Tag: Price Increase

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Mobile Syrup

Bell’s 100GB Canada-U.S. plan now costs $5 more per month

Bell has joined Telus in charging more for its 100GB Canada-U.S. plan.

Earlier this month, Telus changed up its plans, replacing the $105/mo Canada-U.S. with 100GB of data with a 100/mo 100GB Canada-only plan and a $110/mo Canada-U.S. plan, effectively raising the cost of its Canada-U.S. plan.

Now Bell has followed suit, dropping the $105/mo plan for a pricier $110/mo plan. However, at the time of writing, Bell hadn’t adjusted its other plans or added a $100/100GB Canada-only plan to match Telus.

The move comes after both carriers hiked the cost of their daily roaming rates.

At the time of writing, Rogers still offered a $105/mo 100GB Canada-U.S. plan, though Rogers says the plan is on sale and normally costs $125/mo.

You can check out Bell’s plans here.

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Mobile Syrup

It’s not just flanker brands — Rogers, Bell, Telus hiked talk and text plan prices too

Over the last week, MobileSyrup detailed how the Big Three flanker brands, Koodo, Fido and Virgin Plus, raised the cost of unlimited talk and text plans.

Well, they aren’t alone — the Big Three did too.

A tipster told MobileSyrup that Rogers would increase the cost of its talk and text plan from $33/mo to $35/mo on Friday — sure enough, the company’s website lists the plan at that price as of 11:13am ET on April 14th.

MobileSyrup also confirmed that Bell and Telus charge $35/mo for their unlimited talk and text plans, though it’s not clear when they made the change.

This is only the latest chapter in the saga of steadily increasing talk and text costs. Koodo, Fido and Virgin used to charge about $30/mo for unlimited talk and text. In August 2022, they briefly charged $27/mo as part of a promotion — since then, costs have steadily increased.

$30/mo was already arguably steep for a basic talk and text plan with no data, but $35/mo is just downright frustrating.

If you’re looking for a talk and text plan, avoid the Big Three and their flanker brands — you can get a plan with unlimited talk and text and usually about 1GB of data for about $25/mo from other providers, including Freedom Mobile, Public Mobile, Lucky Mobile and Chatr Mobile.

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Mobile Syrup

Virgin Plus joins Fido, Koodo in raising some plan prices by $2

Bell flanker brand Virgin Plus joined Koodo and Fido in increasing the prices of select plans.

Koodo and Fido raised the prices of their unlimited talk and text plan, 15GB plan and 20GB plan by $2 earlier this week. Now Virgin has matched the prices.

Virgin now charges $62/mo for its 15GB plan and $67/mo for its 20GB plan. It also charges $35/mo for the unlimited talk and text plan, though it’s worth noting that Virgin previously increased that plan from $33 to $34 – now it’s up another $1 to match Koodo and Fido. (It’s also important to note that Fido’s plans are actually $5 more than comparable plans at Koodo and Virgin because it offers a $5 auto-pay discount.)

Virgin Plus plan prices as of April 13th, 2023

As we previously detailed in our reporting on the Fido and Koodo price increases, these changes are particularly frustrating, coming after a period of relatively decent deals. Earlier this month, Virgin, Fido and Koodo offered double data deals and a $10/mo credit that, combined, could net customers $55/mo 30GB and $50/mo 20GB plans. Moreover, during Black Friday, Canadians could get a $45/50GB plan from the three providers.

Worse, the cost of unlimited talk and text plans has steadily increased over the last year or so – unlimited talk and text cost $30/mo in January 2022 and briefly cost $27/mo in August 2022, thanks to a promotion. Particularly egregious is the high cost of pay-per-use data on these plans – Virgin charges $20 per gigabyte up to 8GB and then $0.02 per megabyte after (which works out to about $20/GB anyway). Virgin increased its data overage rate last month.

Thankfully there are better offers out there for talk and text. Several other providers, including Lucky Mobile, Public Mobile, Chatr Mobile and Freedom Mobile, offer plans with unlimited talk and text for around $25/mo. Most of these also include about 1GB of data, making them even better value than the talk and text options available at Virgin, Fido and Koodo.

