Phones: Cheap Pre-Paid Comparison

I've been looking for the cheapest cellphone deal possible lately. My criteria is that I would be able to get a half-decent phone that wasn't out of the 90s (so monochrome screens are a no-no) for not that much money. I didn't want to spend $30 or more plus the SAF. My upper limit was $25 including everything and even then it was stretching my stingy budget.

So I polled all the wireless operators and summarized everything in a hopefully easily understandable layout.



The cheapest plans for the number of minutes used are the ones highlighted in yellow.

For very low usage, the $0.20 per minute with PC Telecom (http://www.presidentschoice.ca/PCTelecom/Default.aspx) and Petro Mobility (http://retail.petro-canada.ca/en/mobility/2303.aspx) are the best choices. Up until 100+ minutes they seem to be the cheapest way to go.

PC Telecom is stingy though since their top-up cards are max $25 and last for 60 days. They do offer phones that aren't the old monochromatic Nokias though, so that's a plus.

Petro Mobility has the same rates with a slightly more expensive phone. The phones aren't as good as the PC Telecom ones, imho. Their top-up cards last for a full year for the $100 ones, 180 days for all else.

7-11 Speakout is another great option, but they offer the same phones as Petro Mobility; i.e., not that great. They will be having their free phone with $100 top-up, so that is a very good option. The $1 difference due to the SAF / 9-11 fee is negligible when considering this over several months. Plus, with a free phone you're subsidizing your plan by that much.

Bear in mind that both Petro and 7-11 are GSM (swappable SIM cards) whereas PC and Virgin are CDMA.

For larger plans of 100+ minutes, your best bet is to go with the Virgin $20. For $20 you get 200 anytime minutes with all the bells and whistles. You'll have to buy a phone though. I was looking at the Nokia 6275i since there's a $50 credit promo on right now. I've e-mailed Virgin to find out what the costs are to switch plans, because it makes sense to use a pay-as-you-go while you have the $50 credit, and then switch to the $20 plan when that runs out.

Another option is the Bell Talk-$25. It's $25 for 200 minutes with all the bells and whistles, no SAF / 9-11 fee, and free evenings and weekends from 8pm onwards, if I remember correctly. The best part is they subsidize your phone at $50 for a 2-year contract with a $50 instant rebate, making the phone free. The extra $5 compared to Virgin will give you 36 months of service.

So Virgin $20 + 6275i = Bell $25 + free phone, over 3 years.

I called into Bell yesterday to ask for corporate plans, so they offered me that instead. You might not be able to find that in-store.

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Any other options for the stingy cellphone user? I looked into Solo Mobile, but they're too expensive to even consider.

For myself, another stingy cell phone user lol, the best that worked out for me was Rogers Pay Go.

The cost, is $100 per year to keep. Add on a nice $10 credit upon activation, plus double your first top up card promotion. If it works out the way I've been told, maximizing this deal, I'll have $190 in credit, and only paid for $140.

Anyways, I needed US Roaming for the odd time that we're in the States. This was the best hassle free carrier that I could find. All others either didn't include the US roaming with pre-paid, or you had to take extra steps in order for it to be added on, or buy a package on top. With Rogers, I don't need to do anything on my part, the US roaming is automatically enabled, although the price for a call within the US is a freakin' expensive $2.99 per minute with Pay Go, well, for the amount of money that I'll have sitting in credit, that will be no big deal. I could use a calling card instead, would be a hell of a lot cheaper, but I'll have all this credit available to me, that making a quick 5 minute call will be no big deal.

Sorry that I've rambled, I too did a bunch of searching, but for myself, the cheapest Pay Go with no hassle US coverage was with Rogers.

If you don't need US roaming, Virgin Mobile was good for me (I had recently switched over from Virgin Mobile over to Rogers because of the US coverage, Virgin has said for the longest time that they're trying to get US coverage, but that was told to me over a year ago. Well, now we're travelling a little more, so thought that I'd go with Rogers for the US coverage. I needed to buy a new phone anyways because the Virgin one crapped out on me.)

