How quickly can we get sorted with cellphones?
 

Hi there friendly reader!

This is my first post on the forum, but probably won't be the last! My girlfriend and I are moving to Vancouver:wub: on BUNAC non-student visas in a few weeks, and we're very excited, but also keen to get advice on a few issues to make our start in Canada as positive as possible....

We obviously want to get cellphones ASAP so we can contact / be contactable in our job and accommodation search. I'm assuming a PAYG phone would be best as I've heard Canadian phone contracts tend to be at least 2 years, and I'm sure we wouldn't be accepted for contracts as soon as we arrive anyway! But I'm afraid PAYG might be cripplingly expensive, especially considering you pay for calls received as well as calls made. (right?)

Does anyone out there have any advice on the best (or main) service providers, any cheap deals, or just experiences you've had in trying to get connected? Also has anyone been able to use a cellphone from the UK and just bought a sim for it? I appreciate any help you can offer! If we can get phones sorted, it'll make me less stressed about the whole no jobs yet, no place to stay yet, no friends yet thing!!!!

Thanks so much, :thumbsup:
Louise

PS If anyone would like to be our first friend in Vancouver, get in touch! x

Re: How quickly can we get sorted with cellphones?
 

I just arrived 10 days ago and seeing the mobile phone tariffs here was like a slap in the face!

Anyway, you can get 1 year contracts. I got the cheapest Rogers one I could, with a data package. It's costing me more than twice what it did in the UK, for a deal that is worse than the UK one.

The PAYG ones are even worse.

Mr S

Re: How quickly can we get sorted with cellphones?
 

Oh yeah, I brought my O2 unlocked iPhone over and stuck the local sim in it.

You may as well have a hunt around for tariff that suits you best. But they are fairly similar as far as the main networks go (Rogers, Telus, Bell).

There are some smaller ones: Wind offer tariffs with unlimited usage, but you have to buy their phones, and rumours are they work poorly outside cities, and even in cities there are many black spots. I was told recently they had an 80% return rate.

There's Virgin, and Fido too, but they are owned by the larger companies.

You're going to be screwed either way. :D

Re: How quickly can we get sorted with cellphones?
 

Take a look Kodoo from Telus. My daughter seems to think its the best deal around (she apprently does 4000+texts a month :eek:)

You also need to look at coverage if you are going out of Vancouver to remote areas, not all are as good as others. Roaming charges may apply, what is local one way may not be local the other, e.g. Chilliwack to Vancouver is local, Vancouver to Chilliwack is long distance. Personally I would not go near Bell (Virgin is now owned by Bell too) or Rogers.

Re: How quickly can we get sorted with cellphones?
 

We went and got a PAYG phone from a Rogers Wireless stand in a mall 2 days after we landed... (the only reason it took that long was we felt the kids deserved a treat and took them to the zoo the first day we were here!) getting an actual contract took longer, but you should be able to go and get a basic PAYG phone so you are contactable almost as soon as you are over here.


Then you can go and convert it to an actual contract later on when you a. have more time and b. have a credit rating they can search...

As others have said, be prepared to be shocked at the costs and to pay throughthe nose for every little thing.

ETA - should have added, because we were not planning on going back at all, we had cancelled our UK phone contracts so that they ended the day after the day we flew out... and we put the phones themselves (minus the sim cards) in one of those charity envelopes for old phones and gave them to the girl at the checkin desk at Manchester Airport and asked if she would do us a favour and mail them....

Mind you, we were the kind of people who kept our car right up to getting to the airport as well and sold it to the friend who drove us there for a tenner (which went in a charity box at the airport!) Beaten up old Toyota High-ace... not worth much, he was happy cos he got a cheap vehicle, we were happy cos we were rid of it...

Re: How quickly can we get sorted with cellphones?
 

Got Fido month-to-month deal this week for $35.00 p/month which is a pretty good/flexible package and has more than I need in terms of minutes/texts. They also do $15.00 and $25.00 p/month similar packages with less minutes/texts etc. Also, could put my wife's phone on my bill since she doesn't have a credit history here yet so that was pretty good. Drawback with Fido is that they don't work in rural areas very well (or at all!). Still, to get on the credit ladder and to get a phone it seems a pretty good place to start. You can cancel it with a month's notice at any time.

No, I don't work for Fido either :)

Re: How quickly can we get sorted with cellphones?
 

The Rogers store near where I work has an offer for new immigrants, where they dont check credit rating etc. When I got my Fido contract, they didnt check credit score either.

Re: How quickly can we get sorted with cellphones?
 

Virgin Prepaid

http://www.virginmobile.ca/vmc/en/plans/prepaid.html

OH uses the unlimited Texts. $20 mth :D