01:25:06 GMT

I just bought a $50 prepaid visa giftcard for the initial $38.42 charge on sign-up ($29/mth + $5 physical sim +tax). I still get "Payment Failed! Please try again or use a different payment method."... (tried on Mar 1, 2025)

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

hTideGnow — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 01:42:38 GMT

hi @________

Prepaid Visa can be used for activation without problem

were you using the app to activate?

try uninstall and reinstall and use another email to setup another account to activate

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

________ — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 02:47:48 GMT

i am on the website (desktop version) on a laptop. Initial sign-up. It shows I need to pay $38.42 ($29/mth + $5 physical sim +tax). It then asks me for the credit card number, expiry date, cvc and postal code. (Once I input the postal code, the tax is calculated, so that it becomes $38.42 with tax incl.). I used the $50 visa gift card I just bought to enter in the credit card number, expiry date and cvc. I used my own postal code (which is technically not linked to the visa gift card but that's never been an issue). "Payment Failed! Please try again or use a different payment method."... (tried on Mar 1, 2025)

Re: Activating a new plan without a credit card or debit card

hTideGnow — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 02:58:31 GMT

hi @________

in fact with prepaid Visa, any postal code will do

wait 24 hours and try another valid postal code