Cell phone rate plans

[Gurpy]

Hey,

So what's the deal with switching rate plans nowdays? They used to have a ridiculous amount of promotions, where you could actually get good plans upon signing a contract, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. My plans not compatible with a smartphone (can't add data to it,) so I'm wondering if I should be holding out to sign a new contract. Did the smartphones kill the need for promotional rate plans?

[jsn]

what company are you with? I was with fido last year and I waited till my contract was ending and threatened to switch companies. Got a decent deal out of retentions and definitely cheaper than any plan you can get by signing up a new account. I switched from a non data plan, to an iphone plan. Are you thinking of just switching over to a new plan? Or switching to a different carrier all together? If you're sticking with the same company, try talking to retentions. If your plan is ending soon, you should be able to get some sort of discount. I know Iphones you don't get very much in discounts if you're a new customer.

Here's some more info:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merge...tomers-111887/

Long ass thread, and some of the numbers posted earlier on aren't relavant any more, but the idea is still the same. Threaten to cancel and get a cheaper deal lol. Also depends on how good you are at bartering. My friend was able to get a better deal than I was and I had to call 3 times to get mine

[Graham_A_M]

Sign a new contract like I did. I switched from Bell to Telus, for their student plan (of which is available to everybody in all honesty) you get a Iphone 4, with 1gig of data use per month, free evenings, a free favorite 10; (anytime or location with a list thats changable every month, and loads of other features, for just $55/month for a 3 year term.


Im extremely happy, since with Bell that was $7 cheaper/month for a shit phone with no data & a plan that needed lots of additions just for normal, very typical use.

[jsn]

^^ on a side note relating to that. If you're a student (or have a student ID or something) and not currently with Telus, you can try bringing up other carriers deals. That student deal is a pretty good price so if you threaten to switch over to that because of the price, they may beat the price

[Gurpy]

Right on, thanks guys. The main reason I'm hesitant to switch over is because of long distance minutes (I currently get 200 day/200 long distance/unlimited text/caller id and voicemail, at 35.00/month.) Is there an app like skype for the galaxy, or iphone, where you can just call using data instead of paying absurd amounts? Thanks!

[sabad66]

Search 'retention plans' here... lots of threads with tips and tricks. The main thing is to have a plan in mind that you want... look on these threads or the rfd threads and write down the details of a plan you want. If you don't get a good deal your first time calling, keep trying. Oh yeah, and if you haven't been with your carrier for around a year or more, don't bother.

[jsn]

best thing to do is to tell them exactly what you need on your plan, and tell them a price (be reasonable) and bargain from there. Read the first post of the link i posted. The info about the plans they had back then are out of date, but the idea is still the same.

[Gurpy]

Excellent. I'm with bell but I'm sure I should be able to get around the same deals as in the rogers thread. Contracts expiring in Feb, so they better keep me haha. Thanks again, I can't believe some of the plans in that thread....definitely going to be giving them a call tomorrow.

One last thing, and it may just be a dumb question, but any suggestions on galaxy vs iphone? The galaxy seems to have more free apps, so I'm leaning towards that, but don't know if that's completely justified or not..