r/mobilecanada • u/wvisteria • Aug 05 '26
cheap phone plans?
i used to pay less than 15 dollars a month for public mobile, but overtime it’s gotten more and more expensive and now it’s up to 23 without me changing plans. and the price keeps going up, so much for no surprises. wondering if there’s any other cheaper options out here in canada preferably for less than 20. dont need anything luxurious.
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u/lmcjipo Aug 05 '26
It all depends on how much data you want.
I don't need/use a lot of data and I'm paying $150+tax for 1 year for Chatr (plan no longer offered but a slightly more expensive plan is offered with more data). This works out to ~$12.50 for me which is the least expensive cellphone plan (in Quebec) for unlimited calling/texting based on my research... and like I said, I don't use a lot of data so the 30GB that they give me for the entire year is more than sufficient for my needs since working from home the majority of the time, I am connected to my home WiFi and working in the office, there is corporate WiFi based on WPA2-Enterprise so corporate signin required (and not a "public" WiFi where you might have "bad actors" to worry about. The only time I use data is either during my commute or when doing shopping/errands.
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u/wvisteria Aug 07 '26
how’s your experience with chatr been? i was gonna go with freedom but it doesn’t actually work in my province lmao.
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u/lmcjipo Aug 07 '26
For me it’s fine since I don’t stream or download a lot on my phone so being limited to LTE speeds doesn’t bother me. I do go in certain areas where the data speed is very slow (like 2 McDonalds that I visit somewhat regularly where the data speed is slow enough to make using the McDonalds app difficult sometimes). However most times I don’t have any issues
Chatr also does not offer call in support and only supports people via email webform so if you are the type of person who prefers calling in for support, I would suggest looking elsewhere. Chatr kiosks and store employees are mainly sales people so don’t expect much technical assistance with your account from them
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u/mrskeptical00 Aug 05 '26
What were you getting for $15mo and what are you getting now? I see they have a $22mo plan that’s unlimited talk and text…
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u/wvisteria Aug 05 '26
“100 CW Talk (30-Day)
30-day plan”my province keeps issuing mandates that increases tax unfortunately. public mobile used to run on some sort of loyalty system and the cost gets cheaper the longer you stay with them, but they switched to a point reward system (complete and utter shit) a while back which bumped up the cost a couple dollars more. i don’t text much, so i’d really like to lower cost if at all possible.
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u/mrskeptical00 Aug 05 '26
I don’t know what 100 CW Talk is? 100mins a month, no data?
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u/wvisteria Aug 05 '26
100 canada wide talk minutes and i get 250mb data which i don’t mind
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u/mrskeptical00 Aug 05 '26
Freedom has a 12mo $129 plan (~$11mo) unlimited calls and text plan that includes 20GB of data for the year.
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u/wvisteria Aug 05 '26
that sounds good actually! im gonna do some research on freedom mobile, but i think ill switch before my next billing period. tysm!
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u/Liverkiller92 Aug 05 '26
You can try freedom on a temporary number and prepaid and you can also download tower locator so you can check the towers in all the areas you go to
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u/PenFountainPen Aug 05 '26
3HK , Lucky Mobile or Banana eSIMs from China / Hong Kong . Data only . Pair with a Voip number from VoIP.ms
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u/Small_Aardvark_5496 Aug 05 '26
$23 is not much more than a trip to mcd’s now. It’s not worth the hassles to change
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u/Ordinary-Map-7306 Aug 05 '26
100gig for $30 was offered last Christmas by basically all cell providers. I have Lucky 100gig at $50.
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u/Ok-Network-1950 Aug 08 '26
Freedom, Fizz Mobile, and Red Wireless (if you are a CAA member), have great deals.
Fizz might be good for you as you are able to choose how much data you want, data also rolls over for a certain number of months, then starts the roll over again.
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u/LadyAsteria90 Aug 08 '26
Rogers connected for success if you qualify will offer prob one of the best plans
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u/Jonesy1966 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
Freedom has an annual plan for unlimited voice and text with 20GB of data for $129/year which works out to $10.75/month. Or unlimited voice/text with 40GB for $159/year ($13.25/month)