7-11 Speakout a good way to test cell waters?

[Lazybones]

More info
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?p=8885561#post8885561

Still shows 7-11 as the best prepaid.

[Thorin]

So the 7-Eleven phone is $2.05 a month minimum (1/12th of the $100 card), $0.20 per minute, $6.99 for 30 minutes in a month.  Since 30 minutes is only $6.00, that means that the 7-Eleven phone charges $0.99 per month for something (System Access Fee?  911 Access Fee?).  Just pointing out that there's other fees...  What really gets me is

Note: Rogers, Fido, PetroCanada, & 7-Eleven Prepaid use minutes when people leave VM messages for you

So I can call you and leave a few voicemails and your minutes get burned away?  That sorta sucks...  On top of that, if you don't use a landline you burn even more minutes checking your voicemail.

I'm also very surprised that he only uses his phone 7 minutes a week.  I spend more time than that per week talking to my wife asking her to get me a hot chocolate when she's at Timmy's getting herself a coffee...

Still shows 7-11 as the best prepaid.

I think that should actually say that it shows 7-Eleven as the best prepaid for the usage pattern described.  For 58 minutes a month or more, PC Mobile is cheaper (7-Eleven: ($0.20/minute x 58 minutes) + $0.99 = $12.59, PC Mobile: $12.50 minimum due to card expiry).

[Lazybones]

I think that should actually say that it shows 7-Eleven as the best prepaid for the usage pattern described.  For 58 minutes a month or more, PC Mobile is cheaper (7-Eleven: ($0.20/minute x 58 minutes) + $0.99 = $12.59, PC Mobile: $12.50 minimum due to card expiry).

The pattern:  People who get a phone and don't use it.

[Ustauk]

For  more moderate usage, say about five minutes a day or $31 a month on Speakout, would the L plan at Virgin Mobile be a good deal?  That's 200 anytime minutes for $20, with 30 cents per minute over the 200.  Some days I figure I wouldn't use the phone at all, while others I may use it for ten instead of five, so I figure this might work out.  I still can't see me needing unlimited evenings and weekends, but I could upgrade to a higher Virgin Plan if that makes sense.  And the coverage is the same as Bell's, quite good.

[Thorin]

Keep in mind the following with that L plan:

Call Waiting
 - free feature.  Yay!
 - they charge you airtime for *both* calls; the one you have on hold and the one you're talking to.  Boo!

Voicemail
 - free feature.  Yay!
 - you can have up to ten voicemails.  Yay!
 - you can set your phone to ring anywhere from 2 to 9 times before sending the people to voicemail.  Yay!
 - when checking your voicemail from your phone, you get charged for the airtime.  BOO!  Even more BOO when you realize while you're at West Ed that you have to clear out your voicemail so your girlfriend can you leave you a voicemail telling you where to find her.

If you are on a monthly plan and you don’t have enough funds on your monthly payment date, all your local calls will be charged 25¢ per minute.

Double BOO!

[Ustauk]

Keep in mind the following with that L plan:

Call Waiting
 - free feature.  Yay!
 - they charge you airtime for *both* calls; the one you have on hold and the one you're talking to.  Boo!

Voicemail
 - free feature.  Yay!
 - you can have up to ten voicemails.  Yay!
 - you can set your phone to ring anywhere from 2 to 9 times before sending the people to voicemail.  Yay!
 - when checking your voicemail from your phone, you get charged for the airtime.  BOO!  Even more BOO when you realize while you're at West Ed that you have to clear out your voicemail so your girlfriend can you leave you a voicemail telling you where to find her.

If you are on a monthly plan and you don’t have enough funds on your monthly payment date, all your local calls will be charged 25¢ per minute.

Double BOO!

I knew about the voice mail thing.  It means I'll have to be dilligent about keeping it clean.  I also have to be diligent about keeping my account balace up, as you noticed.  I'll probably just set a reminder on Outlook and my PDA.

[Ustauk]

I ended up going with Virgin, getting the L plan for now.  If I exceed on hundred minutes after two weeks, I'll upgrade to the next plan.  I was going to get the cheap Nokia, but my girlfriend convinced me to get the Nokia 6275i.  She argued that as I was likely to have the phone for a long time, and I might as well have a nice one.  Given the razzin I've received from you guys over my thriftiness, you might says she's a good influence on me   I considered getting the Razr, but the Nokia had more features for a similar price, and they didn't have any in stock at the Future Shop I was at.  I've got a microSD card and USB cable coming off of  eBay.  Once I have the USB cable, I should be able to hack in MP3 ringtones, according to this thread.  So I've finally joined the mobile age, heaven help me.  I'll pass out my number as I meet you guys.  Thanks for all the advice!

[Lazybones]

Congrats, mobile phones are both a blessing and a curse as I am sure you will soon find out.

Read the manual, it can be frustrating trying to figure out how to respond to a txt message on some units.

[Thorin]

Congrats!

I was going to get the cheap Nokia, but my girlfriend convinced me to get the Nokia 6275i.

