Why did you come to Public Mobile?

[Naepalm]

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to start a discussion on why choose Public Mobile. When was the first time you heard of it, and how long did it take for you to move over?

I wanted to share my own story.

So two weeks ago ,my sisters and I were in house party (an awesome facetime like app). So I started to complain about how ridiculous cell bills are in Canada! Cheapest for Bell is $75.00  

And Rogers is not much different - Rogers Plans. My Bill from BELL for two phones is 280.00 a month. I have talked to Bell multiple times and they said that is the best they can do. Even escalating to a manager. 

All that to be said, she tells me shes with Public, has close to the same plan as me and pays 30.00 a month because she has an 8.00 a month promotion and has signed up for Autopay. 

To which I was like What!? my answer, "well ,that must be a B.C. thing."

So that night ,I looked it up, found the website. Ordered a $5.00 SIM card "to test it" this was last week LOL, actually wish I had ordered the three I needed, but ordered 1 for 5.00 and two more a few days later for 10.00 ea, (side note: if you know how I can get a credit for ttheextra 10.00 other then a referral, let me know) So, I unlocked my phone from Bell, looked at all the reviews. Could not see why I wouldn't switch. Ported my number over immediately ,and now I am saving almost 100.00 a month. I'll be changing my wife's phone soon as well. She has a balance on her account for her phone ,but that would be paid in three months with the savings we are getting from Public Mobile. 

All from a small conversation lead to a big win. Side note, we have 9ninechildren 1onedue at the end of the month, so any savings is huge for me. I can't imagine why I had never heard of Public mobile before.

Now that I am part of Public, I have ads for Public on all my social media...the goodness of google analytics LOL

.

So that's my story took around 2 hours for me to choose, run the numbers and figure out what plan was best for me. All from a short convo. The moral of the story pays to complain to your siblings. LOL

[Gympknee]

To save money. I usually buy my own phone and then shop around for the best prices. I only use my phone to make calls, text and occasionally use the Internet, so I don’t need fast data. I also like the inexpensive travel add ons. I travel frequently and would like to be able to use my cell phone. Other companies travel add ons are too expensive. I’m exited to be able to use my phone when I travel again after this crisis ends. 

[NDesai]

I was actually enrolled in the beta invite program Public Mobile had back in 2014 i believe. I had no idea how it worked back then, but i received an invitation email from them. There was a lot of info to digest and i was not ready to jump in as a beta testing user. So i signed up with Freedom/Wind because of a cheap plan. After using them for a few days, i gave up on how bad the coverage was while being in a city. The next cheapest plans were at Public Mobile, so i joined the community and started to know more about it. I was used to forums so i quickly learned and started to help others. After a couple of months of being here, i activated on a 90 days plan because it gave some discount back then for going on a 90 days vs 30 days plan. I have been here since then and brought a few family members.
So to be honest, cheaper prices brought me here and i am glad i kept at it to save some money over time. 

[popping]

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@jchan wrote:

I was on a really old Telus plan, the kind before data was really a thing so it had I think 0.5gb of data a month? I was looking at their data plans and anything with more data was going to be more money.

I think I saw a reddit post about a PM deal which seemed pretty incredible. Went to the website to figure out how to get a SIM card and figured I'd give it a try. 

That was almost 4 years ago now I think. Been with PM ever since. 

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Very soon, you will get $4 loyalty reward for doing nothing - just staying with PM.

[LurganIeUk]

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@Yukon1 wrote:

Thanks. I may very do that. At the moment, I'm testing out the higher plan for piece of mind. I just returned to Canada and want to see how much data I actually use before committing to lower it. The 5GB seems like a nice buffer for just the moment until I can get a handle on Canadian cell use again. I imagine the unlimited minutes will come in useful for the working from home for the next few months too!

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My Public Mobile suggested add-ons for $15 monthly plan. 

Suggested add-ons to bullet proof the $15 plan. Both my wife and I are low users of our $15 mobile plans but the one time cost of $25 makes our plans as good as any. And of course the maintenance cost to keep the “GOOD COMBINATION” in place. 

For add-ons.

GOOD COMBINATION. More flexibility, less overall cost.

2 x $5 add-on (1 cent/min.) 500 Canada-wide Long Distance minutes

1 x $15 add-on (3.75 cent/min.) 400 International Long Distance minutes add-on this gives you full calling LD including USA, Canada and International for less cost per minute than using the $8 add-on. 

