Looking to find out information about cheaper plans.

[Free4ever]

Hello, I am now a new public mobile customer. I signed up only to find out that there is no way you can get cheaper plans here until you pay 15$ for five years. Or auto pay ( which doesn’t make sense as get that if I keep recharging without using my credit card anyways ) 

Is there a way to find out if public mobile will offer an esimcard or have much cheaper plans to offer anytime soon. I could extend my stay or else leave in search of someone else to provide me cheap plans with esim. Also, why do they asked to enter my first and last name in a community forum registration page ?  

I am not here for long - I may skip town if I don’t find what I am looking for or move this number to voip / text-now instead. 15$ for 100 minutes is extremely expensive for me specially when places like signalwire exists as a last resort if I have to.

[LurganIeUk]

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@Free4ever wrote:

Hello, I am now a new public mobile customer. I signed up only to find out that there is no way you can get cheaper plans here until you pay 15$ for five years. Or auto pay ( which doesn’t make sense as get that if I keep recharging without using my credit card anyways ) 

Is there a way to find out if public mobile will offer an esimcard or have much cheaper plans to offer anytime soon. I could extend my stay or else leave in search of someone else to provide me cheap plans with esim. Also, why do they asked to enter my first and last name in a community forum registration page ?  

I am not here for long - I may skip town if I don’t find what I am looking for or move this number to voip / text-now instead. 15$ for 100 minutes is extremely expensive for me specially when places like signalwire exists as a last resort if I have to.

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Just keep paying the way you like to.  BUT set up auto pay and get the $2 off. As long as you  are paid up (or have a balance) before your cycle auto pay will never kick in BUT you will receive the $2 off. 

[darlicious]

@Free4ever 

Here's a possible solution to your query. A Mexican sim card/phone number with plans from $15/5gb,  12gb/$32.40, $30/17gb (monthly/1yr subscription) courtesy of @geopublic .

[Anonymous]

Jeez. Another super-sensitive poster. I didn't read any negativity in any posts.

I would take exception to the sheep characterization. We all make our own decisions. You too. It doesn't mean one or the other is right or wrong. It's the decision they made for themselves.

I happen to have free service on the best Canadian network. I don't need to futz around with external carriers. Or make callers use their long distance. No hacks and tweaks and fiddle-f@rting around jumping here and there to gain some sort of saving. Unless you enjoy that sport. Oh look...your decision.

Am I brainwashed?

[Free4ever]

My post is not misleading to anyone. 
I made my intention clear that I was looking for a cheap plan for talk text and data and wanted to know what people are suggesting, and how they were bridging their phone gaps.  I have already accepted a solution for my Canadian talk and text as soon as numbers made sense By one of the post above( even if you agree or not ) now when I was stuck to the problems of getting a data - I was inclined to look somewhere else, where I found unlimited data. 
Not everyone is trained to live like a brainwashed sheep. as I mentioned, I will come back in a few months to prove you all wrong (BTW -  ATT does not block your sim cards - I have gathered information from lots of prepaid users - in Canada. so please, try not to fool me or the others with this BS) 

I am being polite does not mean I will be bullied around by someone on a internet webpage and called names(homeless and a liar )  in their sarcastic English. 
if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it.  - At lest stop spreading misinformation. 
I have ordered att SIM card - also signed up for signal wire and got 35$ in credits for signing up - I have used signalwire for many outgoing calls and got a bills of 1.60 $ usd  for 432 minutes of usage this month. Go, sign up for one, use it and see if I AM LYING. Otherwise, “ignorance is a bliss ! ” stay blessed! 

[brettster99]

@Naepalm 

The way I took his first post was he could not afford public mobile plans or any of the third tier plans from lucky or chartr.

Then I see that he went with ATT $25 US plan. He might of went with that because of the large amount of data etc but to me coming from the perspective of couldn’t afford the plan I kinda feel his first post was misleading in a way

[Naepalm]

@Free4ever if you dont leave the house, or have access to wifi wherever you go the cheapest plan would be $0.00.

