New Phone – Always Negotiate the Deal, Save Money 

Recently I thought it was time to upgrade my cell phone. I have been rocking a 2015 Samsung phone for years now but, let’s be honest camera’s back then just aren’t that good. My wife has a newer phone so when we are trying to get some family pics, hers is always the go to camera. Sometimes her phone dies and we gotta revert to mine. Not a huge problem but hey why not get a new phone, which will actually have a better camera than hers?

Another factor was my phone case was falling apart and looked like crap. Should I go out and spend 25 bucks for a new one, knowing it was time to get an upgrade. So I waited until boxing day to shop around.

Virgin Mobile

We currently are signed up with Virgin Mobile, which is owned by Bell and is on the bell network. Basically you get the same service as bell but at a cheaper price.

My existing plan was a bring your own phone plan 50$ a month 6 gigs of data unlimited talk/ text. I have always liked this plan and 6 gigs is generally more than enough data for me.

I wanted to upgrade to a newer Samsung phone as I really prefer android over iPhone and have had no problems with Samsung.

I choose the Samsung galaxy s21 5g. (a $1,400 value phone)

If i wanted to upgrade I would need to put 0 down and the phone would cost 20$ a month on a 2 year contract. (480$)

Then I went to the next page and the only option for a phone plan was 20 gigs for I think 60 a month. Way to many gigs for what I needed and my monthly bill would of went from 50$ a month to 80$

Really I didn’t think that would be worth it, so I decided to give them a call and see what other options there were.

After talking to an agent a bit and getting some loyalty discount we worked out a plan for 12 gigs of data unlimited talk/ text for 50$ a month plus the cost of the phone which he lowered to 15 a month (maybe a boxing day deal)

So our phone bill would increase to 65$ but one of the problems with calling them is they charge a 50$ activation fee, vs the app which is free. I said that was dumb and asked what he could do about that. After a while he came back and said if you pay that 50$ next bill we will lower your phone plan 5$ a month for the 2 years. ($120)

I thought that was a no brainer! Money in the bank kinda stuff, so I signed up.

All in all my phone got upgraded by about 7 years, got double the data for only 10$ more a month. After all these discounts our bill will be 60 bucks a month! Although I am on a locked in 2 year contract. Me and the wife both really like virgin mobile so have no plans of moving carriers anyways.

Conclusion

1 call and about half an hour of my time saved us $20 a month for the next 2 years (480) which essentially covers the cost of the phone all together. In think in general society likes to take the easy route – couple clicks on the app and you got a new phone on its way. But if you put in a little time and negotiate the deal there’s some nice savings to be had!

Want to save even more? Virgin Mobile offers an affiliate plan where if I refer people and they sign up for a new plan. I get a 50 dollar credit (5 dollars off a bill per month) and you also get a 50 dollar credit at no additional cost to you. