If you could go back in time via a time machine, the $60 8.5 GB Canada data + 2 GB US roaming data plan would've been perfect for your needs! It was a hot deal for frequent US travelers.
There was no need to change the plan IF you were going away from 3 months.
The add-ons are beneficial for short stay.
Buy a local SIM and use the services and remove the autopay from PM and let is deactivate itself. you have paid for 30 days and march and april will be no charge number hold up. Connect with friends and family by whatsapp and when you are back in Canada reactivate the account by paying for the right plan you need.
I hope you get the $'s loaded back to your available funds, and save safe travels.
Remember, if you want to keep your Public Mobile number when you come back to either keep it active, or let it suspend, or list it in lost/stolen.
But if you do either of the last 2 options you must make a payment and activate before it gets over 90 days in this status, or you lose the phone number and account.
Contact customer support and explain to them your honest mistake. Ask if they are willing to switch you to the $15 plan and credit your account the balance so you can purchase a US Roaming add on. Then you can look at getting mint mobile for your time in the US ( 90 day plans starting at US$15/4gb). Freedom may offer US roaming but it isn't cheap by any means.
Leaving pm will mean losing the rewards program and if you come back being stuck with the points program. Though if you travel to the US a lot it does offer point redemptions on discounted Roaming add ons.
Although you cannot call forward your pm number now that you are in the US read the spoiler below for more info and advice on account suspension while you are in the US.
Here is some info about US roaming add ons that should help you.....
While you have to have an active plan to purchase and use US roaming add ons the type of plan you have does not affect the roaming add ons features.
US roaming add ons start the moment you confirm and submit your purchase in your self serve account and expire 240 hours later (10 days×24 hours).
You can pre-load the funds needed to purchase the add ons in your self serve account so you only have to log in, select the US roaming add on and then confirm and submit your purchase.
Wait til late as possible to purchase since they are immediately valid so on free wifi at the destination airport or stopping shortly before the border at mcd's or timmy's to buy the add on while on free wifi.
If you are staying longer than 10 days you must wait a minimum of 24 hours to purchase the same US roaming add on or contact the moderators to add it before the waiting period ends.
If you have two US roaming add ons with a talk feature that overlap the talk feature basically gets disabled. Avoid this....but you will have to get one removed by a moderator to get your calling feature back if this happens.
After purchase reboot your phone and manually select either at&t or T-mobile to get better reception. Some areas have better coverage by either provider so when travelling around the US you will be better served by choosing the provider with better signal strength by locale.
You will recieve incoming texts without any US roaming add ons. Adding the fongo app and textnow app for use on wifi are good to use for a back up plan or you could call forward your pm phone # to your fongo # before you leave Canada and purchase just the US data roaming add on. Fongo also works on mobile data (1 min=0.5mb/100 min=50mb) so you could still recieve incoming pm texts, recieve incoming pm calls to your fongo #/app, outgoing calls from your fongo number and outgoing texts from textnow for free or small fee from fongo.
All US roaming add ons have either unlimted text, talk or both. Only data has limits depending on your purchase 250mb/500mb/1gb. Once the data is consumed it will just stop you could then purchase different roaming add on, wait 24 hr to buy or contact the moderator to buy the same US roaming add on again. (* except talk as previously mentioned.)
Info about suspending your account while away:
You can turn off autopay and allow the account to suspend at the of your current 30 day cycle but this is your least advantageous option. Pay and reactivate by day 85 or so.
If you have an account balance that exceeds your plan amount then you need to suspend via the lost/stolen feature in your account before midnight eastern on the evening of your renewal. Then on day 85 or so resume your service to pay and reactivate.
Suspending via lost/stolen before midnight eastern will keep your voicemail active allowing you retrieve voicemail and any verification sent by phone calls. However your rewards will not be applied to your account. Moderator/CSA contact after paying and reactivating is necessary to have the rewards applied manually.
Voicemail can be accessed by calling your pm number from a different phone by calling your phone # and pressing * once connected and entering your 4 digit voicemail pin #.
If you don't have an account balance or enough balance to cover your plan amount you can suspend via lost/stolen after midnight but before 2 am eastern on the day of your renewal. Once your rewards have been applied (usually by 12:15 am et) then suspend your account. Voicemail access will be lost.
Switching to the $15 plan with rewards helping to cover a partial or full amount of your plan allows you to call forward your pm number to your fongo number before you leave Canada.. Now any incoming calling to your pm number will ring thru to your fongo number while on wifi or mobile data (w/a local or global sim card) You can access your fongo voicemail for all voicemail messages.
Most important mark on your calendar day 85 of your suspension and day 90. Do not forget when you must unsuspend your account via lost/stolen and/or pay and reactivate your service so you don't lose your phone number and account. Happy travels!
I'm confident the Customer Support Agents will reverse the changed plan to the $50. Just let them know you thought it would provide service while in the US. Request that they place the $50 into your Available Balance then switch you to the $15 (cheapest plan) and it'll cover you for the 3 months you're out of Canada.
Then, in place of using Public Mobile while in the US, just purchase a pre-paid SIM card to use while there and save a bundle of money.
If you are in US for 3 months, service from any providers will be expensive and not worth the money
Your best way is to get local US data for the 3 months and use VoIP app for calls
For your PM service, you can let it suspense after this current cycle and then reactivate back when you are back in Canada (you still need an active service for porting the service to another provider)
@MarkWilson the $50 plan only give you unlimited calling to US from Canada and not for used in Canada
You will need a roaming add-on for that, one of these options
Bundle - US Roaming - Talk Text (10-day) - $15.00 Bundle - US Roaming - Talk Text 250 Data (10-day) - $20.00 Data - US Roaming - 1 GB Data (10-day) - $20.00 Data - US Roaming - 250 MB Data (10-day) - $10.00 Data - US Roaming - 500 MB Data (10-day) - $15.00 Text - US Roaming - Unlimited Text (10-day) - $8.00 Talk - US Roaming - Unlimited Talk (10-day) - $8.00
How long you would be in the US? you might want to buy US prepaid data from US carrier instead. It is cheaper and give you more data to use.
For calling to Canada, consider using VoIP app like TextNow, it gives you a new phone number people can reach you or you can use the app to call Canada/US for free
You will need to purchase a US Roaming add-on to USE public mobile services in the USA.
The $50 and up plans only allow you to call the USA from Canada, not use Public Mobile services while you are physically in the USA.
EDIT: If you changed plans mid-cycle up to the $50 plan, you also would have lost out on the remaining pre-paid period of whatever plan you were previously on.
I might recommend you contact Public Mobile Customer Service Agents to see if they might reverse the recent plan change and place the cost of it back into your Available Balance such that you may utilize those funds to purchase the Roaming Add-On you desire while traveling in the USA.
To contact a Customer Support Agent, there are 2 methods:
Use the ticketing system for a faster response time. Clickhere and type Customer Support Agent, then select Contact Us, then select Other (or the topic that more closely matches your request). Click the result which states Click here to submit a ticket and follow the prompts, or,
Send a private message to the Customer Support Agent by clicking here You’ll need to be logged into your Community account for the link to work.
Watch for their response in your Community private mailbox which will be indicated by a number on the small envelope icon to the left of your Community avatar.
