Mobile phones
I know it sounds like a petty worry when i have bigger things to worry about during a move like this, but I've heard that using a UK smart phone in Canada could prove expensive.
I'm just wondering how other expats went about using phones over there i.e:
Did you open a new contract when you got out to Canada?
Did you cancel your British contract and buy a Canadian pay as you go sim?
I'm only on a 12 month contract at first, but with a view to settle. what is my best option?
thanks
:yo:
Hi Chris, I have just moved to Canada (Vancouver Island) in May and the mobile phones and running costs are hugely expensive. I originally bought an unlocked HTC in the UK in the hope that a Canadian PAYG sim card would work, but it won't. Fortunately I had the chance to come to Canada and try my husbands Canadian SIM before finally leaving UK so I just made my UK phone as PAYG, so I still have my UK number. I asked at many shops about this and they all said a UK sim would not work.(My husband had an unlocked UK Samsung Galaxy and that wouldn't work as well)
The roaming from the UK phone is expensive, I came out to visit for 2 weeks and only used txt to contact UK and ring my husband in Canada a few time e.g. from the airport etc and I was faced with a bill for nearly £300.
Generally speaking the phones are expensive especially if you want a smartphone and neither of us wanted to be tied to a contract, so once here I decided to go with Virgin mainly because they were doing the HTC One which cost $395 (iphone nearly $600) to buy the phone. My Husband is on Koodo who are also very good. We both get free international text and long distance (by long distance that is anywhere in Canada over just a few miles, we live on Vancouver Island and the next town is classed as long distance) I get 1GB of data because they were doing it on offer at the time, free local calls within my plan, free to recieve and my bill is generally about $50 - $60 dollars per month. One thing that is strange is you actually get charged to receive a call and ring the voicemail. Now I always had voicemail turned off in the UK but I can't seem to turn it off here, its greyed out.
It is like a contract but you are not locked into it, you actually get an invoice. The only calls I make are to my husband occasionally and job hunting, no one in the UK. Before you leave get your friends and family to get the Whatsapp app on their mobiles, we use it all the time and of course I Skype my family everyday, what a life-line. You can buy an international calling card from the supermarkets, I use the $10 from Walmart, and this is very good but they do expire as I found out today when I wanted to ring my daughter. and I still have 100 minutes left on it. You can get PAYG cards but I think you will still have to buy a Canadian phone, but at least you wouldn't be faced with an invoice.
I don't know if other provinces in Canada are cheaper or if this is something typical to BC, maybe someone on the forum could enlighten you on this. Also I don't know what the situation would be with an IPhone, maybe they would work, however I doubt it.
If you still have a long time left on the contract in UK, maybe slim the contract down as much as you can and when possible change it to PAYG at least you would have a phone initially and you could try a Canadian sim. Just be aware of the cost to use here.
Hope some of this post is of use to you and good luck with the move