Buy a smart phone that you can access the app store or google play. Download textnow and you are set. Or better yet ask a friend to give you one of their old phones. I know a few homeless people that do just this. (I am a pastor so I deal with people in these sutuations)  They also use facebook messanger as well. The only have access to internet near fastfood and government buildings. 

Now if you dont have internet, well you'll need to run fast to a place that does lol 

[computergeek541]

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@zblackma wrote:

The best Canadian unlimited talk and text plan is Freedoms $100 per year plan (you lose out in quality if away from Major Metropolitan areas).

It's actually the opposite in most case for Freedom Mobile customers. Service outside of metropolitans areas is usually much better because of how national roaming is included. When in these aeras, use of the inferior Freedom Mobile network is not required, nor possible.  I'll admit that Freedom Mobile's price plans are very atttractive, but their network isn't good.

[brettster99]

@darlicious 

Good on you for trying. I tried helping in my first post.

@Free4ever  Just like @BearFBI @there is a clause where if you spend the majority of your time outside of the USA for more then 3 months then they will kick you off the network.

Also spending $25 USD on a cell phone plan makes it seem like you aren’t in financial trouble you are just trying to lower the cost of a cell plan. 

Also I have triple citizenship. UK, Australia and Canada. So I was interested in there pricing and found that they are also cheaper then Canada pricing in terms of big 3 and middle tier Canadian providers.

Havent seen anything as of yet that compares to public mobile in terms of pricing.

I hope ATT works out for you and doesn’t kick you off after 3 months

[Free4ever]

mint=bad/no roaming in Canada where I spend my time 70% and 30% in USA.

i will keep you updated how my ATT adventure turns out.

[darlicious]

@Free4ever 

Ahhhh....the advantages of dual citzenship! Free healthcare and cheap mobile phone plans. Mint mobile might be an option for you too! Or try Airalo they have esim roaming travel plans.

[BearFBI]

@Free4ever What ATT plan is that ? Ive looked into that and it wasnt worth it. Also they can kick you off of their network and threaten to close your account because they dont like how Canadians do that. They throttle your speed to someting like 2G when roaming in Canada and its overall garbage. Its like the Canadian unlimited plans here. May i suggest Fongo ? you get 2GB of data 20$ a month and you can call on the fongo or any VOIP app you choose. VOIP dosent use much data at all. 1MB = 1 minuite of talk time. If i were you i would just stay with Public. 

[Free4ever]

I am using a phone that allows me to use talk and text from one sim and data from another esim. At this point,  I am new here and I was wondering how you are bridging your gap between ungodly amount of requirements and puny plans offered with little or not much data that goes with it?  I have now done my homework and resorted to order one of those ATT roaming sim cards that gives me unlimited data in Canada, USA and Mexico for as low as 25$ USD and soon move my Canadian numbers to voip app. I don’t need to worry about using data to run my number hosted in voip provider. And I can always use American number to call long distances without worrying about minute. I am glad I have found out of the box solution for my usage - BTW I have US income and Canadian income so, I could use my TD US account to fund autopay and this ATT plan allows me to use all my device with their roaming hotspot connection as well. 
I am not here to banter about how bad Canadian telcos are. Or how bad PM and others deprives you from getting more value for your money just because CRTC holds out hostage by not letting your number go elsewhere but between Canadian telcos. 

it’s even stupid that people have found many many work around but they talk to general public about it so they could teach Canadian telcos a lesson how not to mess with public. Anyways, my rant is over and so does a search for affordable data/talk/text roaming. I will take my numbers somewhere else soon enough and rip the benefits of having unlimited data /talk and text with both USA number and Canadian numbers.

sorry for all these frustration to make things look more harder than it is.”will will find a way “ and I hope you do to. Because the way Canadian telcos are operating - I am sure someday they will find it hard to believe that people have resorted to the solutions like I have. 

