Am I out of luck?

[MBNavion]

 Just went to renew for USA text only plan.  Narrative below  which I just sent to Moderator general PM address explains my situation.  Anyone have any suggestions?   I cannot get into my account.  I suspect it may have already been deleted.

"I live in the USA, however I spend 3-4 months in NL CA every summer.   I have been using PM and it is working out fine.

Usually what I do when returning to the States is wait for almost 90 days after my service ends and then buy a Text only plan for $10.00.  This allows for me to keep my SIM card and Tel.# for 30 days plus the 90 day grace period.  I then buy another 30 day text plan to keep me going for another 30 + 90 days.   This allows me to keep my SIM card and Tel.#   Plus, PM will not mail a new SIM card to the USA, so I have to wait until I get to NL to order my SIM.   Problem there is when in NL PM will not take a USA credit card.

So I just went to renew figuring I was about a week early based on dates my wife had given me.  I cannot get into my account.  I asked Wifey to recheck when our service ended in Oct of 2019.  She did and when she recalculated it appears we are a 91 DAYS!!!   One day over the 90 day period.   Is there anything you can do to help me buy a text plan and extend my usage period thus keeping my SIM and Tel# ?

Thank you for any assistance you can offer.

Regards,"

[wetcoaster]

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@MBNavion wrote:

Darlicious,

Thanks for the Info.  I have not contacted anyone who ay be able to offer a SIM yet.  Reason is I think I understand that the SIM must be activated before it is sent to me.  I do not need activation until the day before I depart for Canada as it is a short distance to travel from my home in the North East before entering Canada.  I am only about 200 kilometers from Montreal.  No need to activate a SIM until the day before my departure.

Also, can someone please advise me on what is an appropriate action for me to take in regards to this thread.  I see there is something that says "accept as solution".  I don't want to be engaging in poor etiquette.

Thanks to all

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The point of having a SIM card in hand (and no, it doesn't have to be activated before shipping, you are starting from scratch with a new account and a new number tied to a different e-mail address - use an e-mail alias if you can/want) would be that you can jump on a suitable promotion should one come up in the weeks before your travels.

Say you'd be leaving home in early May. Lets further assume for this example that mid of April Public Mobile has a weekend flash sale of the second 30days free that new online sign-ups are eligible for. You could jump on that, take advantage of the referral $10, you'd get a minimum two weeks or so of free service in this scenario.

There is also the possibility that you could even get more out of it by going for a higher plan when signing up and then downgrading to the $15 if that would be suitable for your needs.

There's obviously no guarantee that Public Mobile will have any promotions that will meet your timeline, but if you have the SIM in hand you could jump on it.

[CannonFodder]

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@MBNavion wrote:

Also, can someone please advise me on what is an appropriate action for me to take in regards to this thread.  I see there is something that says "accept as solution".  I don't want to be engaging in poor etiquette.

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That's just there so you can click on, and "accept as solution", whichever post you feel gave you the most pertinent info for your particular problem..... assuming one of the posts actually did that..... it's up to you.

[MBNavion]

Darlicious,

Thanks for the Info.  I have not contacted anyone who ay be able to offer a SIM yet.  Reason is I think I understand that the SIM must be activated before it is sent to me.  I do not need activation until the day before I depart for Canada as it is a short distance to travel from my home in the North East before entering Canada.  I am only about 200 kilometers from Montreal.  No need to activate a SIM until the day before my departure.

Also, can someone please advise me on what is an appropriate action for me to take in regards to this thread.  I see there is something that says "accept as solution".  I don't want to be engaging in poor etiquette.

Thanks to all

[darlicious]

@MBNavion  Thanks for the update. I would try Amazon for a SIM card otherwise take up an offer from any member that can mail you a SIM card. Sign up for deal alerts and you may have a second month free offer around the time you are leaving for canada. Have a safe journey and hopefully all that snow that fell over the weekend and has shut down the province will have melted by the time you arrive!

[MBNavion]

Result of communicating with Mods.  

First, the one I was communicating with was great.  Was very willing to help and communicated in a timely manner.

Final word is the SIM card with my phone number is now unusable.  I will need a new SIM.  No way around it.  However, once I get a SIM card there is a way that they can attempt to change the temporary number I choose to my original Tel. number. ( if it is still available ) Frankly the number was not a big issue.  The phone is basically to have for emergencies and security when on the road.   There are just a few family members and close friends that would need to contact us and we can certainly get the new Tel. number to them.  I was just trying to avoid the hassle of getting a new SIM and opening a new account every year with a different e-mail addres.  The $20.00 it was costing every 120 days was well worth it to me.

If I can get a SIM in my hands prior to departing the US I can open a new 90 day account before leaving for Canada and have an active phone just as soon as I cross the border.

If I need to add additional time before leaving NL that will be fine.

