I think everyone should make this suggestion to PM

[JimRockford_PI]

Bonuses and deals. This is why I keep coming back to Public Mobile. There is no better system out there. I only wish they would make the validity for an year, like Speakout, but then again, they would have to give us 1200 minutes and 3 GB! But, after all, whether monthly or yearly, they would have to hold up their end of the bargain. So, why not have an yearly plan for folks like me who like to make one yearly payment. The upside for them is that they would have a contract for 1 year and if the subscriber moves in the meantime, they would lose their money. I am okay with that because where am I gonna move to, because PM (and I ain't talking about the Prime Minister. LOL) is the best out there? 

Harry
http://harry.cckerala.com

[hTideGnow]

hi @JimRockford_PI 

interesting, someone talked about an annual plan earlier today.  I am not sure PM will do.  Annual plan only make sense if there is a discount.  Most annual plans still exist are around $120.   But I thnk not many offering that. Rogers PAYG used to have that, i don't think it is anymore for new activation. 

[wetcoaster]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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@wetcoaster wrote:

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SpeakOut does not have a 365 day plan. It's pay as you go charges that are taken off the top up funds. The funds are valid for 365 days. $1.25 "service charge" is taken off your top up amount every month. So really, over the year you only get 28 minutes on a $25 top-up, or 242 minutes on a $100 top-up. These minutes are total air time, incoming and outgoing. 

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The 365 day expiry is really to so that it can be advertised that customers don't lose the balance for a longer time if ther is no top up.  I also agree that Speakout's plans aren't good unless someone is a very seldom user of the phone service.  Comparing to how a 365 day expiry might help it so that customers can go longer than 90 days of susension to keep the Public Mobile account open, this would cause a decrease in revenue.  Telus wants to make money here, and shareholders wouldn't be happy about such an option be made available as I see it likely to decrease profitability.

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I think that 365 day expiry on all top-ops cost Telus prepaid (and their Rogers and Bell equivalent) a number of customers when SpeakOut first launched. Coming from the European market it was a no-brainer to me to switch way back when. The same way that it wasn't a hard decision to switch to Public Mobile when my usage pattern changed considerably (and I actually discovered that PM is available in my rural area).

[will13am]

@JimRockford_PI , the pricing must respect the fact that many of us loyal customers are sporting $7 (maybe more) of savings each renewal.  A $15 plan is merely $8 per cycle, unler $100 for a lunar years of the most basic service.  

[computergeek541]

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@wetcoaster wrote:

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SpeakOut does not have a 365 day plan. It's pay as you go charges that are taken off the top up funds. The funds are valid for 365 days. $1.25 "service charge" is taken off your top up amount every month. So really, over the year you only get 28 minutes on a $25 top-up, or 242 minutes on a $100 top-up. These minutes are total air time, incoming and outgoing. 

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The 365 day expiry is really to so that it can be advertised that customers don't lose the balance for a longer time if ther is no top up.  I also agree that Speakout's plans aren't good unless someone is a very seldom user of the phone service.  Comparing to how a 365 day expiry might help it so that customers can go longer than 90 days of susension to keep the Public Mobile account open, this would cause a decrease in revenue.  Telus wants to make money here, and shareholders wouldn't be happy about such an option be made available as I see it likely to decrease profitability.

[wetcoaster]

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@statusquo wrote:

Thank you for explaining in more detail about the speakout plans @wetcoaster .  In that case I'll stick with public until there is a better option from one of the other carriers.

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You could look at Freedom's yearly prepaid plans. However, while talk & text should work anywhere in Canada, the data is only available over Freedom's own network. so, YMMV.

Added @statusquo 

[computergeek541]

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@JimRockford_PI wrote:

Bonuses and deals. This is why I keep coming back to Public Mobile. There is no better system out there. I only wish they would make the validity for an year, like Speakout, but then again, they would have to give us 1200 minutes and 3 GB! But, after all, whether monthly or yearly, they would have to hold up their end of the bargain. So, why not have an yearly plan for folks like me who like to make one yearly payment. The upside for them is that they would have a contract for 1 year and if the subscriber moves in the meantime, they would lose their money. I am okay with that because where am I gonna move to, because PM (and I ain't talking about the Prime Minister. LOL) is the best out there? 

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I don't see this happening because there is already resistance to 90-day plans.  Having yearly plans would lead to even more complaints with customers demanding a refund for even a longer period of time if they choose to cancel the service.  I also feel that less options are often better, with too many options making things confusing for customers.

[statusquo]

Thank you for explaining in more detail about the speakout plans @wetcoaster .  In that case I'll stick with public until there is a better option from one of the other carriers.

[wetcoaster]

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@statusquo wrote:

I like the idea of having more discounted plan options for those who don't need bucket loads of data though I'm thinking not too many people want to lock themselves in for a full year but 3 or 4 month periods might be better if discounted for paying upfront.

I didn't know Speakout offered that kind of plan and I just might check them out though I will probably wait to see if Public will give us some roll over data again like they did last December though that wouldn't be much use to customers on the new unlimited plans and maybe there won't be anymore free gifts.

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I think the OP is comparing apples and oranges.

SpeakOut does not have a 365 day plan. It's pay as you go charges that are taken off the top up funds. The funds are valid for 365 days. $1.25 "service charge" is taken off your top up amount every month. So really, over the year you only get 28 minutes on a $25 top-up, or 242 minutes on a $100 top-up. These minutes are total air time, incoming and outgoing. 

SpeakOut does have 30 day plans that work similar to the ones here - IMO they are not as well priced, though. Big downside for me: If you want to send and receive MMS you need to subscribe to one of their data plans, starting at $25. Here MMS are included in all plans. also, their $15 doesn't include any data, and you can't buy it separately. Yes, it's just 250MB here, but it can come in handy.

I used to be a big SpeakOut proponent back in the day because it suited my needs perfectly then. Today I just have one account on the $25 top up for number parking, 2FA on physical SIM, and as a back-up in the very unlikely event that the Telus/Bell network is down but Rogers is up... For nearly 7 years now, Public Mobile has replaced SpeakOut for "my personal best fit for my needs".

Edited to finish inclomplete sentences....

[statusquo]

I like the idea of having more discounted plan options for those who don't need bucket loads of data though I'm thinking not too many people want to lock themselves in for a full year but 3 or 4 month periods might be better if discounted for paying upfront.

I didn't know Speakout offered that kind of plan and I just might check them out though I will probably wait to see if Public will give us some roll over data again like they did last December though that wouldn't be much use to customers on the new unlimited plans and maybe there won't be anymore free gifts.

[Handy1]

@JimRockford_PI  if in the $15 plan you could top up the account with $180 bucks and that will cover it for the year