Source: Virgin Plus

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Mobile Syrup

Koodo raises several plan prices by $2/mo

MobileSyrup recently reported on a series of changes Telus made to the plans it offers, including locking its base $85/mo plan to bring-your-own-phone (BYOP) customers and raising or lowering some other prices by about $5/mo. Now Telus’ flanker brand Koodo is getting in on the price change action.

Koodo has increased the cost of several of its plans by $2/mo. Following the end of Koodo’s double data offer earlier this month, the provider briefly offered $60/15GB and $65/20GB plans.

Since then, Koodo has increased the prices of those plans to $62/mo and $67/mo, respectively. iPhone in Canada first spotted the increase, which applies to both Koodo’s BYOP plans and to plans on Koodo’s Tab Fido has also increased its plans to match Koodo, read more here.

As a refresher, the Tab is a system that allows customers to get a phone for a reduced upfront cost and pay off a Tab amount on top of their monthly plan. Koodo offers three Tab tiers: Basic (up to $10/mo for 24 months), Mid (up to $15/mo for 24 months) and Plus (up to $39/mo for 24 months).

Koodo also limits the plans you can get on Tabs to just the $62 and $67 plans, though Tab Basic customers can also get unlimited talk and text — but that just got more expensive too.

Koodo’s plan price increases as of April 12th, 2023.

Alongside those plans, Koodo also increased the cost of its basic unlimited Canada-wide talk and text plan from $33/mo to $35/mo. The plan does not include data, and Koodo charges $13 per 100MB of data used, which works out to about $130 per gigabyte. Koodo seems to be following Bell’s Virgin Plus here – the flanker brand recently increased its unlimited talk and text plan by $1/mo to $34. Rogers’ Fido remains the most expensive, charging $40/mo (up from $38/mo) for unlimited talk and text, though it offers a $5/mo automatic payments discount that brings the cost down to $35 like Koodo.

It’s worth noting that in January 2022, these plans cost $30/mo and in August briefly cost $27/mo as part of a promotion. Customers can get the plans for around $25/mo at some other providers.

While price increases are always frustrating for Canadians, these recent increases are particularly frustrating, coming on the heels of several periods of decent deals. Just last week, Koodo, Fido and Virgin ended double data and $10/mo credit offers that, combined, enabled Canadians to get $55/mo 30GB and $50/mo 20GB plans.

Moreover, back during Black Friday, Canadians could get $45/mo 50GB plans. Suffice it to say, if you can wait to get a new plan or phone, you should. These new, more expensive plans are not worth your money.

Source: Koodo Via: iPhone in Canada

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Mobile Syrup

Fido increased some plan prices by $2/mo

Rogers flanker Fido joined Telus’ Koodo in increasing several of its plans by $2/mo.

Like Koodo, Fido now charges more for its 15GB and 20GB  plans, as well as its unlimited talk and text plan. However, unlike Koodo, Fido offers a $5/mo automatic payments discount and inflates the cost of its plans so that you pay the same as other providers when you use the discount. That means the 15GB plan costs $67/mo at Fido and $62/mo with the auto-pay discount — Koodo just charges $62 for its version of the plan and doesn’t offer an auto-pay discount.

Similarly, Fido charges $72/mo for the 20GB plan or $67/mo with auto-pay. As for the unlimited talk and text plan, Fido charges an absurd $40/mo for the plan ($35/mo with auto-pay).

Fido increased the cost of some plans as of April 12th, 2023

It’s worth noting that the unlimited talk and text plans cost $30/mo in January 2022 and $27/mo in August 2022, thanks to a promotion. Since then, the cost of unlimited talk and text has steadily increased, though Canadians can still get similar plans for about $25/mo at other providers. Bell’s Virgin Plus kicked off this round of unlimited talk and text price increases by upping its plan by $1/mo to $34, but Koodo and Fido have gone further.

This latest round of price increases at the flanker brands will be particularly frustrating, coming after a period of relatively decent deals. Just last week, Fido, Koodo and Virgin Plus wrapped up double data and $10/mo credit offers that, combined, allowed Canadians to get $55/mo 30GB and $50/mo 20GB plans. Before that, Canadians could get $45/mo 50GB plans from the providers during Black Friday.

