Changing a grandfathered plan; how to keep grandfather rate?

[convolutionx]

I got the $120/3 mo. 12 GB data unlim text/call plan back in January. 

I want to change from province wide calling to Canada wide.

I don't want to lose my double data bonus. How do I change my plan? Can't I just pay the difference between province wide and Canada wide? There's no option to keep the double the data rate when I choose 12 GB now. 

[srlawren]

@convolutionx sorry I responded fairly briefly late last night, but you should be able to find the info you asked about in that article.  Have you had a chance to have a look?  Please let us know if you have any further questions after checking that out and we're happy to help.

[srlawren]

@convolutionx you can find the answer to those questions in this knowledge base article:

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Knowledge-Base/Province-wide-Canada-wide-and-Long-Dist...

[convolutionx]

PM may be friendly, but they're still a corporation at the end of the day, with profit margins to think of...

For the 400 minute Canada LD add on; how does PM distinguish which calls will use up my unlim province wide calling, and which calls use up my Canada wide? Will it preferentially use my province wide first, and only use Canada wide for out of province calls? Is the plan "smart" in that sense? 

[jt17g]

i wish they can just have an addon like 5$ per month to upgrade the plan to unlimited canada wide talk

[srlawren]

@convolutionx sorry I see you added on a couple more questions.  let me tackle those.

Do plans expire?  Yes.  The plan you're on was a promotional plan offered in the fall of 2016, and is no longer offered.  You can stay on a plan as long as you like.  The only ways you will lose that plan are if you either (1) explicitly change your plan to something else, or (2) go over the 90th day of suspension in which case your account is shut down forever. 

To your last question about activiating another sim for talk only.  Yes you could.  You would have to leave your current (main?) phone number on your current plan and SIM card, but you could fire up another SIM for talk only, Canada-wide, with a second phone number.  This is even more convenient if you have a dual SIM phone, where you could keep both active and set it to prompt you which SIM card to use on every call.  (I think some even let you set a default SIM per contact, but not all phones offer that, AFAIK.)

However, if you're going that route, I'd actually recommend you shop around a little.  PM is not known to offer great value when selecting a single service (e.g. talk only).  To my point, a 90 day no text no data canada-wide talk plan is $91, or around $30.xx per month.  I'm guessing you can probably find a canda-wide talk only plan cheaper somewhere else, especially in the pre-paid scene.  However, I haven't gone looking as I have no personal need for such a plan.  My point is, at least explore the other options, particular from say Fido, 7-11 prepaid, President's Chocie, Chatr, etc.

EDIT: here's what the dual SIM config looks like on my phone.  So I could set text and data to Public Mobile, and set talk to either ask me on every outbound call or to default to either my Public Mobile SIM or the other one (in my case a Roam Mobility SIM, which I never actually use at the same time as my PM SIM--this is just an illustrative example).  My phone is a OnePlus 3, for reference:

My current defaults as an examplePossible options for phone call defaults

[srlawren]

@convolutionx kind of.  I won't go into the full details but I recommend you check out @Luddite's informative posting here:  http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Paying-for-your-service/Extended-Absence/m-p/142735#M9....  In a nutshell, you can turn off auto pay and remove your credit card info, and your plan will get suspended at the end of your current cycle.  You can leave it suspended for up to 90 days (I'd go 89 to be safe), and then renew it again.  If you go past the end of the 90th day, you loose the account and plan forever. The problem is, at the end of the first 90 days, if you don't to lose your current promo plan, you'd have to renew for another 90 days in order to keep it.  So you could only do this for 90 days out of every 180, essentially.  

Also, you CANNOT port out your number to the other carrier you're asking about.  As soon as you port out a number, the account is closed and the promo plan is lost forever.  So, if you do want to do what your'e asking about, it has to be with a new phone number, and your old one would stay with Public Mobile and anyone that tries to call or text you on it won't be able to reach you.

I'm guessing that with all of the above, this isn't really going to meet your needs.

So, follow up question time!

1) How long do you anticipate needing to do a lot of calling outside of your province?

2) How much calling are we talking about?  

[convolutionx]

Will I be able to not renew the plan, get another plan instead with another provider, and keep it grandfathered until I don't need to use my canada wide minutes anymore, and come back to it a year later and still get the same rate?

Do plans expire? 

What if I get another PM sim and get another plan, but with Canada minutes and leave my data plan untouched? 

[srlawren · Accepted solution]

@convolutionx to sum up:

Unfortunately no, you can't just upgrade the talk portion.  you COULD change the plan, but the difference in cost is massive.  The 90 day plan including Canda-wide calling, global texting, and 12 Gb costs $201, which is $81 more than your current plan.

For that $81, you could buy 5 of the 400-min long distance add-ons and still have $6 to spare.  That would give you 2000 minutes to use over the  course of 90 days, or approx 22 mins daily average.  If you think you need more than this, you are better off to change plans and lose the promo.  If you think you need less than this, you are better off to keep your current plan and use the long distance add-ons.

Alternatively, you could use a VoIP solution (Fongo, TextNow, Hangouts Dialer, many others) or app-to-app dialing (Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, BBM, dozens more) that will let you call for free to any number in Canada, using your data (or WiFi if connected) instead of minutes.

EDIT: please let us know if you would like more info on using data-based calling solutions, or if you have any other further questions or concerns.

[Pier]

@convolutionx

As you have enough data on your grandfathered plan, Just download fongo and use it when you wanna make long distance calls. It's free and good. Try it out and let us know your results.

Yours, 

[xCameron94x]

you could also just use an app like whatsapp or skype, or google hangouts to call numbers in Canada for free..

[Chaos_Scorpio]

Just pay for the long distance addon. cheaper in the long run if you only use 200min every 90 days. 

I have that addon and only used half of that in 6 months. 

ps nice try wording the grandfathered plan ... a plan change is a plan change period. 

[will13am]

Nice try, the plan comes as a package.  If you change any one item, it becomes a different plan with a totally different price.  There is a 12 gig, Canada wide calling plan.  It's not $120 unfortunately.  It's an eye popping $216 for 90 days.  

[computergeek541]

Sorry, but this cannot be done.  This would be considered a plan change.  Once you change your plan, your grandfathered plan is gone forever.

[Samianauman]

You can only buy add-on you can't make changes to plan if you do you will lose your plan best option for you is to buy long distance add-on which doesn't expire untill you use all available mind.

[ShawnC13]

@convolutionx, you will not be able to switch to Canada Wide calling and keep you 12GB for $120.  Once you change away from the plan if it is the promo plan you won't get it back.  Also you just can't add the option to get it.  How much calling do you do the other areas of Canada?  For $8 you can get 200 minutes of North American calling that do not expire and are available until you use them all or you can get the $15 400 Minutes of International calling.  Again these minutes don't expire so you will have them until you use them all.  So with these addons you can have upto almost   7 hours of Canada wide calling before you need to re-purchase.