Best Place to Buy SIM card and Top Up Voucher: K Mobile

[Civic_E]

If you think you can also pick up a public SIM card at your local walmart next time when you go for grocery, you are wrong!

I have tried to purchase PM SIM from three different Walmart and none of them had them in stock!!! Instead they asked me what kind of plan i am looking for and may be they can help me with activating with a different carrier. I am very sure people who are at the counter asking for a PM SIM did their homework well and knows what plan they want.

Anyway, finding top voucher is another adventure....obviously i haven't yet seen any top-up vouchers at any walmart stores and couple times i have seen at Shoppers(1 out of 3 Shoppers Drug mart carries them). Even then they don't have suitable denomination to pay for the plan. May be it's a tactic to have people sign up for auto pay or may be retailers don't get a lot of commision selling PM SIM and vouchers.

But, if you are looking for a SIM card and/or voucher cards...you best bet would be K Mobile : https://www.k-mobile.ca/store-locator-phone-store-near-me/

They only deal with Koodo, Public Mobile and Virgin Mobile unlike WoW mobile that also seems to run out of PM SIM cards but has every other carrier's SIM card if you want to sign up with a post paid account! I just find it funny

[backertas]

Walmart worked fine for me. Sim card is free of charge and the guy there helped me to activate my public sim card. 

[MaggieD123]

I bought my PM SIM card at Wal-Mart in the electronics department for 10$.  Haven't seen them anywhere else though. they also had the top up cards

[MikeM]

K-Mobile charges $15 for SIM, if you purchase it, but do not activate in store.

[wetcoaster]

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@Korthwrote:

And slurpees and gulps and junkfood and even that nasty fake-cheese goop on the nasty fake-tortilla nachos ... maybe the Big Three would sell more phones if they also sold concession stand stuff ... could have Telus Tacos and Bell Burgers and Rogers Rice ... cute servers delivering smarmy sales pitches to people who can only nod politely because their mouth is full ...

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LOL, you should go into business...

[Korth]

Also convenience.  Phone, phone accessories, SIM card, plan, top-ups, all sold in one place.  Not a lot of selection but all the basic things you need are there and they're all already meant to work together ... a whole lot simpler than the wall of cellphone cases and barrage of devices and prices and plans and complications which confront you at any cellular kiosk.  I can see the appeal to that.

And slurpees and gulps and junkfood and even that nasty fake-cheese goop on the nasty fake-tortilla nachos ... maybe the Big Three would sell more phones if they also sold concession stand stuff ... could have Telus Tacos and Bell Burgers and Rogers Rice ... cute servers delivering smarmy sales pitches to people who can only nod politely because their mouth is full ...

[wetcoaster]

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@Korthwrote:

@wetcoaster

Those 7-Eleven SpeakOut™ phone plans are truly horrible.  Even worse than the Big Three!

Anyone is welcome to buy ... but who is 7-Eleven really trying to sell to, what's their "angle" and "gimmick" and "appeal", who's their "target" demographic?

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The big appeal to the according demographic is that you can have true pay-as-you-go with them on a top-up that lasts 365 days. Even their smallest denomination ($25) lasts a full year.

If you use your cell phone only occasionally / as a back-up it's actually very cost effective.

I used to have a seasonal job were communication between boss and employees was mainly by text. So in the off season I'd go pay-as-you go for the occasional minute and text and for the 5months of high season I had their unlimited text add-on for $10. Relying on WiFi at home and at work for data and VOIP calls, my cell phone bill was about $100 per year (their bonus top-ups [+$25 when you bought $100 top-up) taking care of that impossible 911 fee - now that is so last century...)

I haven't compared their "value plans" to other provider's PAYG prepaid offerings recently. I can see the appeal of them to tourists from overseas that don't want any strings attached - often that's what they are used to from home.

[Korth]

@wetcoaster

Those 7-Eleven SpeakOut™ phone plans are truly horrible.  Even worse than the Big Three!

Anyone is welcome to buy ... but who is 7-Eleven really trying to sell to, what's their "angle" and "gimmick" and "appeal", who's their "target" demographic?