Though it likely goes without saying, you should probably hold off on getting a new phone or plan for now. Wait for the next deal because these newly increased prices frankly aren’t worth your money. In other rate hike-related news, Koodo recently increased the cost of several plan prices by $2.

Source: Fido

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Mobile Syrup

Virgin Plus increases unlimited talk and text plan to $34/mo

Bell flanker brand Virgin Plus increased the price of its basic unlimited talk and text plan by $1/mo again, roughly three months after the last price increase.

Virgin’s website now lists the unlimited talk and text plan as $34/mo. The plan doesn’t include data, which means any data use gets billed at the pay-per-use rate (which costs an absurd $20 per gigabyte up to 8GB — $160 total — followed by $0.02 per megabyte thereafter, which still works out to about $20 per gigabyte). It’s worth noting that Virgin’s data overage rate increased last month.

Back in January, Virgin and Telus flanker Koodo increased the cost of their unlimited talk and text plans to $33/mo. In January 2022, the plans cost $30/mo. There was a brief period in August 2022 when Virgin, Koodo, and Rogers flanker Fido lowered the cost to $27/mo — something approaching fair for a talk and text plan — but that was short-lived.

Virgin Plus talk and text plan as of April 10th, 2023

At the time of publication, only Virgin had increased the talk and text plan to $34. Koodo still offered the plan for $33 at the time of publication. Fido, on the other hand, charges $38 for the plan but markets it as a $33 plan because of the $5/mo automatic payments discount. Fido added the auto pay discount in January, but instead of offering the discount on existing prices, it increased every plan by $5/mo so that customers need to choose automatic payments to get the same pricing as before the discount was offered.

Canadians in the market for an unlimited talk and text plan should definitely look elsewhere. Lucky Mobile, Public Mobile and Chatr Mobile all offer a $25/mo plan with 1GB of 3G data and unlimited talk and text. Freedom Mobile also has a $25/mo plan with 1GB of LTE data and unlimited talk and text. And that’s just a few of the options out there.

Source: Virgin Plus

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Mobile Syrup

Fido increasing internet rates by $3/mo for some customers

Rogers flanker brand Fido warned some customers that their internet service price will increase by $3 plus tax.

According to a post on Reddit by ‘u/WSJ_pilot,’ Fido tucked a notice about the incoming increase at the end of internet bills. u/WSJ_pilot shared a picture of the notice, which says:

“On the date of your first bill after February 12th, 2023, the monthly service fee for your Internet package as shown on this bill will increase by $3 plus taxes.”

Fido internet price increase | Image credit: u/WSJ_pilot

The notice goes on to say that customers with active discounts will still get those discounts. As usual with Canadian carriers, discounts apply to whatever the base cost of the plan is, and companies remain free to change that as much as they want.

It’s not clear how widespread the price hike is. MobileSyrup reached out to Rogers for more details about the change.

Source: Reddit ‘WSJ_pilot’

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Mobile Syrup

Telus increasing Easy Roam cost starting March 8th

Last month, MobileSyrup detailed a price increase coming to Bell’s roaming service. Now Telus plans to increase the cost of its similar Easy Roam service.

As first spotted by iPhone in Canada, a notice on Telus’ website warns that starting on March 8th, 2023, Easy Roam will increase from $12 to $14/day for U.S. roaming and from $15 to $16/day for international roaming.

Though it may not seem like much, the price increase adds up really quickly. Currently, Telus caps U.S. fees at $240 per billing cycle, and international fees at $300 per billing cycle, or about 20 days of Easy Roam use. It’s not clear if Telus will stick with the current caps or increase them to match 20 days of usage with the new prices (that would be about $280 for U.S. Easy Roam and $320 for international Easy Roam).

Telus Easy Roam price increase notice.

It’s also unclear if Telus’ flanker brand, Koodo, will increase roaming prices. Koodo also offers the Easy Roam program, which currently costs the same as the pre-increase Telus price. However, at the time of writing, there wasn’t an increase notice on the Koodo website. MobileSyrup reached out to Koodo for clarification but did not receive a response in time for publication.

