Canadians have the worst cell phone plans. Seriously – it’s terrible. When we lived in the US, I think we paid $50 each for unlimited EVERYTHING. Unlimited data, talk, text, and the best part is that we could use our phone while we were in Canada or Mexico just like we did at home with no extra charges. When we returned to Canada there was nothing even close to this good. We settled on plans with Fido. Our combined plans cost $112 CAD after tax. For that we get unlimited talk and text (within Canada) and H had 7GB available to him and I had 5GB. If we travel to the States we need to add a plan temporarily or pay $12 PER DAY to use our phones. That should seriously be illegal.

So a few weeks ago my Dad asked me to look into his plan for him. He’s with Telus and was going to be spending a couple of months in the States and obviously didn’t want to spend the absurd $12 per day that they also charge. He already had a phone plan that was costing him around $85 CAD. I don’t think he’s updated his phone plan for a few years so he had very few GB available – which is fine for him since he rarely uses data anyways. However when we logged in, we saw that there were some new offers. We were able to upgrade him to 100GB and an unlimited Canada-US plan (meaning he can use his phone in the States just as he does in Canada) for just $15 more per month.

So I thought I’d check in on my own plan… as soon as I logged in, I was prompted to upgrade H’s plan from 7GB at $50 to 20GB at $35… wtf. I obviously accepted the upgrade right away. Then I went to my line – we’re on the same account, just separate lines. I didn’t have any offers as good as this, so I contacted support and they said it’s not available to everyone – which again – should be illegal. How do you have different prices for different people. Instead they offered me 6GB for $45. So I got 1 extra GB for $5 less than what I was paying. I begrudgingly accepted and in the end we reduced our monthly phone bill from $112 to $86. A savings of $312 per year.

When I login today, just a few weeks later, I’m prompted to accept an offer of 30GB at $53/month. No thanks, I don’t need 30GB anyways and I don’t want to increase my bill.

Something to note – we buy our phones outright. We both have 4+ year old phones. Some friends I’ve spoken to finance their phones which is added to their bill – essentially locking themselves into contracts. I’m not sure if they’re able to change their phone plans when they do this. I would think legally you should be allowed but Canadian phone companies seem to have a lot of power. Personally I will always try to buy phones outright as it gives you more freedom with plans and carriers.