$25 “Unlimited Talk & Text”. Is this real?

[JayEs]

Hi, I currently have $25/month “Unlimited Province-wide Talk & 100 International Texts” with Chatr” and I am planning on switching to $25 “Unlimited Talk & Text” with Public Mobile.

I am wondering if somebody can comment on whether I am overlooking something for my reasons why I plan on switching to Public Mobile.

A few things that irk me with my current Chatr plan is: 1) 25 cents/minute to check voice-mail no matter where I am, 2) Only 100 texts/month (40 cents for additional texts), 3) no MMS at all, 4) having to constantly pay attention to ‘zones’ wherever I am.

A few reasons why I think Public’s “Unlimited Talk & Text” plan seems attractive to me: 1) province-wide talk means that I can call anybody in Ontario while I am anywhere in Ontario and not worry about any ‘zones’, 2) no charge to check voice-mail 3) unlimited texts, 4) MMS is actually available and unlimited while being sent from Canada, 5) The various rewards.

Is it just me or is this too good to be true? I mean, why would anybody use Chatr’s $25 plan when Public’s seems better in almost every way. I do understand that I will need an add-on for texting when I go to the US that’s a minor detail.

[dust2dust]

The $25 per 30 days plan has been available for a while now. You can activate into it or change to it. It has 1gb of data.

[computergeek541]

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@wayne49s wrote:

Hi JayEs, do you know where to go to switch to that plan? I'm looking to get that plan $75 for 90 days; new subscriber.

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Sorry, but there are no longer any 90 day plans.

[softech]

@wayne49s  there is no more 90 days plan for new subscriber.. they are grandfathered

[wayne49s]

Hi JayEs, do you know where to go to switch to that plan? I'm looking to get that plan $75 for 90 days; new subscriber.

[wayne49s]

Hi, where/how did you pay for that plan? Anyone?😀

[GreatCanadian]

Lol. Bravo, my friend!!

GC

[srlawren]

@GreatCanadian  sorry, I don't catch 'em all!  But, by all means, welcome aboard too!

[GreatCanadian]

Hey @srlawren where's my welcome? I'm here only 2 days longer than @JayEs

😁😁

GC

[srlawren]

@JayEs welcome to Public Mobile!  🙂

[GreatCanadian]

Congrat!! I'm here just 2 days longer than you! And signed my wife up last night as well. I've referred and signed up 4 people, 3 of which were ported numbers. All went smoothly, and like you, each took 30 seconds tops too be available after clicking "Activate"!! We're all happy campers!!

GC

[JayEs]

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@GreatCanadian wrote:

@JayEs, so did you make the switch to Public Mobile?

GC

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I did, as of last Sunday and I switched my wife over last night. We are both very happy now with all the added benefits. I was also amazed that the porting took maybe 30 seconds for each phone number.

[GreatCanadian]

@JayEs, so did you make the switch to Public Mobile?

GC

[ckl]

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@wetcoaster wrote:

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@ckl wrote:

From what I can see, Chatr maybe better if you don't have a phone to use. They offer phones with your plans on a contract. For PM, you have to find your own phone and then pay upfront for it. This upfront cost just to get into PM maybe be a showstopper.

The other thing that caught my eye is that their data add-on is $15 for 1GB which is significantly lower than PM's 1GB add on.

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@ckl

Yes, but... That "add-on" at ChatR is like the data part of a pick-3-plan here. Any unused portions of it expire at the end of your billing cycle. 

PM's data add-ons don't expire and can be added to any base plan. 

(For my personal needs that is totally worth the higher cost. YMMV, of course.)

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Good point!

[fsm7268]

welcome to public mobile. you won't regret!

cheers😀

[JayEs]

I really want thank everyone for their assistance even though I couldn't respond to every single post. I'm really looking forward to switching over! 😊

[mimmo]

@JayEs  just want to say gald you are doing your homework "before switching". 

[JayEs]

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@ckl wrote:

From what I can see, Chatr maybe better if you don't have a phone to use. They offer phones with your plans on a contract. For PM, you have to find your own phone and then pay upfront for it. This upfront cost just to get into PM maybe be a showstopper.

Thanks. I'm good because I prefer supplying my own unlocked phone. Phone contracts aren't for me. 🙂

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[mimmo]

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@JayEs wrote:

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@NDesai wrote:

Yes, it is actually $75 per 90 days and less $6 if you enable AutoPay. The features you have listed are all correct. I think you should move to PM and you will love it. The catch is that there is no phone support offered by PM. We use this community to contact mods for any account related issues. 

Let us know if you have any further questions.

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Thank you. I plan on doing AutoPay. Are there any savings with 30 day cycles vs the $6 saving's with 90 day cycles? No phone support is irrelevant to me. I actually prefer this community.

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no other savings 30 days vs 90 days.  the benefit of the 30 days is that if you find a bettter deal you are not stuck in a 90 day (important if you just renewed)

[JayEs]

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@mimmo wrote:

What phone do you have I think rogers/chatr use 2g so some older pho es might not work 

If you decide to join, get a temp number first once that is confirmed working then port your number, use account # and account name only.

Also I would do the port etc 3-4 days before your chatr account renews. As chatr does not give refunds for unused time just like PM.

