Cellphone Retention Plans In Canada

Cellphone plans in Canada are among the highest in the world. We all know this when looking at our phone bills. This is due to multiple reasons including our large land mass and small population. Either way, the big three (Rogers, Bell and Telus) still make tons of money while we are forced to sign 3 year contracts and well over $70 for voice and data plans.

Hopefully this is something you already know about, but from my experience, few people do. If you have been a customer of the big three or the cheaper companies owned by the big 3 (Fido, Solo, and Koodo), you can likely renegotiate your plan by calling them and asking to speak to the retention department. In many cases you can only access this retention department by calling in and asking to cancel your contract. When I negotiate with them, I typically just call Rogers (my cell phone provider) and tell them that I was talking to a retention agent but got disconnected. This usually works and allows me to bypass having to pretend I want to cancel. NOTE: Don't do this on a Sunday as retention is closed on that day.

There are many strageties to how you can negotiate with your cell phone provider but the best way is to be kind, calm and knowledgable. Understand what things they can offer you before even calling. The best way to do this is to access this thread on redflagdeals.com (http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merged-hot-deal-rogers-wireless-customers-111887/)

This particular thread is for Rogers customers but there are other threads for Bell and Telus. People typically post their plans and what their providers can offer them. You can also join the site and post yourself to get any particular questions you have answered by the many people there.

It should be noted that many of these deals require you to sign a 3 year contract, but honestly, you'll never get any better deals without this method unless you have some crazy corporate plan. Furthermore, if the plan you negotiate is good, you can easily get out of that 3 year contract and actually sell your plan and make a profit!! Therefore, the whole locked in 3 years isnt that bad.

Also, another tip I should mention is that if you do plan to get a retention plan and are eligble for a new customer upgrade on your hardware device (that is, you get the new customer pricing on a new phone) DO IT. As even if you don't need the phone, you can sell it on Kijiji or Craigslist and make a profit which can then help pay off future bills. The highest and easier phone to sell is the Iphone 3GS 32 gig but you'd have to sign a data plan to do this so this step is not a great idea if you don't want a data plan.

An idea of what retention can do for you. Here's my plan

250 Daytime Minutes (Unlimited weekends)

Unlimited Incoming Calls

Unlimited Text Messenging

Voicemail

Caller ID

Unlimited Evening Calling starting at 5pm

6 GB data plan including tethering

100 Canadian Long Distance Minutes

Total Cost including Ontario tax = $45.25 (it was under $45 total but Rogers just increased 911 fee by 25 cents)

Hope this helps some. READ that thread link posted above!!

UPDATE: A new forum with more details on what to say has been started on Redflagdeals.com. Read the first few pages. Its helpful!

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/rogers-wireless-retention-plans-933329/