=======

$25

NOT SO GOOD COMBINATION.

2 x $5 add-on (1 cent/min.) 500 Canada-wide Long Distance minutes

1 x $8 add-on (4 cent/min.) 200 U.S. & Canada Long Distance minutes**

1 x $15 (3.75 cent/min.) 400 International Long Distance minutes add-on.

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$33 Total                   **?The lesser value of the group ?

Note the $5, $8, and $15 add-on would all kick in for Local/Canada Wide calls if your allotted minutes were all used up. This applies to the $15 monthly plan only.

The reason for 2 x $5 add-ons, assuming most of your calls are Canada Wide, is......once 1 x $5 is used up and you are now using the second $5 add-on ......buy another $5 add-on. 

The $15 add-on is less cost per minute than the $8 add-on and the $15 add-on has International, USA and Canada  while the only real use of the $8 add-on is for USA only calls. 

Note 1: The add ons I have mentioned do NOT expire until all the minutes have been used.....the unused minutes roll over month to month until all exhausted. 

Note 2: Keep in mind the value of “Rewards that’ll lower your bill”. And any freebies offered as in pre Christmas 2019 for 1GB of Data and 400 International Long Distance minutes and March 2020 (Covid 19 era) with 1/2 price 1GB Data. They treat us very well. 

[jchan]

I was on a really old Telus plan, the kind before data was really a thing so it had I think 0.5gb of data a month? I was looking at their data plans and anything with more data was going to be more money.

I think I saw a reddit post about a PM deal which seemed pretty incredible. Went to the website to figure out how to get a SIM card and figured I'd give it a try. 

That was almost 4 years ago now I think. Been with PM ever since. 

[ryanrudolf]

My previous setup is way cheaper than Public Mobile's 15$ plan. I was using VoIP provided by voipms and I only pay around 1$ per month to retain the number and cents for incoming / outgoing calls. I usually load my account with 15$ and that is good for 6months or so. And since it is VoIP, I need data / WiFi for it to work. I am with Fido's 3GB data only plan and it costs 15$ per month. So all in all, im paying about 17$per month. The drawback is that sometimes data is spotty and voice calls suffer. Worse, I miss calls and text.

Since I got a promotion from Fido making my data plan free for the next 24mos, I decided to give Public Mobile a chance. With autopay it comes down to 13$ per month, and after a year of service it goes down to 12$ per month.

Once my 2yrs of free data with Fido is over, I would be paying 11$ per month with Public Mobile, and hopefully I can extend my Fido promotion for another 2yrs. Worse come to worse they wont extend it so I will just get a PM data add-on. Or I can get a cheap roaming data using airalo. So many options!

I've been with PM now for about 2weeks. I was able to port in my old voipms number. So far so good. No missed calls or texts and I dont have to worry about a good data connection to make a clear call.

[Pawprints1986]

My quick version... With koodo 8 years, changed to promotional rate plan, lost personal data add on, called to get it back and they did nothing at all for me (insisted I couldn't get it added back despite there being a whole forum of people who *did* get to keep their add on even though the  new plan didn't have data already, which was the excuse they gave me) all they did was offer me a "loyalty" plan for 10 more dollars than I was initially paying before I had made any changes, and they also wouldn't even revert all changes so I could keep my cheaper plan though limited minutes...

Got annoyed at their "loyalty" and remembered about my brother being here before he took a koodo migrate offer. I'm paying 12 bucks less now than koodo "loyalty" wants!

And I know some koodo reps may see this as some may moderate both communities, but don't even care! Nothing said is untrue

[darlicious]

@Naepalm  Unfortunately it doesn't look like well be seeing any promos coming out anytime soon but you may want you run the numbers on your wife's plan. You may find its cheaper to buy the phone out and switch than stick out the entire contract. Remember the device subsidy is a monthly charge while the plan will be prorated when porting the phone number out thus cancelling the account. You can save a months device subsidy by porting out a couple of days into a new billing period. Here's an example: monthly bill $60 = $30/plan $30/device subsidy 4 months remaining on contract. If you ported out on the last day of month 4 you would owe : 3 months x plan=$0 3 months x device subsidy=$90 but if you port out 2 days into month 3 you would owe : 2 days prorated plan at $1 per day =$2  2 days "prorated" device subsidy x $1=$2 (but the WCC requires any amount paid toward the device subsidy to be a whole month) So you will be charged $4 ($2+$2 prorated) + 2 months x $30 device subsidy =  $60 + $4=$64 By waiting 2 extra days you save $26.

