Big Bear

Which company has the best mobile phone coverage (esp. in Alberta) and customer service? Also, which banks are good (esp. for immigrants) and have the lowest fees, good customer service, etc?

Thanks!

magnumpi

ROGERS...........................Cell

TD Canada Trust...............Bank

Oink

Don't you have a video covering this?

magnumpi

Only the bank, not phone, not yet anyhows

oceaneoneill

Would that be true for BC too..?!

el_richo

Cell phone - Bell (although most providers are similar)

Bank - Coast Capital or Van City are good starter / user friendly no cost ones

As always, do your own research to match your own requirements

oceaneoneill

OK thanks! Wasn't sure if things varied from province to province... I'm toying with buying an i phone - or would it be stupidly expensive..?

el_richo

Depends what price you think would be stupidly expensive.

iPhone contracts out west were around $50 per month or so, then add extra $'s for caller id, voicemail, etc. Some contracts are for a minimum of 3 years also.

magnumpi

Smart phone will cost about $90 per month, on ROGERS 3 year contwact

Incl: 1 G.B. download on 3 gee

Unlimited incoming txts, 250 out going txt

Unlimited calls to "MY FIVE" five of your best fwends numbers

500 weekday minutes, unlimited weeknight/weekend calls

el_richo

Or approx $55 per month with Bell including....

1Gig usage per month
10 numbers for unlimited calls and texts (including long distance)
Unlimited evening and weekends
200 free minutes during peak hours per month

3 yr contract though

magnumpi

How many texties

Silken

Basically in Canada we have several huge banks, all of which are pretty comparable overall rate-wise except for perhaps two that are not regular banks (with a regular "storefront" etc.) and therefore can compete more on rates. Most of the big banks compete on customer service but honestly they are all pretty decent. The two I would not go for myself are CIBC and Bank of Montreal.

If you want best rates, look at President's Choice Financial (which is basically part of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce -- CIBC) or ING but you will have to compromise in that neither one has a "storefront" to walk into. You do your banking on the phone and online which has some drawbacks but then you get pretty good rates and no monthly bank account fees. On the other hand, you can go to one of the regular banks -- TD Canada Trust has very high ratings on customer service and excellent extended hours but you will pay monthly bank fees unless you keep a minimum balance in the account.

Here's another thing to consider though.... If you want a bank that has an international presence to make international banking easier, then you want to check any potential bank out in this respect. RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) and Scotiabank are two that come to mind that have a presence in multiple countries. So does the HSBC. If you intend to be doing anything in the U.S., RBC is possibly a good choice as they own a string of 430 banks in the U.S. too and you can have an American and Canadian bank account through them both and manage them both online on the same page.

Lol, I bank with three banks myself... TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank and in the States I keep a Bank of America account (which has an agreement with Scotiabank that lets me draw out for no cost here.) In the past I've been with CIBC and Bank of Montreal but was not happy with the service there myself. I've also done President's Choice Financial before and they're great for bargain banking but again, be prepared to have some drawbacks since you can never go to your bank and must do everything online or at an ATM (you can use CIBC ATM's at no fee.)

Lol, well that's lots of info. Hope I haven't confused anyone.

Cell phones.... Most of the big ones are comparable. I use Telus and haven't had any real problems. What I'd suggest is check the coverage maps for each company to make sure it's not a problem in the area you'll be in and then check their promotions and go from there. Rogers does have some awesome promotions going on right now and they also have some nice replacement policies on phones. Telus on the other hand is a pretty phenomenal company overall (ex. They just gave months worth of FREE phone calls to Japan to anyone using their phones in order to show support for that country.)

R I C H

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. That's funny shit, right there.

They're too cheap to extend a broadband connection 250ft down the road to serve 15 properties that don't have access to high speed internet, and they refuse to allow other service providers to use their infrastructure.

Silken

Well the cell and cable companies always manage to piss us off somehow. lol But as a corporate entity, I have to say I don't know of any other Canadian company that equals their track record when it comes to charitable work, etc. But ya, they piss me off lots of times too but cell phone companies all do that.

jericho

Why should they?