$0 Phone Plan? We’ll Show You How

When we first moved up to Canada we realized a few differences from our time spent in Florida – one of the notable things was that the cost of living was a bit higher than we were used to for most spending categories.  Everything seemed to be a bit more expensive, especially reoccurring monthly expenses like electric, phone, and internet bills.  I’ll admit, we did not do as much research from our end when we first moved up here, but now that we have we discovered that there are lower-fee options available for all 3 of these categories and we want to share our discoveries with our Canadian readers.  This post will focus on our phone plan discovery with Public Mobile and you can check out our other posts detailing how we were able to lower our internet bill and electric/gas bill each month too.

• Cheapest Internet Providers In Canada
• Your Utility Bill – And How To Save

Note this post contains a referral code 6L9MZO (that’s a capital “o” not the number zero).  By using this referral code we will get $1 off our phone bill each month and you will get a $10 credit at no additional cost to you.  It’s a win-win for the both of us and you help support our blog.

Who is Public Mobile?

Public Mobile is a prepaid, self-serve brand launched in 2010 and acquired by Telus in 2013.  Essentially it’s the DIY low-fee phone provider.  If you like the idea of saving money, listen up.

Here’s how it works: you supply your own phone, select one of their low-fee plans, and off you go.

If you switch over from another network, you can port your old phone number so it will stay with you.  The fact that you bring your own phone upfront is a perk in and of itself.  You are no longer tied to being stuck with a plan/provider as you’re slowly chipping away at paying off your device (which is typically built into your high monthly phone bill with the large phone service providers).  You own your phone outright and you use it until it dies.  Most people pursuing FI will see this as a huge perk as you can gamify the lifespan of your phone just as you would your used low-mileage car to try to get the most bang for your buck.  The same mindset applies to most FI principles such as paying off your mortgage faster than the typical amortization rate or travel hacking and flying a family of 4 for less than the price of 1.  If there is a cost saving strategy that does not diminish the quality of our life, we’re on it.  Heck, maybe you’ll even show off that you use a 4 year old phone vs having to be forced to upgrade to a newer device even though you didn’t want/need it.  Buying a good case upfront does wonders to the life of your phone.  You can pick whichever phone you like and Public Mobile won’t shove marketing and advertising down your throat to upgrade upgrade upgrade to the newest shiny device out there.  Nic is proudly entering year 5 of her iPhone 5 SE – although the battery life is definitely wearing on her as this point.  You can check to see which phones are compatible with Public Mobile here.

You simply start off with a $5 SIM card to insert into your phone (note it used to be $10 but now it’s $5).  You then go to Public Mobile’s website to activate the SIM and fill out the required info.  Then you request to transfer your existing number from your previous phone provider.  And off to the races you go. It’s really that simple.

What About Coverage?

The immediate question most people have is, how is the service?  They use Telus’ 4G LTE network so the short answer is it’s very reliable, just as Telus’ service is reliable.  As for coverage, you can enter your address to ensure you’re covered – you likely are.

Plans?

Their plans are cheap.  Way cheaper than what we’ve seen with the bigger players.  Currently (as of the latest update: August 15, 2021), here’s what they are offering:

Their plans are subject to change so if you see a plan that works for you, you may want to look into changing sooner rather than later or be sure to check their website to see if there have been any changes to what’s currently offered.

Also, after you’ve made the switch to Public you may see an updated plan that works better for you.  Or say your plan at $35 was for $2 GB of data but now it’s offering 3 GB of data for the same cost.  You can easily adjust your plan to any of the current rates/coverage after being with them.

They also have ad-ons if you’re looking to add more minutes, data, US roaming etc to the plan you select.  You can decide if you want to do these ad-ons one time or more frequently.  It’s totally up to you.  So there are no hidden fees that will pop up on you which is really nice since everything is based off a prepaid plan.

AND if you enroll in auto-pay you get an additional $2 off per month.  So there goes $2 from the prices above.

Any more perks?

Yep, we’re not done here.  There’s also a Loyalty Reward.  Every year you stay with Public they knock off $1/month from your bill, capped to $5/month off once you’ve been with them for 5 years.

They also have a Community Reward program where you have the potential to earn up to $20/month off.  This involves helping others to resolve any technical issues they may be having with their phones (they post questions on the message board and you post answers back).  If you have any issues, this is where you can also go to try and resolve any questions/issues or get customer service (there are also moderators who are actual employees of Public Mobile).  Of course, you could also call their customer service line at 1-800-567-0000 for help too.  We haven’t spent any time on this perk as we are not technical people so we can’t be of too much use here to explain how it really works.

Here’s an example taken straight from their website showing how you can go from a $45 plan down to $0.

Note that their rewards program is also subject to change, so check their rewards rules page to see if there have been any changes since writing this post.