Your neighbour friendly Dual citizen,

Ciao ! 

[darlicious]

@Free4ever 

By using @hyT  and earlier @zblackma suggestion to use 7/11 as a place to park your number and use free apps is an excellent suggestion. It will also give you the option to promo jump with a temporary number. With the exception of this unusual pandemic spring public mobile regularily runs promotions of $5 or $10 off per month for 6/8 months or like the current promo get your second 30 days for free. By activating at a higher plan amount for a higher credit and downgrading to the $15 you can get your plan price down to $7 per month for 4 months. With self referrals during bonus referral credit promotions (like now) you can further your credit amounts by timing 85 day suspensions between accounts.

       For example if you were a customer on May 14th and registered an email may 5th to 7th to recieve the 2nd 30 days free offer you would qualify on your current account for your first referral to recieve the $20 bonus referral credit by referring yourself and activating before may 22nd for the 30 days free promo credit. (You could have done that promo on both.)

     First you activate the current account by getting referred and activates the first 30 days on the $40/5gb plan then refer yourself to recieve the bonus $20 credit. After receiving both promotional credits you schedule a plan change on your next renewal to the $15 plan.The initial outlay $40+$4 sim=$44+12%tax($5.28 bc)=$49.28 ($7.04 p/m) unless you can get a free sim With some promos.

The math:$10(referral credit)+$40(plan credit)+$4(autopay)+$20(bonus referral credit)+$1 (referral reward)=$75-$15=$60(month 2)+$3(autopay+referral reward)=$63-$15=$48(month 3) +3=$51-$15 =$36(month 4)+$3=$39-$15=$24(month 5)+$3=$27-$15=$12(month 6) +3=$15-$15=$0(month 7)

Pay $49.28 for your plan and cheap CCS sim card and one referral you get 7 months of public mobile service for $7.04 a month.....after receiving the credits you can suspend this plan for up to 90 days while you use the second account. Suspend the second account with at least 30 days or one renewal remaining and alternate suspensions on the two accounts and you get almost a years service for about $7 per month. The second account is as follows:

1st month you pay upfront $25+tax and account will be credited: $25+$4(2×$2 autopay)=$29 $29+$10 (referral credit)=$39 Schedule a plan change to the $15 on your next renewal so on 2nd month $39 - $15 =$24+$2(a/p)=$26 3rd month $26-$15 = $11+$2(a/p)=$13 4th month $13 -+$2 (u add)=$15-$15=$0. Your 5th month will be $15 - $2(a/p)=$13 owing. Pay $13 before renewal date.

[jimbobs]

@Free4ever What do you mean by "esimcard"? I've heard of eSIM's which, AFAIK, are just numbers and SIM Cards which are physical cards.

[hyT · Accepted solution]

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@zblackma wrote:

@Free4everyou could try the 711 Speakout plans for an emergency phone.. I think its $35 per year and you pay for texts and talk https://www.speakout7eleven.ca/plans. The best Canadian unlimited talk and text plan is Freedoms $100 per year plan (you lose out in quality if away from Major Metropolitan areas).

The overall best plan in terms of service, call quality etc would be the Public Mobiles $15, 100 minute plan, with Chatrs a close second. You could combine both of these with free North American Voip apps such as Texnow and Google Hangouts with Dialer over Wifi.

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I use 711 as an emergency talk-and-text phone number.  It's prepaid.  No data. You have to put a minimum top-up of $25 (+HST) in at least once a year (364 days in my experience) to keep your remaining balance rolling over. Every month $1.25 is deducted as a "911 fee".  So if you don't use it at all and just park your phone number, it only costs $15 total per year.  I use this phone number for my Whatsapp over WiFi (or over PM's data plan when I don't have WiFi access).  Pay-as-you-go talk and text are expensive.  Talk is $0.30 per minute all over Canada.  It counts by the minute.  Outgoing texts are $0.15 per text.  Incoming texts are free.  No MMS, only SMS - so no photos.  No service when outside Canada.  Coverage is reliable as it uses the Rogers network.  I have used it since the flip-phone era.  I have accumulated a sizable "available funds" ($25 top-up minus $15 deduction per year) which is non-refundable.  So I can "splurge" on an occasional $3 per 10-minute phone call using it. 😉   Or use it in an emergency when PM is not available, which has never happened yet in the two months I have been with PM. It happened more frequently when I was using Freedom as my active number.