"Thats the rest of the story"

[MBNavion]

Thanks to all who have replied.  My apologies for not responding in a more timely manner.  Had a few things going on here in sunny FL and also been communicating back and forth with a Mod.

I will attempt to address everyones comments.

First I was a good boy and corrected my transgression of putting my phone number in my initial post.  What I did was copy and paste my PM to the Mods and overlooked the phone number at the end.

Some of the suggestions might work for me others will not simply because of how I use the PM service.  i.e. the promo is for 8 months service.  I only use 3-4 months while in NL

I do not need tecting service.  I was only purchasing the texting service as a method to keep my account open while not in Canada.  ( My permanent home is in the US ).  i.e. buy 30 days of text  when 30 days are up I would then have another 90 days before the account was completely terminated.  Before the 90 days were up I would again buy the text service for 30 days.  This would be repeated one time until I needed to get service for my return to NL the following summer.  This was suggested to me by community members here in a thread I started some time ago.  Worked well the first year but this year we somehow missed the re-up date by one day. 

I was not aware that the $10.00 text only plan went away.  My bad?  I guess I would have found out if I had gotten into my account.

Also,  in the past PM would not send a SIM to my US address.  They would take my CC but said the SIM had to be sent to my NL address.  Perhaps that is now changed.  

Perhaps I will contact one of the members here that have offered a SIM.  I could then activate it prior to leaving home and would have mobile service while traveling through Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia while enroute to NL.  It is a security that would be nice to have.  

Thanks again for the responses,

[Anonymous]

 @srlawren 

There are confusing terms used in the post. Maybe the OP will post back some replies.

[srlawren]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @MBNavion 

Maybe old timers around here would know but what text only plan are you talking about?

Were you saying you pick up a roaming add-on to keep your account alive?

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@Anonymous that would have been a pick-and-pay 30 day plan with no talk, no data, and unlimited texting.  As you know, PM unfortunately discontinued pick-and-pay (custom) plans a few months back.

[Anonymous]

 @MBNavion 

Maybe old timers around here would know but what text only plan are you talking about?

Were you saying you pick up a roaming add-on to keep your account alive?

[PAULRANG18]

Past 90 days the account is now closed and a new sim will be needed to activate another account. Remove cc from closed account. Any available funds remaining can be credited back by the moderators.

[darlicious]

@MBNavion  The only thing you may be able to recover is your phone number. But the logistics of doing that without activating a plan now would be just about impossible. Your best bet would just to go to a retail location when you arrive here in the summer and buy a new SIM and activate it.

    I wasn't aware you couldn't order a SIM from Amazon and have it shipped to your home in the US or can you not just order it ahead of time and have it shipped to your place of residence in Canada or to your local Canada post office.

   Public Mobile accepts credit cards from Canada and the US unless I'm misunderstanding that policy. Unfortunately the $10 plan is gone forever....the $15 plan is your lowest priced option but for $5 more you get a lot more features than the former $10 plan so it's not a lot out of your pocket.

     Sign up for deal alerts so you can take advantage of a promo around the time of your arrival especially if you get a sim ahead of time. There are members who have extra sim cards on hand who will mail one to you once activated...private message me and I can pass their names on to you if that is your wish.

[geopublic]

@MBNavion  You can purchase a voucher using reload.com or ding.com and you can pay with cc or PayPal. Cheapest plan currently is $15. Submit a ticket to PM and see if they can help.

[Luddite]

@MBNavion Hard to say what the moderators are able/willing to do so just ask.

• While you're waiting use Textnow app on wifi. 
• if you're not back to NL yet, send me a private message and I'll get a SIM to you
• for future reference read: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Paying-for-your-service/Extended-Absence/m-p/142735#M...
• if you must open a new account be sure to get a referral code from someone for a $10 credit
• if you must open a new account you will need to use an email address that differs from the original, though it can be a alias
• PM now accepts USA credit cards; enter the card's address when registering the card

[CannonFodder]

@MBNavion  First of all, you need to use the "Edit" function(3 dots in upper, right corner of your post), to delete your phone number from the message.

Secondly, this is clearly a case for the PM Moderator team, so you should click on the question mark in the bottom, right corner of the screen, and follow the prompts to hopefully get this straightened out.

LOL, ninja'd YET again! People around here are just too quick! 😉 

[Jb456]

Please click the 3 dots on right side of your post and edit it to remove your personal information (phone number) as it is visible for all the public to see.

[LovesToPM]

@MBNavion Unfortunately after 90 days, your account is now closed.

Also the $10 plan is no longer offered. A lot can change in a year.

You're likely better off signing-up for a new plan each year when you need it.

Also, some WalMarts or Public Mobile kiosks have been known to throw in a free SIM card when you activate a new account in-store.

Btw there's a running promo just announced yesterday: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Limited-time-offer-Get-up-to-10-off-for...