Ha ha, women always get men to do things they wouldn't normally do...

Did you get the phone for free, or did you have to pay for it?  If you paid for it, how much?

I considered getting the Razr, but the Nokia had more features for a similar price, and they didn't have any in stock at the Future Shop I was at.

I've found a lot of the features added into the phones nowadays don't get used all that much.  I've taken a few pictures and videos with the camera, but at 1.3MP and no optical zoom, they don't look that good.  I don't bother using the calculator or calendar, either.  I don't even bother getting different backgrounds or ring tones onto my phone, and I actually have legitimate software to do it without hacking anything.  The only real feature I use on my phone, besides calling people and talking to them, is the contact list.  It's nice to have an electronic rolodex.

For me, the real draw to the Razr was its form factor.  It folds up compact and thin, yet opens big enough that the earpiece is at my ear and the microphone is at my mouth - my wife's old flip phone was way too small for my head.  But what's comfortable for me might not be comfortable for you, which is why it's nice that there are so many different cell phone shapes and sizes out there.

[Thorin]

Oh, and let us know what your first full month's bill is like - I wonder if there are any "hidden charges" tacked on.

[Ustauk]

The phone was $179 +GST  from Future Shop.  I might have gotten the Razer if they had one,  but I had read the Nokia was good as well, and they had it handy, plus it was cheaper.   Its a bit bigger then a Razer form-factor wise, but I'm used to hauling around a PDA, so that doesn't bother me.

I already had my PDA for keeping track of contacts, so that wasn't really a factor in getting it.  However, both my phone and my PDA have Bluetooth, which made transferring my contacts over fairly painless. 

There isn't a monthly bill per say, since you pay for the month ahead of time with whatever you topped up the pay as you go account.  I pay $20 up front each month for 200 anytime minutes, plus 15 cents per outgoing text message, and 30 cents a minute for any minutes over the 200.  You can have the plan set to auto-top up  by a certain amount from a credit card if your balance drops below a certain point, and/or you can set it to draw a certain amount on a given date from the credit card to pay for the plan.  I'll use the latter eventually, along with an automated transfer from my chequing account to my credit card to cover it.  Right now I've got to burn through the $25 top up card I bought, the $10 activation credit, and the $10 kickback/referral bonus I got from a guy on Howard Forums.  My second month on the plan is also free.  So I basically got $40 of credit on signup, which is nice. 

I can check my balance at any time, but for more detailed listing of usage I have to request an email from customer service, which is one place Virgin is substandard compared to the other providers.  If I exceed 100 minutes in the first two weeks, I'll bump up to the next plan.  I'll let you know how things go as I use the phone.

[Ustauk]

Thanks to this post and RedFlagDeals, I found out that Walmart had my phone on sale for $147.83.  Since it was under two weeks since I bought my phone, I was able to take my receipt back to Future Shop and get a price match.  I got the difference, plus 10% of the difference, plus the extra GST I paid back for $37.50.  The final price of the phone ended up being 144.61, not including GST.  Being the cheapskate I am, I'm very happy about this

[Mr. Analog]

Thanks to this post and RedFlagDeals, I found out that Walmart had my phone on sale for $147.83.  Since it was under two weeks since I bought my phone, I was able to take my receipt back to Future Shop and get a price match.  I got the difference, plus 10% of the difference, plus the extra GST I paid back for $37.50.  The final price of the phone ended up being 144.61, not including GST.  Being the cheapskate I am, I'm very happy about this

If you were a real cheapskate you'd just use a payphone for all your calls and collect the change from empty cans.

[Ustauk]

Thanks to this post and RedFlagDeals, I found out that Walmart had my phone on sale for $147.83.  Since it was under two weeks since I bought my phone, I was able to take my receipt back to Future Shop and get a price match.  I got the difference, plus 10% of the difference, plus the extra GST I paid back for $37.50.  The final price of the phone ended up being 144.61, not including GST.  Being the cheapskate I am, I'm very happy about this

If you were a real cheapskate you'd just use a payphone for all your calls and collect the change from empty cans.

:Bows head in shame:
You're right.  I still take in my bottles and cans for change, but I can't afford to be as much of a thrifty person now that I have a girlfriend.  Time to turn in my Scrooge club membership :sigh:

[Mr. Analog]

Thanks to this post and RedFlagDeals, I found out that Walmart had my phone on sale for $147.83.  Since it was under two weeks since I bought my phone, I was able to take my receipt back to Future Shop and get a price match.  I got the difference, plus 10% of the difference, plus the extra GST I paid back for $37.50.  The final price of the phone ended up being 144.61, not including GST.  Being the cheapskate I am, I'm very happy about this

If you were a real cheapskate you'd just use a payphone for all your calls and collect the change from empty cans.

:Bows head in shame:
You're right.  I still take in my bottles and cans for change, but I can't afford to be as much of a thrifty person now that I have a girlfriend.  Time to turn in my Scrooge club membership :sigh:

Being a skin flint does not make you cool, ever.