[kselmak]

Autopay makes sense you don't have to use it just must be registered. And you get a little data with it too.  you don't need to let the autopay execute you can pay manually 

It's not 100 minutes, it's unlimited incoming and unlimited texting too. 

Also you don't have to spend 5 years, already after one it will be$1 less.

You can have the bill down to$0.

If you do find better deal please let us know many here are always looking. At the moment only serious competitor is freedom with 99/year but they have almost no coverage.

For the community you can put any info you wish. I think it's not public unless you make it. This is the place where we talk to customer support

But I'm sure they talk to couple of Napoleon Bonaparte

Cheers

[zblackma]

@Free4everyou could try the 711 Speakout plans for an emergency phone.. I think its $35 per year and you pay for texts and talk https://www.speakout7eleven.ca/plans. The best Canadian unlimited talk and text plan is Freedoms $100 per year plan (you lose out in quality if away from Major Metropolitan areas).

The overall best plan in terms of service, call quality etc would be the Public Mobiles $15, 100 minute plan, with Chatrs a close second. You could combine both of these with free North American Voip apps such as Texnow and Google Hangouts with Dialer over Wifi.

[darlicious]

@mpcdesign @brettster99 

         I'm with @Triguy and @fdrcamb519  I'm not giving up on @Free4ever yet of the countless others I've convinced to stay and are happier and richer because of it I've only been unable to help two members. One that was a colossal mistake by someone and it was hopeless and one who just up and quit before I could really put my foot down and get a satisfactory resolution. I've got one more I'm still working on....im being hopeful to save that one. Hope springs eternal.....

[mpcdesign]

@Triguy, he isn't going to stick around by the sounds of it. He is already packing his bags and can't wait to leave as he had stated! 

[Triguy]

You could signup for the $15 plan then register either a credit card or debit card to save $2.  Also refer friends to save $1 per referral.  Participate in the forum and you could save up to $15.

• Loyalty Reward: $1/30 days for each year you’re with us, up to $5/30 days.
• AutoPay Reward: $2/30 days.
• Refer a Friend: $1/30 days for each friend you refer – plus, your friend receives a one-time credit of $10.
• Community Reward: up to $15/30 days.

[brettster99]

@mpcdesign 

I agree with @mpcdesign and you should probably look somewhere else @Free4ever 

[mpcdesign]

@Free4ever, @brettster99  and @fdrcamb519  have some awesome points in their posts. I am a past user with Telus (contracts and pre-paid) and with Fido (pre-paid), and I have to say Public Mobile has been fairly decent. Even though they are part of the Telus family, Public Mobile does have their own identity and set prices. It took me about four months to do research from Telus, Fido, Bell, Rogers, the smaller companies as Virgin, Freedom, Chattr, and Public Mobile. And in the end, I wanted to save money but be rewarded for my loyalty. I stayed with Fido and Telus, and they truly do nothing for loyalty. When you leave, that's when they give you better deals. By then, I already left and paid an activation fee and a contract! 

A few people here have bought cheaper vouchers and SIM cards from a website called Canadian Supplies, or something like that. Click on this link to go to their site. You can save a few bucks and come back. I have my doubts about this company, but a few people have used PayPal and didn't have an issue with them. 

The one thing I like about Public Mobile is there is no activation fee (mentioned per above), just a SIM card fee (which you can buy from $3 from the third-party website, or $10 from Public Mobile, Walmart or etc). The majority of the cell providers charge an activation fee. If you get into a contract, and you decide to leave, you have a penalty fee to leave which Public Mobile doesn't. You stop the autopay and remove your credit card, and when it's time to pay, you don't. After 90 days, your account is deactivated. Granted, if you port to another cell provider, your account is officially closed.