Add in what you would save on the new plan at public mobile compared to the current plan minus the device subsidy and it can be well worth buying out the device especially if the next few months are spent mostly at home on wifi then choosing the $15 or $25 plan can generate some considerable savings.

[mpcdesign]

@Naepalm, i made the switch from Telus to Fido to Public Mobile, and I wished I did it sooner.

When I was with Telus, I felt I was chained to Telus because it was bigger and had more cell towers back in the day. I wanted a new phone but, to get a new phone, I had to change my plan. And those plans were way too expensive for my taste. I decided to step down a notch and moved to Fido. But, instead of a plan, I took on a pre-paid account.

Funny how things work out, as I moved to Fido, Telus finally offered me a free phone with the same grandfathered plan. Great, but too late! I went out and bought myself a cheap $100 phone that lasted me 5 years until I got another phone for 2 more years with Fido. I left Fido in July 2017 because the last year, phantom charges were being billed on my account. I would take and hold with customer service, and they would revert the charges. This would go on every 2 months. I didn't have the patience, and I asked around.

I believe at that time, I had Public Mobile, Wind, and Chattr. I elected to go with Public Mobile. I guess I did come full circle and went back to the Telus family. I am currently on a great plan of $40, which I normally pay $38 with Autopay. Of course, I don't include any other discounts because each 90-day period was different. But, I thought, in a couple of years, I could see some real savings. 

I am close to my 3 year anniversary with Public Mobile, and with being laid off the other day, I needed to change my plan. So, in a week's time, I will be changed to the $15 plan, with an add-on of 1 data at $15 plus the additional $5 of 500 minutes. With these changes, and if I help and post in the community, I could be saving about an average of $9 per month. 

At $6 a month? That's almost unheard of with the other players in the industry. Telus really did their homework and look at ways in offering a plan with us in mind. I am still surprised that there aren't more people with Public Mobile yet, but, I do hope they keep revising the reward plans to keep things interesting. 

In summary, I left for Public Mobile because I didn't have the patience to deal with Fido anymore. But, I didn't know at the time, how much money I would have saved until now. 

[sheytoon]

Was with Virgin Mobile previously and saw the Fall 2016 promo. It was a good deal with guaranteed lifetime pricing. Knowing the coverage and quality of the network, it was an easy choice.

[BenjaminQC]

@zblackma 

And let's not forget the loyalty rewards, which will bring your plan down to 8$/month in five years. Count in a few converted relatives along the way and you'll pay less than the 5$/month you left!

[jor123]

With my own device and relatively modest usage, I was looking for a way to lower my monthly bill

[Anonymous]

 @zblackma 

This cheap child can't bring themselves to move the mothers in their life to here because both barely use their phones if at all. They are with Telus and their pay as you go el cheapo plan that they got pushed over to. But the cost is less. Why pay more? Because the cheap kid wants a referral? WTH @gblackma ?! 🙂

[maximum_gato]

@Naepalm   The savings!!! I was sick of being scammed by fido. Even after buying out the phone for $250 ive saved over $567 and have a free phone bill with $69 credit from rewards. What other provider can compete with free?

@BenjaminQC  You can still watch cat videos....just download them on WiFi first.

[zblackma]

My cheap son signed me up so that he could get a referral reward😋. Was paying Virgin $5 per month plus 30 cents per minute/ text. $13 per month with autopay seemed to be the better option for me. 

[BenjaminQC]

The savings! Holy cow do we have a lot of them with Public Mobile! I was looking for ways to lower my phone bill (all my bills, really, but let's focus on the phone here, haha!) and I found Public Mobile on the web after some research. Obviously, prices seemed too good to be true (I took the 15$ plan), but I'm very glad there isn't any catch (at least that I'm aware of, it's been around 8 months now).

Now I'm working on getting my relatives to save money too by getting on the PM bandwagon! I have a couple of them so far and everyone is pleased. 

I'm very happy PM is here to offer an alternative to the crazy high prices of other brands!

