Hi guys, has anyone not cancelled their phone contact before they went, O2 have quoted me over £500 to pay it out.

Thanks

If you signed a contract with O2 (or whoever) and you have however long left on it then you'll probably have to pay out the balance. When did you sign your new contract? WHat contract did you sign? Did you have a phone with it? Need a bit more information from you!

If, as part of the contract, you were given/discounted a phone you probably haven't completed the purchase. If you're contemplating walking away from the contract you are, in essence being dishonest and have questionable integrity.

Plus if you want to come back at any point your credit rating will be horrible.

This.

Sadly we had to pay our way our three contracts. It was painful expensive but necessary!

on one rare occasion a brit here got a good deal on using his phone here, its a long shot but contact your provider, he used his mainly for calls back to the UK but you need to figure out the additional cost vs buying out the contract.
Glad i had a pre paid virgin phone, flip it to a contract with a phone call when i went on my hols out of uk and when i came back flip it back from contract to pre paid, they didn't ask for anything to wind up my account.

Is it cheaper to get a new contract in ca?

As opposed to ... ? I'm not sure what you mean. Getting a Canadian phone with a Canadian provider is cheaper than trying to pay roaming rates with your UK provider...?

Sorry should have been clearer.. sometimes a provider gives you abroad bolt ons to make it cheaper?

IF you're visiting, then yeah, that's probably easier, but for moving permanently...?

Okay fair enough, do calls in ca cost alot to call back to the uk?

Depends on your carrier, depends on your plan, depends how much you want to use skype or other services, etc.

For example, Koodo charges 5c/min - Long Distance | Koodo Mobile

Rogers charges 75c/min on normal pay-per-use rates, or you can buy an add-on for $5/month then calls to the UK are 10c/min - http://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.por...s#longdistance

Both of the above are for landlines specifically.

There are other carriers and other plans and of course you can buy calling cards.

I call the UK on my cell/mobile using an app called Rebtel, it will connect using either your WiFi or your unlimited canada calls (uses a canadian number to connect you) i spent 2 hours on the phone with my brother in England for $2 ish lol go to your app store and look for Rebtel yes you have to put $ on the app but its waaaay cheaper than any landline ! Oh that $2 call was to a landline so the people you call don't have to be PC or internet savvy and Rebtel to Rebtel is free anywhere in the world or so it says.