My phone is provided through my employer but Nic used Public Mobile’s $15/month plan and had no regrets or issues with it.  With wifi so prevalent these days, you likely can be on a lower plan than you anticipate.  Since she’s enrolled in auto pay, she paid $13 per month for her plan.  She’s been with Public Mobile for over 2 years so that knocks her plan down by another $2 to $11 per month. And thanks to our faithful FImily for using our referral code, M4O794 (that’s a capital “o” not the number zero), she’s been able to knock down this plan to $0 per month (thank you!).  She then transitioned to the $25/mo plan which also got knocked down to $0 thanks to even more referral codes.  She’s now on the $35/mo plan for 3 GB and we’re working on getting that close to $0 shortly.  It really is as simple as that and you too can have a $0 phone plan.

(Note this $35 plan used to be for 1.5 GB of data but has switched to 3 GB.  We simply logged in to her account and switched from her “old” $35 plan to the “new” $35 plan to get an extra 1.5 GB of data each month.)

If you’re ready to switch over, you simply enter in this referral code when you’re activating your SIM card.  Public Mobile can’t retroactively enter in the code after the fact so it’s important to enter it right at the beginning to get your $10 credit. Once you’ve signed up, you too can get your very own referral code to get $1 off per month from your plan as well. And anyone using your code then also gets $10 off.  If you have friends or family switching over, make sure to sign up first yourself, then give them your code to maximize this benefit. The race to a $0 plan is on!

What About My Precious Data?!

Now I know some of you reading this could not fathom the $15 plan with 250 MB of data, but hear me out before you scoff at it (you also can obviously choose one of their other plans with more data).

• We (developed societies in general) are WAY too dependent on our phone and I’d be willing to guess the first thing you do each morning is check your phone and it’s the likely the last thing you touch each night before falling asleep.  We need to create better habits and break free from our phones. This craziness is why we did our first digital detox in January and why we are doing a group social media detox in May. And hell, you may actually really enjoy not being connected every waking second of the day…what a concept!  20 years from now I’d guess that studies will show that smart phones are the new cigarettes.  We are addicted and we need to break our bad habits.  Connect with people in real life.  Go for a walk (without your phone) and get in touch with nature.  Get more sleep.  Read a paper back book or an old school newspaper.  Build something with your hands.
• You can go into your phone settings and turn cellular data off all non essential apps to prevent you from going over your data plan.  You can also go through your phone and remove some of the useless apps you installed years ago.  You can also turn off all notifications so you’re not picking up your phone 300 times a day to attend to every ding or pop-up.  This will help curb your addiction while you’re not around wifi.
• Which leads to my next point, wifi is everywhere.  You may not feel safe using it some places, and that’s fine.  Again, all the more reason to distance yourself from your phone.  But for the most part, you’re either at home or at work where wifi is free, safe, and prevalent.
• If you’re in your car and need GPS, you can look up the directions beforehand while you’re still on wifi, hit go, then get in your car where cellular data is no longer activated, and guess what?  Your GPS will still work as long as you remain on the same route.  Same goes for listening to podcasts.  Download them while you have wifi and then listen for free on your commute to/from work.
• If that’s not enough, you can also download the free app Maps.Me where you can download a specific area (your own city, a country you’re planning to travel to, etc.) while still on wifi and then use their GPS system for free (we’ve used this app multiple times in multiple countries and its fantastic).  Google Maps app offers a very similar feature.
• Lastly, from an environmental standpoint, data centers are becoming major culprits of our energy consumption (I can speak first hand as I was working directly with companies looking to sign power purchase agreements to supply power for their data centers in the US. Granted many are looking to source their data centers from renewable resources these days which is great news, but it’s still consumption nonetheless and these renewables could instead be supplying power to individual residences instead.)  Let’s do our small part by reducing the amount of data we use on an individual level for Mother Earth’s sake.

There you have it!  Cheers to an easy way of lowering one of your recurring monthly bills!  It’s little hacks like this that do not impact your day-to-day lifestyle but help you reach FI that much faster. And no, I am no way paid or sponsored by Public Mobile, I just want more people to get their phone bills down to $0.

Any Public Mobile users have anything to add?  Any Canadians ready to make the switch over to Public Mobile? What cell phone provider do you currently use and how much are you paying?  If you’re ready to switch over please use referral code M4O794 (that’s a capital “o” not the number zero) and leave a comment below so we can personally thank you 🙂

Support This Blog

If you liked this article and want more content like this, please support this blog by sharing it.  Not only does it help spread the FIRE, but it lets me know what content you find beneficial.  Writing is NOT my strong suit and it honestly takes me hours to write each post so the more encouragement the better!  Engaging in the comments below keeps me motivated.  You can also support this blog by subscribing to receive emails anytime a new post is published.  Thank you FImily!

We believe in stacking up life hacks to keep your enjoyment levels to the max without depleting your bank account.  Here are some ways to further educate yourself and save thousands of dollars over your lifetime by making some simple adjustments:

• Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
• How much are you paying for internet?  Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
• How much are you paying for home insurance?  We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance.  If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance.  Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote.  (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)
• How much are you paying for your monthly utility bills?  See how you can likely save on this monthly expense.

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