I've also heard PC, 7-11 and Petro Canada. Unfortunatly, I didn't explore 7-11 or Petro Canada because those they were not available in my area, or would be out of the way at the time of purchase.

Sorry for the babbling, lol. Thought it may help a bit.

Thats an awesome chart, nice post OP!

Originally Posted by Junk Food Junkie

Anyways, I needed US Roaming for the odd time that we're in the States. This was the best hassle free carrier that I could find. All others either didn't include the US roaming with pre-paid, or you had to take extra steps in order for it to be added on, or buy a package on top. With Rogers, I don't need to do anything on my part, the US roaming is automatically enabled, although the price for a call within the US is a freakin' expensive $2.99 per minute with Pay Go, well, for the amount of money that I'll have sitting in credit, that will be no big deal. I could use a calling card instead, would be a hell of a lot cheaper, but I'll have all this credit available to me, that making a quick 5 minute call will be no big deal.

Sorry that I've rambled, I too did a bunch of searching, but for myself, the cheapest Pay Go with no hassle US coverage was with Rogers.

You could also order a US T-Mobile SIM off of ebay for use in the States on any of the Pay Go phones. I looked them up the other day and they are really a good deal. Approx. $20 US shipped will get you 300 minutes.

Originally Posted by Vacillator

You could also order a US T-Mobile SIM off of ebay for use in the States on any of the Pay Go phones. I looked them up the other day and they are really a good deal. Approx. $20 US shipped will get you 300 minutes.

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately, I don't really understand about this SIM stuff and cards and such. I'm a pretty basic cell phone user, I know how to text, that's about it, lol.

Originally Posted by simondaman

Thats an awesome chart, nice post OP!

I wonder if it could be made a sticky and updated as information changes?
I can't imagine how much time OP put into that chart, that's very impressive and gonna be incredibly helpful to someone.

today I bought a plan called Solo Student text and talk 35 that is $35 per month. I bought a nokia 6275i phone for $50. Pay one time activation fee of $35, I think. No contract. Päy by the month. can cancel anytime.
Local time minutes --150
evening and weekend local minutes unlimited--5pm--8am
unlimited incoming calls
150 canadian long distance minutes ( i believe)
call display
text messaging
camera and video.

I think this is a good deal, although i tell you, you almost have to make looking into cell phone plans a full time job.

the only thing i didnt like about this is that i would have like to get a family plan to get a phone for my wife. My employer pays for this phone and i could have paid the difference. But, I could buy two of these phones and plans for what Bell wants to charge for the family plan, I believe. it would be even less
Bobcajun

Originally Posted by bobcajun

today I bought a plan called Solo Student text and talk 35 that is $35 per month. I bought a nokia 6275i phone for $50. Pay one time activation fee of $35, I think. No contract. Päy by the month. can cancel anytime.
Local time minutes --150
evening and weekend local minutes unlimited--5pm--8am
unlimited incoming calls
150 canadian long distance minutes ( i believe)
call display
text messaging
camera and video.

I think this is a good deal, although i tell you, you almost have to make looking into cell phone plans a full time job.

the only thing i didnt like about this is that i would have like to get a family plan to get a phone for my wife. My employer pays for this phone and i could have paid the difference. But, I could buy two of these phones and plans for what Bell wants to charge for the family plan, I believe. it would be even less
Bobcajun

That's a pretty nice deal, though the plan I was quoted from Bell on the phone was, IIRC, 200 anytime, evenings / weekends from 8pm, call display, voicemail, and it was $25 including everything (they waived the activation). There was a contract, but if you sign on for a year or two, you're still savings at least $120 a year...

I'm thinking of going with that one since if I sign on for 2 or 3 years it'll be more beneficial than signing on with Virgin without a contract. Problem is, Bell charges like $25 a time to change numbers, which I will have to do a lot because I'm a student moving all the time.

I can't imagine how much time OP put into that chart, that's very impressive and gonna be incredibly helpful to someone.

