fido rentention plan

[joel]

i have verified the 10% bring your own device is most definitely available for any existing customers not currently on contract. i verified by talking to a fido rep on their live chat service on the website.

that rep said that i would not be eligible for the additional add a line %10 discount on existing accounts. I figure I probably need to talk to a fido retention rep to get that deal.

[jeSteR]

Sweet, thanks Joel. I just called and got another 10% discount on 5 of my 6 lines.

[nature boy]

dammit, i wish i had asked when i talked to them the other day. sigh... i guess i have to call them again...

[nature boy]

i got my fido bill yesterday, and i forgot that you in each fido bill you pay for the following month's service, plus whatever extra you used from last month. so because december is the month that i start the $39 regular plan, my bill was cheaper than it's been in like 9 years. they automatically added the 10% off for having my own phone, something that i didn't even ask for. so now my bill (for my number) is $35.10, giving me like a 10 dollar savings over the cheapest smart plan that gives me the same stuff. the only reason to go on a smart plan is to get a phone, but i honest cannot see anyone ever doing that anymore.

for kicks, i priced out what an iphone 5s would cost with a max plan contract. cheapest max plan over two years = $75 (unlimited everything and 500mb) + $230 iphone 5s + $25 upgrade fee = $2055 over the course of 2 years (excluding tax).

HOWEVER, if you decide not to go on contract and just buy an iphone 5s from fido (or anywhere) straight up and get a comparable regular plan (which actually gives you about 4 times the data), it'd be $60 - 10% for bring your own phone + $719 = $2015 over the course of 2 years (excluding tax). plus you get the freedom to move from carrier to carrier if you were to find a better monthly plan. and it gets even worse if you opt for the $50 ($45 essentially) which gives you just 1000 daytime minutes but still twice as much data as the $75 max plan, just minus $216 ($9 savings over 24 months) and you get $1799 over 2 years. that's like a savings of like $250, just to not get a "subsidized" phone.

i think if you ever wanted to open up a store that sells unlocked phones, now would be the time to do it. there is absolutely no reason to ever get a phone on contract now (on fido at least), except for an act of lunacy.

i looked quickly at telus, bell and rogers for their plans for subsidized phones and it seems the minimum monthly contract you'd pay for any (not just iphones) phone is $70-75.

essentially, these new crtc rules that affect contracts become moot because no one will go on contract anymore.

[Duncan]

yea, most people saw this coming... basically the wireless carriers are passing the buck onto the consumers who don't know how to calculate cost over 2 years...

However, i wouldn't say there's no reason to get a "subsidized" phone ever again. you can equate it to buying a car outright vs paying interest on payments over a term. or even a house. obviously it's cheaper to buy it outright, but not everyone can cough up that chunk of cash in one go. Same with a phone that costs $500-900 + tax. That's a lot of money. Some people would rather pay $230, then slowly "pay it off" over a term.

[nature boy]

yeah, i actually thought i mentioned that too that it's just paying interest on a loan, but looking over my post i guess i said it somewhere else.

either case, with so many places to get good phones for cheaper than brand new, it's still worth it to just stay off contract. i just got winnie a samsung gs3 for just under $240. before fido pulled it about a month ago, it was still $150 on contract. i'd pay the extra $100 to stay off contract for the same phone.

[jeSteR]

Remember to disable iMessage from her iPhone before moving over to her S3 or else she won't be receiving any text messages from apple people for up to 30 days.

[nature boy]

yeah, i know. that's the first thing i did after hearing about what happened to brendan.