So I manage my MIL's $10 prepaid Telus plan. 50 texts and 50 inbound/outbound local minutes every 30 days. She never uses it and is her security blanket as she is never without it. She can be in and out of hospital and that is where we discovered the downfall of the plan. She ran out of minutes....had no idea why. So we called and had a very nice Telus CSR add some $ to her balance from her CC to allow 15 cent a minute calls. So I was able to do a top up and turn off/on her credit card to see a $5 balance and thereafter it would not be touched as her payments are covered by CC first and never from balance. So in January Telus texted out the change that all payments would come from balance first then the CC. And of course my MIL is partially blind and deaf and had no idea....so today was the day of discovery!!
Telus option to fix....leave the credit card on for auto-pay then a few days after her payment, set up an auto "top up" of $10. That would then give a $10 balance to draw from and next billing would use up the $10 or less balance and then to the CC. Then a few days later the auto top up would bring her balance up...so no extra calling for a couple of days if needed. She has never had auto pay fail...luckily. So the cons...a few days with no balance...potential failure of auto pay and auto top up not working.
My fix up.....move to $15 PM with 100 Minutes outbound Canada Wide and unlimited inbound. I manage the account with the hybrid auto pay and add $5 500 Canada wide minutes.
