[Merged] Petro-Canada Mobility Changes

[Barayolayosa]

I just noticed that Petro-Canada Mobility users can now buy airtime minutes online!

https://www.pcmobilitysite.com/

Very useful for me, since I can never seem to remember to purchase minutes when I'm at the gas station!!

Looks like they now offer online activation and account management as well!

[Barayolayosa]

Ok, upon further inspection of the new site, I see their rate structure has now changed as well

Local Calling Rates
Denomination
Local Calling Minutes
Days of Service

$15 60 Up to 30 days
$25
100
Up to 120 days

$50
200
Up to 180 days

$100
440
Up to 365 days

An additional monthly fee of $0.99 for 911 services.
Minutes based on local calling rates of 25¢ per minute.
Days of service expire when airtime value is depleted.

It used to be $0.20 per minute, and all denominations wouldn't expire for 180 days!!!

Also long distance rates have been doubled, to an extra $0.20!!!

[Dave98]

That's great news. Makes me regret getting SpeakOut a little since 7-11 stores are a little hard to find.

Now only if they offer some deals on their phones or a cheap way to get just a SIM card. BST doesn't have these very often.



/edit

Just saw new rate structure. Does it say whether the $100 denomination is affected by the 0.25 cent rate as well? It looks like they're changing it to reflect SpeakOut's rates as well I believe

[Barayolayosa]

That's great news. Makes me regret getting SpeakOut a little since 7-11 stores are a little hard to find.

Now only if they offer some deals on their phones or a cheap way to get just a SIM card. BST doesn't have these very often.



/edit

Just saw new rate structure. Does it say whether the $100 denomination is affected by the 0.25 cent rate as well? It looks like they're changing it to reflect SpeakOut's rates as well I believe

$100 gets you 440 minutes, which is $0.227 per minute.

Yeah, looks like they are changing in reaction to SpeakOut.

[Fire]

Got a message from 44724803777 on my cell and they said the plan was changed Effective March 3rd.

Not sure if 7-11 will do the same thing or not...


Local Calling Rates
Denomination Local Calling Minutes Days of Service
$15 60 Up to 30 days

$25 100 Up to 120 days

$50 200 Up to 180 days

$100 440 Up to 365 days

An additional monthly fee of $0.99 for 911 services.
Minutes based on local calling rates of 25¢ per minute.
Days of service expire when airtime value is depleted.


The rates even go up to 25c/m... instead of 20c/m

[NG]

So these rates are pretty much the same as Virgin without Virgin's excellent customer service, no internet access, fewer phones to choose from and more basic phones at that?

I'm not a phone-phile but however I'm not sure just being able to use GSM is worth it unless you want to use your own handset and refuse to go on Rogers PAYG.

[CStone]

oh no. This really sucks.....

[CStone]

gee.... I use petro canada mobility because I am not a frequent user and I like some their phones (over 7-11). With the current rate increase, it is just not as good as it used to be. Maybe it's time to switch again?

[eastwood]

Just got this text too. A little more expensive and the cards don't last as long. The old $20 for 6 months was great. $25 for 4 months not so good, but not terrible.

But you can create an online account with them and top-up your phone and check your balance.

[user01]

Why don't you give it a switch to Rogers Evening and Weekend? They charge from 8PM to 8AM like 1 cent/min; the whole weekend is 1 cent/min; and as well, daytime is 39 cents/min. You can also attach a $100 prepaid card to the plan to extend it to 365 days...

[Fire]

Why don't you give it a switch to Rogers Evening and Weekend? They charge from 8PM to 8AM like 1 cent/min; the whole weekend is 1 cent/min; and as well, daytime is 39 cents/min. You can also attach a $100 prepaid card to the plan to extend it to 365 days...

Oh? Where did you find that and how to do the switch?

[Barayolayosa]

I created a thread about this yesterday, over in the cell phones forum: http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...d.php?t=708804

[lighto]

I like that you can top-up online now but I'm outraged at the price hikes! This is the second time that I've been price hiked bait-and-switch style by a prepaid cell phone company! First Virgin Mobile ($15 used to be good for 120 days, 25c/min then) and now with Petro-Canada Mobility. I paid $100 for a phone last summer, which came with $25 airtime due to a promotion and I recently topped up $20 for another 180 days. So that was good. But now that it's $25 minimum for 120 days, they are essentially making it $75 minimum for almost a year instead of $40! This sucks.

However, I'm not switching over to 7-11 because I don't feel like driving 10+ miles to the nearest 7-11 just to top up. Petro Canada stores are everywhere so I never had to worry about that with them. If 7-11 Speakout provides online top up/account management service in the near future, I will switch. But right now I think I might as well stay put unless there is another service (GSM) that can compete.

And I don't care for Rogers' Evenings & Weekends because I use my phone almost exclusively during the day. A lot of people love Rogers' Evenings and Weekends but to relegate your cell phone to a beeper from 8 AM - 8 PM, a time when you are commuting, in school or work, etc. just to save airtime is very inconvenient.

As for Virgin Mobile being better than Petro Canada, I disagree. Petro Canada is still better for the budget-conscious consumer and that's the demographic that Petro Canada targets. If you aren't budget-conscious, you wouldn't be buying a Petro mobility phone anyway. Virgin Mobile's $100 over 365 is more expensive than $25 over 120 days ($75 for 360 days) and the rate for Virgin Mobile is 30c/min as opposed to 25c/min. Virgin Mobile can allow you to surf the internet, IM, etc. but so can Rogers and Fido, and they are both $100 for 365 days too, and they have GSM, which allows you to switch services in the future if you want to keep your phone. There's no point to switch to Virgin Mobile. If internet, IM, etc. matters to you, the best bet is Rogers or Fido. Whichever suits you more.

[Fire]

I created a thread about this yesterday, over in the cell phones forum: http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...d.php?t=708804

sorry dude.

[Barayolayosa]

sorry dude.

No trouble - they've been merged now anyways. :-)