Cell Phones

Best Cell Phone Plan Possible?

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  • Dec 2nd, 2007 10:35 pm
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Sr. Member
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Aug 30, 2006
729 posts
6 upvotes
Toronto

Best Cell Phone Plan Possible?

Imma a strugglin student looking for a real good and cheap cell phone plan. There are a few things that I am looking for in the cell phone plan.

1. Atleast 100 minutes talk time a month
2. Atleast 1000 minutes on evenings and weekends
3. Call Display
4. 100 Free Outgoing Texts a month or really cheap rates
5. Free incoming texts
6. Has a good selection of phones to choose from.

I really need your guys help right now. Thanks alot.
16 replies
Deal Addict
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Aug 15, 2006
4042 posts
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Kingston
How much are you willing to spend? We need to know this in order to help you in any way possible. Listing the features that you want/need is great but need a price range.

If you are wanting all of those features, you are probably looking at any where from $30 to $40 a month. What you can do is pay that amount for about 3 to 6 months and then call the retentions department and threaten to cancel and see if they will give you any credits (free stuff).

That is pretty much your only option that I see.
Deal Fanatic
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Aug 16, 2007
6814 posts
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fido student plan + 18 dollar bundle. has all you said there plus more.
25+18+system access fees
Deal Guru
Oct 3, 2006
10493 posts
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Toronto
matdwyer wrote: fido student plan + 18 dollar bundle. has all you said there plus more.
25+18+system access fees
That's not really cheap, $43 + SAF + taxes?
Deal Expert
Mar 25, 2005
22706 posts
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Aznsilvrboy wrote: That's not really cheap, $43 + SAF + taxes?
Welcome to Canada. OPs looking at $35 to $40 base.
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Mar 31, 2005
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Call fido retentions directly and tell them you want to join fido but heard about the Solo Talk and Text 35 plan, see if they will match it for you.

Might need to call in a few times, or maybe just get a regular plan with them for a while (few months, no contract) and then call in a see what they can do.
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Nov 29, 2005
4853 posts
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Toronto
I wasnt sure if ithe op was asking for our opinions on what was the best plan ever in existance or current. But I'd have to say Country Fido aka Canada Unlimited.
Deal Addict
Apr 2, 2007
1423 posts
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Toronto
Calling Fido, Rogers, Bell & Telus retention will only work if you have been with that company for a long time. Being with them for 1-2 years won't help you much.

It would help if OP would list his/her budget on a cell phone plan.
You can get a plan that starts off in the $20 range with about 150-200 daytime mins, but once you start adding on some of the frills that you listed it costs $.

100 text messages (outgoing) is $6/month
Call Display = $5
SAF + 911 = $7.45

So you are looking at $35-40 plan plus taxes.

I pay $32/month taxes in for:
300 daytime minutes + 50 loyalty minutes. (350 mins total)
unlimited evenings/weekends from 6pm-8am
CallerID, Voice mail, Call waiting, 3-way conferencing, detailed billing.
Free 2500 out text for a year.
2500 incoming text
pay for SAF & 911


OP your best bet is Fido's $25/month student plan. (you must show vaild student card)
Deal Addict
Jan 20, 2005
3867 posts
437 upvotes
Thornhill
Kasakato wrote: Welcome to Canada. OPs looking at $35 to $40 base.
well obviously you don't know how to look for deals ;) (irony is this is RFD :P)

I've got

200 Daytime
unlimited evenings after 6 and weekends
caller id, voice mail
free incoming text
unlimited browser/internet
100 long distance minutes within canada
detailed billing.

This is a 2 year old plan too, I am currently finished with my contract and will go into negotiation mode ;) hope to get more.

Plan above is $30 plus tax only (SAF and 911 is included already)

OP, look into Solo mobile if you are a student, apparently their plans are very good. Cell selection is mediocre but with bell you get functional phones, not phones that look good and say they do this and that but don't actually function as a phone!
Deal Addict
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Aug 20, 2004
1711 posts
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Ask carriers for EPP plans. Depending on how you negotiate it, you can get many things thrown in for free. :)

For example, after much much much negotiations I have this:

$25/month + 6.95 SAC + 0.75 911
250 daytime minutes
Evenings and Weekends free starting from 6:00pm
Free Telus to Telus calling
Caller ID
Conference Call
Call waiting
Call forwarding
Voicemail 3
Unlimited text messaging
Unlimited picture messaging

As far as phone selection goes ... Telus isn't great great, but it's getting better :) If you travel to other countries a lot, you may want to go the way of Rogers or Fido as they are the only carriers that use GSM SIM cards.

I believe all carriers offer the free incoming texts, if you don't have a text plan, I think each message is 0.25
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Mar 25, 2005
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qster wrote: Calling Fido, Rogers, Bell & Telus retention will only work if you have been with that company for a long time. Being with them for 1-2 years won't help you much.
Fido is 3 month, Rogers is 6 months. Years dont help much.
mau108 wrote: well obviously you don't know how to look for deals ;) (irony is this is RFD :P)

I've got

200 Daytime
unlimited evenings after 6 and weekends
caller id, voice mail
free incoming text
unlimited browser/internet
100 long distance minutes within canada
detailed billing.

This is a 2 year old plan
too, I am currently finished with my contract and will go into negotiation mode ;) hope to get more.