If you have already done your research, and after reading your post, it sounds like you are ready to bolt? That itself doesn't make sense because then you just paid for a SIM card and $15. Why would you do that and waste your money?

By using autopay, you instantly save $2, which means your monthly plan is now $13. If you truly only want a phone talk and text, then go ahead and go to Freedom which is $99 a year; Telus also has a $100 plan, but it isn't as good as Freedom. Use wi-fi, and TextNow is a great option to save money. 

At one time, one could build a plan, but they removed that one. But, that isn't much help to you. Speaking for myself only, recently my plan only cost me $1 a month. Yes, I have been here for 2 years. $2 for autopay, and $2 for loyalty. And another one for $10 for community rewards which I probably only spend about an hour a day. My average ranges from $1 to $10 a month, given how much I put into the forum. This isn't a guaranteed way to save money though, but it helps to help others though, such as I am posting back to you at this time of night! 

With regards to your name on the community page, this isn't disclosed to anyone but you. If you think about it, when you sign up for a new credit card, library card, maybe a golf membership or renewing auto insurance, do you give them an alias name or your real name? You use a real name so that if they need to give you rewards such as loyalty rewards they have an idea who you are. You don't need to give them the other information such as location, title website, it's really nothing.

Some people love it here and some people don't. You really need to write out the pros and cons and what's important to you at this period of time. Personally, I think Freedom Mobile may be the route for you in all honesty. A simple talk and text plan. And who knows, with the CRTC making it mandatory for all cell providers to cut their rates 25% within 2 years, it may be even cheaper for you. Good luck with your research

[fdrcamb519]

@brettster99 

I think he was looking to sign up for a free plan, don’t think find better out there, than what PM offers

[brettster99]

@Free4ever 

Honestly I don’t think you will find any 3rd tier provider (Lucky Mobile and chartr) that supports e-sim. And they are more expensive because they don’t have rewards to bring down the price of the plan.

As for cheaper plans I highly doubt Public mobile will provide anything cheaper then the $15 plan. There isn’t much to cut out at that point for a monthly plan.

You could enable auto pay and make it $13 and it doesn’t matter if you actually use your credit card to pay just keep it on file with auto pay enabled and you can use vouchers. If you refer a friend(s) you can make it cheaper by $1 per friend. Loyalty is another $1 per year up to a maximum of 5 years for $5. 

Also finally contributing to the community will lower the bill as well from anywhere between $1 and $15. Which would make it cheaper or free.

The only thing I can think of is a provider you can pay a year for like freedom mobile for $99 of just text and phone. But freedom has zones and coverage is really spotty if you travel. 

I checked out Signal Wire and you are charged per message. And there are many other fees like connection fee, Pass though fee, SMS fee, MMS fee, Setup fee ($50 Rogers and $3,000 for Bell) but if you don’t send enough texts or voice calls enough to justify $15 then maybe but it has a lot of extra fees.

Also for Textnow that could be an option to lower the price to $10 a month for ad-free service. Or free if ignoring the ads.

Canada is one of the most expensive places in terms of cell phone plans. And this is the best you are gonna get without a Pay as you go plan that charges per SMS and Call. And I highly don’t believe Signal wire has e-sim support either.

I just don’t know what you are expecting at this price 

[fdrcamb519]

@Free4ever 

I’ll try my best to answer all your questions here, they don’t offere esim, the auto pay as long you have a registered card, you can still pay with vouchers get discount. Also get rewards by referring friends, and community rewards up to $15 a month, also $1 off year for 5 years, you could get a free plan a month, on The Telus network, I’m with them for 6 weeks and really like it

[Free4ever]

Also want to know how to delete a public mobile community page profile. if anyone could help me find that option to delete my profile that would be amazing. It’s a maze here.