Pausing Plan Current Status - 4Q25

[zulu531]

This feature has been requested from Day1 of Public Mobile (a "low-cost" subsidiary of Telus remember).  As part of the low-cost concept as seen by Telus this feature would only be offered on the high-cost subsidiaries; regardless of the "most requested feature" status in the PM Community.

It used to effect the "snow-bird" community a lot until PM introduced the NA Plans which meant that it covered all of the Canadians spending their winter in US/Mex.

It now only effects a few travelers or those stuck on the Canada only plans (who don't have the extra cash to move to the NA plans.

For those few then the solutions;

Alternative 1: If less than 3 months (actually 90 days so be careful) - pay for the month you are leaving in and then stop autopayment for the months you are away.  Pay for the service sometime in the week before you come back to Canada/NA and then start autopay again.

You can then pay for one month and then stop again for another 3 months if you are still away.

You just need to get the dates correct for which action you need to perform online and put it in your calendar and do it.   If you don't pay in time you will lose your number and have to sign up for the plans in existence that time.

Alternative 2.  If you will be away for longer than 3 months or don't want the hassle of paying for 1 month every 3 months then cancel your PM plan and port your number to a pay-as-you go voip service.  I use VOIP.MS based in Quebec and they give you the how-to port your number.  Port the number back to PM when you return to Canada/NA or just before and sign up for the current plans.  Or port to whatever service offers the best plans.  PM tries to stay ahead of everyone else and has succeeded in doing so for many years; but as their complete mess up of the "rewards" program shows that can change at a moments notice - its why you have a month-to-month plan - so you can cancel at any time.  They used to have loyalty rewards but no longer do - so you don't need to be loyal to them.

To re-iterate: this pause feature (while it could be implemented with no cost to Telus) will likely never be provided to PM since it is one of the factors that differentiates PM from and other Telus offerings.  What is more likely is that PM will transition to data only plans and provide a VOIP SIP service for your phone number as a "free" addition.  They might then offer to keep your phone number for a small fee while you were using their VOIP app and data sims in other countries that you were visiting.  This is the way of the world right now except for Canada.  All carriers will need to be like Google Fi to compete.

[hTideGnow]

hi @zulu531 

i like to park the service at Fongo instead

[slusagm]

Add to above, not just the second of the couples who signed up can use Friend referral code, the first one who signed up and look for a code and sign up to save $10 

[zulu531]

Also for couples when you sign up for PM again.  Sign up one of you and then do the "refer-a-friend" to get the other one signed up.  That way you start your new relationship with PM with a built-in discount.

[slusagm]

and more things to add to the original post 

if you have funds in Available Funds on My Account and if the funds is more than the plan amount, the Alternative 1 won't work!!!  PM will still renew the account using the Available funds even Subscribed is turned off

[zulu531]

Yes I forgot to mention.  For the last month of service spend all of your referrals and rewards because they will be gone.  In fact since you have no idea when PM might change their mind and cancel all of the rewards if not used (as Air Canada famously did) and try and use them up continuously.  The old PM reward system did this automatically for you - you rewards were cashed in every month.  The new rewards system needs continual monitoring and manual reward claims.

[zulu531]

You would have to learn that in order to have funds to spend on time away that you would have to not spend your money on other things ( all those "its just a $100" items like you mention.  People don't get rich by spending money: they get rich by saving money.

[hairbag1]

@zulu531 

if I had the funds to spend winter away, I'd have funds to add to my account to let renewal happen whilst I'm gone. Example...if I was subscribed to $30 plan, I'd add $90 plus tax to my available funds...then renewal would occur successfully for 90 days. No prob.

[zulu531]

There is no "add to what you have said".   I said it all.   Rewards are trivial now that PM have changed the system (and therefore should not be considered to be a negative).  In the past 2 years - new plans are the same as old plans within $1-$2 per month and are data loaded anyway so the savings in not paying for the plan for several months overcomes any extra cost to a "new" plan).  The added benefit is that the number (if that is important to keep) will always be preserved at a minimal cost by a VOIP provider allowing the user to focus on the data provision without thinking that they are captive to the data service provider.  Telus (and PM) have only themselves to blame for "churn" so quit making up negatives that don't exist.  If PM wanted loyal customers then they should have been listening to the "most requested features" part of this community (the listening to your customers phase) and added them.  If you keep on ignoring your customers then don't blame them for their actions.  After all it was only the actions of the snowbirds signing up with US carriers that offered "free" roaming in Canada that got PM to start offering NA plans.  Without those actions PM would have done nothing though it was at the time a "most requested feature".  

[slusagm]

yes, we know this and we have been sharing this

and add to what you said, if people use Alternative 2, they will have to come back to Public Mobile as a new client, they will lost their existing friend referrals and rewards and likely their current plan