Plan above is $30 plus tax only (SAF and 911 is included already)

OP, look into Solo mobile if you are a student, apparently their plans are very good. Cell selection is mediocre but with bell you get functional phones, not phones that look good and say they do this and that but don't actually function as a phone!
Well, theres your problem. NO CARRIER offers unlimited data any more for less than $65 (only 1GB), with the exception of the $7 Bell HTC Touch. Your comparing apples and oranges.
Newbie
Nov 10, 2007
55 posts
6 upvotes
Mac10 wrote: Imma a strugglin student looking for a real good and cheap cell phone plan. There are a few things that I am looking for in the cell phone plan.

1. Atleast 100 minutes talk time a month
2. Atleast 1000 minutes on evenings and weekends
3. Call Display
4. 100 Free Outgoing Texts a month or really cheap rates
5. Free incoming texts
6. Has a good selection of phones to choose from.

I really need your guys help right now. Thanks alot.
If you want to sign a new contract, try the telus epp 17.30 plan. I just got this myself. You have to be a member of a long list of organizations, I just signed up for a free areoplan account online so I qualified. You call telus and say you want the EPP 17.30.

$17.30 + $6.95 SAF

200 minutes
free eve/wk at 6PM
VM, Call Forwarding

Minimum 2 year contract, but when I called I was able to get them to throw in SPARK 10 as well if I signed to a 3 year contract, which gives you 100 texts, Caller Id, and a bunch of web surfing crap.
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Apr 16, 2006
6241 posts
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I agree with checking to see what EPP plans you may be eligible for. I used to work at Best Buy and I signed up for the corporate cell phone plan with Bell before I left. They shortly discontinued it and have introduced a "new" plan which is way more costly and has less features. Luckily I'm grandfathered in ;)

This is what I've got:

350 Daytime Minutes
Unlimited Evenings and Weekends
"Touch Base" - 20 Calls a month @ unlimited minutes to any 1 local number
Unlimited Text
Unlimited Mobile Web
Caller ID
Voicemail
3 Way Calling/Call Waiting/Call Forwarding
SAF + 911 Fees Waived

For $45.00/month all in after tax.

I tried to get onto Rogers as I really dislike Bell's service, but even after negotiating with retention reps they were still unable to give me anything even remotely close to this plan for what I'm paying for. Basically until Bell finds out I'm no longer an employee of Best Buy, or until Rogers smartens up and can match at least most of what I have of the above, then I'll reluctantly stick with Bell.

Bell's got the largest number of corporate/EPP plans in my opinion. There's one for costco members, one for government of Canada workers, one for Canadian Tire employees I think, etc.
Deal Fanatic
May 31, 2006
6365 posts
776 upvotes
Toronto
mau108 wrote: well obviously you don't know how to look for deals ;) (irony is this is RFD :P)

I've got

200 Daytime
unlimited evenings after 6 and weekends
caller id, voice mail
free incoming text
unlimited browser/internet
100 long distance minutes within canada
detailed billing.

This is a 2 year old plan too, I am currently finished with my contract and will go into negotiation mode ;) hope to get more.

Plan above is $30 plus tax only (SAF and 911 is included already)

OP, look into Solo mobile if you are a student, apparently their plans are very good. Cell selection is mediocre but with bell you get functional phones, not phones that look good and say they do this and that but don't actually function as a phone!
unltd. data? it's so demo line-ish. How did u manage to get that?
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Apr 16, 2006
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Havo wrote: unltd. data? it's so demo line-ish. How did u manage to get that?
He said unlimited mobile internet, not mobile data. There's a HUGE difference.

If you want to browse the internet ON your phone, then it's unlimited. I think it costs something like $7.00/month.

If you wanted to browse the internet WITH your phone (as in, hook your phone up to your computer via USB and use it as a high speed modem) then it is a cost that is incurred outside of that $7.00/month as it would be considered "data".

I made the mistake of doing that once. Hooked up my phone to my computer and checked up 4 or 5 webpages. After realizing unlimited mobile internet may not include this, I stopped and waited for my statement. Sure enough, I got charged $30.00 for "packet data use".

I called Bell and complained. The guy cut the use in 1/2 and I only owed 15. Live and learn.
Deal Expert
Mar 25, 2005
22706 posts
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Octavius wrote: He said unlimited mobile internet, not mobile data. There's a HUGE difference.

If you want to browse the internet ON your phone, then it's unlimited. I think it costs something like $7.00/month.

If you wanted to browse the internet WITH your phone (as in, hook your phone up to your computer via USB and use it as a high speed modem) then it is a cost that is incurred outside of that $7.00/month as it would be considered "data".

I made the mistake of doing that once. Hooked up my phone to my computer and checked up 4 or 5 webpages. After realizing unlimited mobile internet may not include this, I stopped and waited for my statement. Sure enough, I got charged $30.00 for "packet data use".

I called Bell and complained. The guy cut the use in 1/2 and I only owed 15. Live and learn.
Either way, its does not change the fact that he has util mobile browsing for $45. Its impossible to get that kind of deal, other than the HTC touch.
Sr. Member
Nov 23, 2004
719 posts
21 upvotes
Quarry Bay
Here's mine. I'm satisfied :)

EPP 17.30 + 200 minutes canadian LD + Smart Bundle (Caller ID, VM, 100 text) + 100 text bonus + $15 unlimited browsing/IM/email on my P4000 (HTC 6800)

$17.30 + $15 + SAF + 911 + taxes

[IMG]http://jason.yeung.ws/misc/mytelusmobility.jpg[/IMG]

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