[wetcoaster]

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@Ludditewrote:

Didn't realize 711 had vouchers. Too bad they don't have SIMs. Then they could supply everything: SIM, voucher, some unlocked (Speakout) phone!

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They might try and avoid competing with their own prepaid brand too directly...

Hard to sell this:

when you have this:

on the same shelf.... (SpeakOut is running on 3G.)

(Personally I find $33/30 days a bit much for phone support, considering that one needs to keep a morning open to get in touch with them and actually get the information you need...)

[Dan]

For CT Gas Bar, in their POS machine, they have 2 options PM PIN and PM RTR. If you choose the PIN version, then they can only give you vouchers in pre-set denominations, like the $48. If you choose RTR, you have to give the cashier the phone number to which the money should be deposited, and it can be any value up to $200. This is what I do, I buy $250 Canadian Tire gift cards when they are 10% off at Loblaws/Sobeys/Shoppers/Rexal, and then buy the $200 RTR from Canadian Tire Gas Bar. The $200 + $26 (ON Tax 13%) + $1 (CT Gas Bar fee) costs me $227. But the $227 I only paid 90% of it, as I got the gift card for 10% off, which comes out to $204.30.

Please note that getting the cashier to accept the gift card as payment for the voucher is YMMV. Officially Canadian Tire does not allow it. Some cashiers refuse to do it. Others don't care and do it anyway. Others don't even know they are not supposed to do it. So if one cashier refuses to accept, go to another CT Gas Bar, or go to the same one at some other time when there is another cashier who might do it.

[Civic_E]

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@wetcoasterwrote:

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@Korthwrote:

What?  There's a $48 denomination?  I don't have that one!

Do these barcodes expire whenever PM prints up a new series, or do they keep reusing the same ones?

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It depends on the retailer.

My local CanadianTire:

 

Two local 7-11 stores:

My closest corner store doesn't have fancy display vouchers but has access to the same PIN voucher denominations as 7-11. He can also do RTR on his machine (powered by prepaynow.ca distributor)

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RTR requires you to pay convenience fee.

[Luddite]

Didn't realize 711 had vouchers. Too bad they don't have SIMs. Then they could supply everything: SIM, voucher, some unlocked (Speakout) phone!

[Korth]

Aha, need to get those 7-Eleven ones for my collection, lol.

[wetcoaster]

Oh, and I forgot the local Shoppers: Used to be $25, $40 and $60 single card display vouchers. Recently they switched to $28 and $43

[wetcoaster]

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@Korthwrote:

What?  There's a $48 denomination?  I don't have that one!

Do these barcodes expire whenever PM prints up a new series, or do they keep reusing the same ones?

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It depends on the retailer.

My local CanadianTire:

 

Two local 7-11 stores:

My closest corner store doesn't have fancy display vouchers but has access to the same PIN voucher denominations as 7-11. He can also do RTR on his machine (powered by prepaynow.ca distributor)

[Korth]

What?  There's a $48 denomination?  I don't have that one!

Do these barcodes expire whenever PM prints up a new series, or do they keep reusing the same ones?

[will13am]

I was able to buy vouchers at a local Canadian Tire gas bar.  I asked the guy about real time reload and he had no clue what I was talking about.  I ended up buying the largest denomindation he had set up in his machine which was $48.  There was a $1 convenience fee for each purchase.  I felt like I was shopping at money mart. 

[Korth]

No K-Mobile anywhere near BC, looks like they're all in ON and QC.  But we do have Esso, Shoppers, and Canadian Tire here.

But Payment Vouchers ... bring your own, lol.  After having to buy a couple of $40 vouchers because no $100 vouchers were in stock, I've collected one of each ($5, $10, $20, $25, $40, $100 ... a whole set?) so I can always give the cashier a barcode to scan.

(Also planning to rather unfashionably cut the barcodes off and stick them to the underside of my phone.)

Has anyone used this Real Time Payment Voucher system?

[stonechucker]

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@NDesaiwrote:

Just want to point out that K Mobile locations exist in east of CA only, mainly in Ontario. 

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And not in any area outside of the GTA, possibly the GTHA.

Nearest to me is Mississauga, and I'm interested in walking there 🙂

[NDesai]

Just want to point out that K Mobile locations exist in east of CA only, mainly in Ontario.