contract about to expire...looking for best new options and need suggestions / advice.

[Marzipan]

Buy your phone's outright and do month to month, you'll save the difference in a year and a half at least. I'm paying $65/m for 20gb unlimited talk & text with Telus, they frequently have similar promos.

if I had the capital, I would buy the phones outright...but everything is really tight right now so I can't. the trade in credit I'd get for my 8 Plus is insulting...I can sell it for more than twice what they offer. doing that would actually work for the two iPhone 11 deal...but you have to go into a store to get that and I'm not sure the partner they say represents them in Rupert is still valid.

these 'bring it back' deals are intriguing...but the whole rental fee 'tab' sticks a craw in my throat...however, after 2 years you get a new phone on a new tab or buy out the remaining balance. intriguing...

thanks for all the recommendations, btw!

 

[supaflyx3]

That's fair. Although even with a low interest credit card you'd still save hundreds if you paid it off over 6 months

 

[Marzipan]

yeh...no bandwidth for additional payments. if I can keep the new plan to the $200 I currently pay for our two subscriptions, we'll be good.

 

[sswilson]

if I had the capital, I would buy the phones outright...but everything is really tight right now so I can't. the trade in credit I'd get for my 8 Plus is insulting...I can sell it for more than twice what they offer. doing that would actually work for the two iPhone 11 deal...but you have to go into a store to get that and I'm not sure the partner they say represents them in Rupert is still valid.

these 'bring it back' deals are intriguing...but the whole rental fee 'tab' sticks a craw in my throat...however, after 2 years you get a new phone on a new tab or buy out the remaining balance. intriguing...

thanks for all the recommendations, btw!

Who's that with? With Koodo, after two years (with a tab) you own the phone outright and you can either start a new tab to get a new phone, or keep your plan without having to pay the tab amount (so you'd drop back down to $55 as opposed to paying $55 + $30 tab).

Koodo also has "CPO" (certified pre-owned) phones at a fairly decent discount. They're supposedly returns that have less than 30 days use on them. My current Huawei P20 is a CPO that's costing me $10 / month for 24 months with no upftront costs.

 

[Marzipan]

Telus has the plan called Bring It Back...you pay a tab, but have $0 up front and then have the option to give the phone back or buy out the remaining balance from what your tab didn't cover. someone else has one...but can't recall who.

 

[JD]

Telus has the plan called Bring It Back...you pay a tab, but have $0 up front and then have the option to give the phone back or buy out the remaining balance from what your tab didn't cover. someone else has one...but can't recall who.

I was wondering why Freedom's ads were poking jabs at that... how when you go to return your phone at the end of 2 years they deny you and you end up paying anyways... I guess it makes sense now.

Honestly, if you're strapped for cash, why even look at a brand new iPhone model? Grab an XR or XS, maybe even an 8 if you need to stick to iOS.

 

[Sagath]

Used XRs are cheeeeeeeeeap.
XS are dropping fast too. I got my 256 gig for 600 just a few months ago.

 

[sswilson]

Telus has the plan called Bring It Back...you pay a tab, but have $0 up front and then have the option to give the phone back or buy out the remaining balance from what your tab didn't cover. someone else has one...but can't recall who.

I was wondering why Freedom's ads were poking jabs at that... how when you go to return your phone at the end of 2 years they deny you and you end up paying anyways... I guess it makes sense now.

Honestly, if you're strapped for cash, why even look at a brand new iPhone model? Grab an XR or XS, maybe even an 8 if you need to stick to iOS.

Oh my.... that sounds wayyy too much like a lease to me as opposed to a purchase. I can only imagine them pulling out the magnifying glass to find every possible scratch/nick that may or not be visible to the naked eye and then denying your return (and charging you the balance) based on an arbitrary ruling.

No thanks! I much prefer to either own my phone(s) outright or have a fixed term tab that I'd be responsible for if I changed providers in under 2 years.

 

[JD]

I can only imagine them pulling out the magnifying glass to find every possible scratch/nick that may or not be visible to the naked eye and then denying your return (and charging you the balance) based on an arbitrary ruling.

Yup that's what their ad implies:

 

[clshades]

Not sure about iPhone 11. I know the 9 and 10 sounds like your talking through a tin can. If you use speaker mode on either of these two phones it sounds fine.