It didn't take all that long... just a lot of web browsing. I really dislike cellphones in that I think they're a huge money sink. Most people are paying $35+ on their bills monthly and that racks up to almost $400 a year. For someone that really doesn't call people all that much, that's a ridiculous amount to stay in touch, in my opinion. Then there's the phone costs... Personally I'd rather spend that on a nice graphics card or lens for my camera. </geek>

Originally Posted by tridium

The cheapest plans for the number of minutes used are the ones highlighted in yellow.

I think a very important factor to include in comparing monthly cost is the validity period of the vouchers. If you're using 10 minutes/month, why would you choose PC and add $25 every 60 days? You'd end up with a balance of $125 at the end of the year, which you're not going to use anyway.

Originally Posted by Rehan

I think a very important factor to include in comparing monthly cost is the validity period of the vouchers. If you're using 10 minutes/month, why would you choose PC and add $25 every 60 days? You'd end up with a balance of $125 at the end of the year, which you're not going to use anyway.

Exactly. When it comes to minimal/emergency usage, nothing is cheaper than 7/11 once you take everything into account, since all their cards (down to $25) last for a full year.

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1125837

Look at the 2nd table.

Adrian

Originally Posted by asmielia

Exactly. When it comes to minimal/emergency usage, nothing is cheaper than 7/11 once you take everything into account, since all their cards (down to $25) last for a full year.

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1125837

Look at the 2nd table.

Adrian

Thanks for that, Adrian. With that I think I'm going to go for the 7-11 Speakout with the free phone for $100. I figure it's a nice option and it's not a hefty investment at $100 for a year.

Does anyone know how you change numbers with 7-11 and if it costs anything? I've called PC Mobile and Virgin and they both do it free of cost.

Originally Posted by asmielia

Exactly. When it comes to minimal/emergency usage, nothing is cheaper than 7/11 once you take everything into account, since all their cards (down to $25) last for a full year.
Adrian

Plus, you can buy your $100 in 4 x $25 cards, and sell off the amount you won't use.

I just noticed your chart, tridium. Good job, but there are at least a couple of small errors or omissions.

If I'm reading it correctly, you're presuming that Petro-Can Mobility doesn't have a 911 fee, but it's actually 99¢/month (same as 7-11).

7-11 charges 5¢ for incoming text messages, too--although due to gremlins or a planetary misalignment , a number of people on some occasions haven't been charged for incoming texts. I wouldn't presume that 7-11 officially has free incoming texts unless it's confirmed in 7-11's literature or by customer service (using the "best of 3" rule, i.e., having it confirmed at least twice by two different customer reps, since reps for any company sometimes don't know what they're talking about ).

You also didn't take into account Rogers Pay As You Go's $100/365 day voucher. You can choose any plan while on the 365-day voucher, such as the All Day Plan (25¢/min. for the first 5 minutes in a day, 15¢/min. after that) or the E&W Plan (1¢/min. during nights and weekends, 39¢/min. during daytime weekdays). Each plan's minimum topup per month doesn't apply while you're on the 365-day voucher. Rogers PAYG has a 50¢/month 911 fee (residents of SK, NS, NB & PEI also pay an additional provincial fee).

Anyway, I don't fault you for not taking into account every little detail from every provider. If things were that easy to figure out, we would never have these fun discussions over who is the "best" provider.

I am with Bell Prepaid personally. I went there originally because I had a phone that was locked into Bell so I figured why not. Though almost everyone thinks their plan is more expensive, I don't mind it at all myself.

I typically have to buy a new $25 card every 1.5-2 months (much better than any monthly plan I could find). I don't make a lot of phone calls, but when I do make a call, its usually a 15-20 minute call. I very rarely make short calls unless its to check my messages (which btw, Bell includes for free in your plan). So, my 20 minute call costs only $2 with Bell because of their tiered pricing system, whereas it would cost $6 with a $0.30 a minute plan.

So if you make infrequent but long phone calls, I would recommend Bell.

Been looking for a prepaid package for my Mom - she would qualify as ultra-low-usage - and the chart helped alot: I've decided to go with Petro-Canada for the long period between refills.

Thank you very much for providing the info, OP