Thank you. I have an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime. Although I don't need data at the moment because I'm around WiFi 90% of my time I checked the frequency bands and I think I should be OK even if I get data at a later date.

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[will13am]

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@JayEs wrote:

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@NDesai wrote:

Yes, it is actually $75 per 90 days and less $6 if you enable AutoPay. The features you have listed are all correct. I think you should move to PM and you will love it. The catch is that there is no phone support offered by PM. We use this community to contact mods for any account related issues. 

Let us know if you have any further questions.

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Thank you. I plan on doing AutoPay. Are there any savings with 30 day cycles vs the $6 saving's with 90 day cycles? No phone support is irrelevant to me. I actually prefer this community.

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The auto pay savings for 30 day plans is $2. 

[JayEs]

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@NDesai wrote:

Yes, it is actually $75 per 90 days and less $6 if you enable AutoPay. The features you have listed are all correct. I think you should move to PM and you will love it. The catch is that there is no phone support offered by PM. We use this community to contact mods for any account related issues. 

Let us know if you have any further questions.

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Thank you. I plan on doing AutoPay. Are there any savings with 30 day cycles vs the $6 saving's with 90 day cycles? No phone support is irrelevant to me. I actually prefer this community.

[mimmo]

The $30/1gb data addon is worth it only if you can make it last for more than 6 months  (166mb/month) otherwise the 500mb /3g data plan for $5/month is a better option.

[wetcoaster]

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@ckl wrote:

From what I can see, Chatr maybe better if you don't have a phone to use. They offer phones with your plans on a contract. For PM, you have to find your own phone and then pay upfront for it. This upfront cost just to get into PM maybe be a showstopper.

The other thing that caught my eye is that their data add-on is $15 for 1GB which is significantly lower than PM's 1GB add on.

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@ckl

Yes, but... That "add-on" at ChatR is like the data part of a pick-3-plan here. Any unused portions of it expire at the end of your billing cycle. 

PM's data add-ons don't expire and can be added to any base plan. 

(For my personal needs that is totally worth the higher cost. YMMV, of course.)

[ckl]

From what I can see, Chatr maybe better if you don't have a phone to use. They offer phones with your plans on a contract. For PM, you have to find your own phone and then pay upfront for it. This upfront cost just to get into PM maybe be a showstopper.

The other thing that caught my eye is that their data add-on is $15 for 1GB which is significantly lower than PM's 1GB add on.

[mimmo]

Don't want to repeat the above all great points.  I moved my mom from chatr to pm for same reasons you are thinking.

Things to be aware of. PM portal is buggy. Read the forums for most common issues like activation errors, autopay failure etc... But 90% of the time all goes well.

What phone do you have I think rogers/chatr use 2g so some older pho es might not work on PM.

Also you need to call chatr and ask them for your account number.

If you decide to join, get a temp number first once that is confirmed working then port your number, use account # and account name only.

Also I would do the port etc 3-4 days before your chatr account renews. As chatr does not give refunds for unused time just like PM

[fsm7268]

I believe public mobile is better. I work in a place with metal roof, with rogers/chatr, reception is horrible. But now I have full bars anywhere at work. So happy! The only downside of public mobile is no phone number to call, but this community is great to help each other.

[wetcoaster]

@JayEs

One other feature that can be considered a pro, depending your circumstances:

Talk & text plans at Public Mobile can be combined with data add-ons. So if you think having access to data would be helpful but don't use more than 100-150MB per month for basic stuff like checking your e-mails etc. you could buy the 1GB add-on.

Data add-ons don't expire at the end of your plan term, they are yours until used up. If combined with a talk&text plan the data add-ons are full LTE.

(Living outside the zones, ChatR [and Lucky] would not work well for me for all the reasons you've mentioned. However, I'm very happy with my $75/90days unlimited provincial talk and global text. I'm 8.5 months in and still have a fair amount of data left on my 1GB add-on, using WiFi at home and at work plus heaving all unnecessary data turned off on my phone.)

[imm1304]

Hey @JayEs,

The only catch, if you can call it that, is that there is no call center to get customer service.

If you need help, come to this community and send a private message to the moderators and they take care of you.  A bit passive way of getting help.. send a private message with instructions and there is usually response/solution within the hour.  Be warned that during busy promo weeks, it can take a lot longer to get a response.  So, thats a trade-off.

In the pro-PM column, you can also add the Telus network. Telus/Bell tower sharing means that you will be connecting to Bell's towers in Ontario. You are likely to get good signal even in rural areas when you are away from Toronto.  Also, Rogers likes to drop your connection to 2G/Edge network.  Telus discontinued the 2G network very long time ago and you get at least 3G network everywhere. 

Go ahead and make that move already!  You have proven that you are ok with using this community forum.  Furthermore, if you participate a little every week, you are likely to get a community reward which varies from $2 to $6 per 30 days.  Also, there is a loyalty reward of $1/30days/year upto max of $5/30 days after 5 years.    

[closng]

This is one of those few exceptions where "too good too be true" applies and is actually true 😉

[MEU_21]

I partly came over for the same reason.

You may want to search the forum for PROS and CONS of PM (I don't have the link to the discussion thread now).

The major disasvantages are that there are a limited number of countries you can call internationally, there is no customer service by phone, and there is limited (and quirky) roaming... to the US only, if you have the add-on. Keep in mind, you can also get rewards here.