I always tell my college students : you're 20 years old, if you switch and save 40$ per month on your phone bill and you invest it in the stock market (average of 6% yield), you'll have over 100,000$ (110,240$) by the time you're 65 years old!!! Way better than watching cat videos while waiting for the bus on 3G data, if you ask me...

[kelvarnsen]

I use my phone (or at least used to use it) a pretty limited amount. Heard about PM from friends and it was cheaper with data than my talk and text plan was with Rogers.

Then I convinced my wife to sign up. For her I love that it is impossible to go over your data since those charges were brutal.

[dude65]

Why did I come? The bottom line is that I got more value for my money with PM then I did with SO, with who I was previously. I was with SO for a few years and yes it did serve me ok for what i intended it to do. Needing more, my brother and I started looking at every company at what they offered. I had heard of PM but never checked them out before to see what they offered. After seeing their $15 package, I thought that is exactly what I need. The unlimited incoming calls sold it to me. My brother tryed it first, so if he liked it, i would try it. Well lets just say, I should of come to PM sooner then I did. PM may not be for everybody, but it sure is for me.

[popping]

I found out about PM during the 2018 summer PM --> Koodo migration offer.  I decided to get a PM/Koodo migrate lottery ticket.  As people are saying "You cannot win if you don't have a ticket."  

After activated a PM $40/4.5GB plan, I checked my PM number on Koodo site.  I was qualified to move to Koodo.  With the full PM payment for the first month few hours ago + rewards + promo bill credit, I decided to wait as I will be kissing $100 good bye + spending another $50 - $60 for a new Koodo plan. 

One week later, my number was not qualified for the lottery as PM changed the target to move the subscribers with the $120/12GB 90 days plan + the old $40 plan.  Although I have a $40 plan, it was not the correct $40 plan being targeted.

I am happy with my decision to wait.  Lot of PM/Koodo migrants are back to PM now..

[Yukon1]

Thanks. I may very do that. At the moment, I'm testing out the higher plan for piece of mind. I just returned to Canada and want to see how much data I actually use before committing to lower it. The 5GB seems like a nice buffer for just the moment until I can get a handle on Canadian cell use again. I imagine the unlimited minutes will come in useful for the working from home for the next few months too!

[hairbag1]

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@Yukon1 wrote:

I have wifi at home and at work, I use my phone for texting mostly and make maybe 3 or 4 calls per week. Bell kept increasing my loyalty plan and I was paying $68 for mostly unused service. My plan with PM is now $38 per month and offers way more than I need. I may even lower it to the next tier down. Our mobile prices in Canada are way too high. 

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@Yukon1...have a peek at the $15 plan...looks like just the plan designed for you. If you use a valid credit card and autopay...that's down to $13 / 30 days.

You might also get the $5 / 500 minutes of Canada wide calling add-on to augment the $15 plan. Any unused add-on minutes just roll over until used...even if it takes several months or longer.

[Yukon1]

I have wifi at home and at work, I use my phone for texting mostly and make maybe 3 or 4 calls per week. Bell kept increasing my loyalty plan and I was paying $68 for mostly unused service. My plan with PM is now $38 per month and offers way more than I need. I may even lower it to the next tier down. Our mobile prices in Canada are way too high. 

[fdrcamb519]

Well, done i just joined a week ago myself,  and i feel the the same, welcome to public mobile, nice story.

[Naepalm]

So great to hear others journeys! Thanks for sharing!

[iliketotalk]

@Naepalm Hi just like you I found out about it at a real house party last year ahh those were the days LOL

[ShawnC13 · Accepted solution]

@Naepalm , for me I found out about PM from a "tech" friend during the fall promo.  Like what I saw on the page and in the community so I bought the sim and switched my wife and me over from Rogers and got way more data each than we were sharing and it was way cheaper!!.  Switched over a stepdaughter as well but she and my wife got on one of the sweet Koodo migration offers and wanted a new phone so they took the offer.  I stayed as my rewards and referrals keep my bill minimum and no cell company can touch the savings I get here.  I have since got an account for my son (13) and worked on getting referrals for him and have his bill paid for at least the next year from the $25 referral credits that were offered and will be looking to add my daughter this summer.

[gblackma]

Well unless you do it a lot and they zone you out 😉 @Naepalm . Thanks for the feel good story. 👍Welcome to PM. Stay safe. And no more house parties. 😁