When Bell increased the cost of its roaming package, it also increased the price for its flanker brand, Virgin Plus. Bell’s roaming increase comes into effect on March 9th and will cost $13/day for U.S. roaming and $16/day for international roaming.

Finally, iPhone in Canada noted that Telus changed Easy Roam’s activation from being valid for 24 hours to being “valid until 11:59pm in the time zone you are travelling.” This makes Easy Roam worse value than before.

It’s worth noting that Telus, like other carriers, has steadily increased the price of Easy Roam over the last few years. When U.S. and international roaming first launched (in 2015 and 2016, respectively), it cost $7/day for U.S. roaming and $10/day for international roaming.

Now that Telus and Bell will increase roaming costs in March, Rogers is the last of the Big Three to have not made a similar announcement. It remains to be seen if it will follow suit or keep roaming prices the same.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Telus Via: iPhone in Canada

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Mobile Syrup

Telus increases Stream+ bundle cost by $3 for ‘some’ customers

Telus will increase the cost of its Stream+ bundle by $3 starting in March.

In a statement to MobileSyrup, Telus confirmed the increase:

“Some Stream+ customers are being notified of a $3 increase to their bills beginning in March as a result of a price change to one of the streaming services included in the Stream+ bundle. This increase does not apply to customers receiving select promotional offers and only those notified will be impacted. The Stream+ bundle still offers the best combined rates for access to the leading premium streaming services.”

Telus also reiterated to MobileSyrup that it’s the “only provider in Canada” that bundles premium streaming services with mobility plans. The carrier said it “remain[s] committed to offering flexible payment terms to any customers who are experiencing financial hardship, and will continue to support them on a case-by-case basis.”

The price increase comes with unfortunate timing — it coincided with Netflix’s change to how it handles password sharing. Last week, MobileSyrup reported that Stream+ wouldn’t allow customers to add extra members as part of Netflix’s new password-sharing crackdown. Several readers took to the comments mentioning the Stream+ price increase, but it’s worth noting that the increase likely isn’t connected to Netflix.

Telus said that the Stream+ increase was because of a “price change to one of the streaming services” it includes in the Stream+ bundle. Though the carrier didn’t specify which, the obvious culprit is actually Apple TV+, which went from $5.99/mo to $8.99/mo in October 2022. That’s the only streaming service offered in the Stream+ bundle that has seen a price change since Telus launched the bundle in April 2022 — Netflix Premium still costs $20.99/mo (excluding the new account sharing costs), and Discovery+ costs $4.99/mo.

Moreover, the new Apple TV+ price is reflected on the Telus Stream+ website, though the $3 price increase is not yet.

You can learn more about Stream+ here.

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Mobile Syrup

Bell, Virgin Plus will increase roaming rate by $1/day on March 9

Montreal-based carrier Bell will increase the cost of its Roam Better add-on starting March 9th, 2023.

Bell’s Roam Better offers two prices, one for U.S. travel and one for international travel. The U.S. Roam Better package will increase from $12/day to $13/day, while the international version will go from $15/day to $16/day.

Price increase for Bell’s Roam Better U.S. plans.

Bell also still offers two variants of Roam Better for U.S. and international travel. The first and, arguably, better option is Roam Better with home data, which gives users access to unlimited talk, text, and the data on their account (with a speed cap after 1GB of usage). The other option is identical, save that it gives users 500MB of data for the day instead of access to their account data. Both Roam Better plans have the same price, and both will increase in March.

Price increase for Bell’s Roam Better international plans.

Bell flanker brand Virgin Mobile will also increase the costs of its Roam Sweet Roam add-on starting March 9th, 2023.

Notice from Virgin Mobile’s website about the incoming price increase.

Roam Better, for those unfamiliar with the add-on, gives customers access to roaming at a daily rate, up to a maximum of 20 days per line per billing period. You can learn more about it on Bell’s FAQ page.

It’s also worth noting that Bell offers Canada-U.S. plans, which could be a good way for frequent travellers to save on roaming costs. Bell’s Canada-U.S. plans start at $95/mo for 60GB of data.

At the time of writing, neither Rogers nor Telus had similar price increases listed on their websites. However, when one of the Big Three increases a price, the others tend to follow, so keep your eyes out.