Should I go virgin mobile? Need advice

[n_robar]

So, I am interested in taking out a cell plan with virgin mobile canada. I am interested in:

The Samsung Galaxy SIII

The virgin mobile 25$ a month plan including:

100 canada wide minutes
Unlimited canada-wide week-ends and evenings beginning at 7pm
Ulimited nationwide text
pay as you go data (I am a lite data user, so this is fine.)

I understand how the supertab works and that to have access to this plan, I have to put 200 on my tab and pay the rest of the value of the phone, which is fine. But, I have questions I would like to have answered from people who actually have experience with these plans and this company, to be sure I am getting the full story on this plan.

Below are my questions. Even if you could answer one or two, it would be a great help

Questions

Plan:

1. Are there any “catches” to Canada wide (I have found no one else offering this.) - calls, texting, etc.
2. Do the 100 minutes include incoming and outgoing calls?
3. Free week-ends and evenings, is it incoming and outgoing calls?
4. How are we charged for the -pay-as-you-go data plan (Debit or buy in advance?)
5. Supertab – can you get out of your contract by paying the remaining value of the phone?
6. Can you pay the phone off early and keep your contract or go to month by month? Does it affect your phone bill?
7. What exactly will my bill look like money wise with all extra fees and taxes? (in exact dollars)
8. Are there other fees than the 911 charge?
9. My peeps – can I add someone to my plan later and have them get unlimited calling and texting with me, or must they get a plan at the same time as me.
10. Can I keep my old number?
11. E-bill – is it cheaper than getting a paper bill?

Phone:

1. Phone – will it switch to wifi when available automatically?
2. Does the GPS function use any data if you have pre-downloaded maps
3. Retire your phone program – do you have a plan for this?
4. Will Flash run on the browser?
5. Android version of siri. How does this affect data usage?

[LouisR]

I'll take a stab at this:

Plan
1: Not that I can think of. Stateside roaming will cost extra.

2: Well, inconveniently VMC's site is down as of writing this, but in Canada (and the US) unlike the rest of the world, minutes are counted both ways unless the plan explicitly states it has unlimited incoming. IIRC only the "MyIncoming 35" (I'm going from memory and trying to translate the French name) would be covered by this in VMC's talk and text plans.

3: Yes.

4: Flex and Pay-per-use are just that, you pay for what you've actually used or what bracket you land in and don't need to forecast every month.

5: That's part of the point of the Supertab. It very much fits with the newer cellphone consumer regulations Quebec and some other provinces have enacted or are debating right now. The termination fees have to match the actual phone subsidy provided.

6: While you could pay off the phone early, I don't see any reason to do so if you intend to remain with VMC. Being on a month-to-month (i.e. off-contract) could make you eligible for some loyalty rebates, but that'd remain to be seen, and it isn't guaranteed you'd recoup paying off the phone or in how much time you would. I would best describe it by: "you can pay me now, or you can pay me later, but you're going to pay me"

7 and 8: Can't tell you since you haven't said which province you were in. But for reference my invoice has the plan and features, provincial 911 fees, GST and QST. No other fees.

9: Your peeps (or "faves" or "friends" or...) are simply number which don't count as part of your total minutes. What type of line or carrier they call you from is irrelevant to you. In other words, friend A has a similar feature on its plan and adds your number, you both can talk to each other as much as you want in a given month. Friend B on the other hand is on prepaid by the minute, well, friend B has to pay when it calls you, but you don't expend your monthly minute allowance talking to him.

10: Phone numbers are portable in Canada since 2007. Do keep in mind the number needs to be valid at the time you initiate the port. In other words, you keep your number active (perhaps while giving prior notice as per your contract) but you must not under any circumstances cancel the number, lest it be stuck in limbo.

11: Usually yes. (I don't remember for VMC specifically.) Plus its easier if you want to copy the contents of your PDF into Excel for analysis.

Phone
1: Provided you turn on wi-fi and connect at least once to a given network, yes.

2: No. But you'll have to be mindful of map downloads with Google Maps. Its support for offline maps is recent and not quite perfect yet.

3: Dunno, but unless your phone is a recent-ish higher end smartphone, the best I'd expect is 20-50$ off.

4: Yes.

5: S-Voice? Good question.

One more thing: Android 4.0 and above have a built-in data usage counter with which you can set a warning and a cutoff cap. Third party apps can play this role in older Gingerbread devices. (I use the built-in counter for data, and PhoneUsage to track the minutes on a continuous basis.) You can also play with data synchronization settings to keep cellular data usage to a minimum.

[n_robar]

Wow, thanks a lot I very much appreciate the information here! I saw some of this on the vmc site, but it is nice to get it from another source, as well as the extra tips you provided. Awesome response!