[Arne]

Not sure on which EhMac forum to post this. My apologies if this is the wrong one.

My 17-yr old nephew will be in Toronto from June 29-July 31 and my sister asked me to get him a local cell phone. He'll be working the 5 weeks Mon-Fri, 9-5, so a package with free evenings and weekends makes sense, plus some kind of LD deal.

I've had a cellphone for more than 10 years, but have no experience with prepaid.

Does anyone have firsthand experience with a one month prepaid package? Any particularly egregious terms or conditions to watch out for? What do we do with the phone at the end of July?

All suggestions, ideas, & recommendations are welcome and appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Gabbadude]

Virgin is a good place to start. You can get prepaid "plan" for a low amount per month.

You will have to buy the phone upfront. Expect between 50$ and 100$ and most of the time, you will get credit to put on your plan.

At the end of the month, you can cancel the account. If you no longer want the phone, you can use is as a paper weight

 

[Manatus]

Whichever provider you choose, you're going to have to take a loss on the phone. None of them will buy it back, so your only option really is to try to sell it person to person e.g. ebay/craigslist, for whatever you can get. As a result you will probably be looking to get the cheapest entry level phone that they will sell you.

Do you know how much the phone will be used? Buying an evenings/weekends/unlimited type plan is expensive on prepaid (especially long distance), so if it will only be used for a few minutes a day or only in emergencies, it may be worth it just to go straight prepaid. I personally use Petro Canada Mobility (if you collect Petro Points then this is an even better deal), because I don't use my cellphone a lot. The downside is that they are basically "phone only" with no data plans or fancy features.

 

[Trevor...]

Virgin has a $50 starter credit promotion at the moment and the Samsung m300 is $40 to start with. Think of it as getting paid $10 to take such a crappy phone.

 

[HowEver]

You don't _need_ to buy a new phone. Rogers/fido use locked (to their own service) GSM cell phones, get a basic locked phone, or an unlocked phone for any GSM service, and if you get a good deal you'll get as much or nearly as much for the phone when you sell it after--or keep it as a backup.

So buy a used phone, and a new SIM card--not from Rogers or fido ($40), but from a buy/sell/trade forum for $10 or $15--post an ad on ehMac or see what's for sale at ehMac-sponsor redflagdeals.com.

If you want something you'll keep on hand for a year, you could buy a new pay as you go cell phone from Rogers/fido, and that will include a SIM card. Load some airtime (a $100 card is good for a year, less is good for a month at a time and rolls over if you add $10-$20 each month).

 

[Arne]

Thank you Gabbadude, Manatus, Trevor, & However for the info and tips.

Forgot to mention:

No data or email/internet access is required.

Most calls will be long distance (to Woodstock, NY) during evenings and weekends.

Thank you.

 

[9780]

If hte long-distance calls will be to the same few people always, then something like the My5 Plan from Rogers (which they recently added on the Pay and go options) might be useful, otherwise you will get charged waaay too much wiht long-distance.

The Rogers My5 plan is 29$/month, and includes unlimited calls/txts to 5 numbers, not sure what more they offer as the plan didn't interest me, but it'S something to look into.

 

[dona83]

Rogers Pay As You Go has a 39 cent a minute plan with 1 cent evenings and weekends from 8pm to 8am. Fido has 20 cent a minute with 5 cent evening and weekends and also 30 cent a minute with $1 unlimited evening weekend 7pm to 7am. Long Distance is never cheap on cell phones -- get a calling card.

 

[greydoggie]

Every time we change phones we look around and keep going back to bell mobility. Just check the websites of the different cellphone companies around Toronto and get whatever one has the best price for what you want.

 

[Mac4me]

I think a Petro-Canada pre-paid phone would be perfect for your nephew.

Prepaid Phones - Nokia Prepaid Phone Models Nokia 3555, 2760, 2630, 2610, 1208 - Petro-Canada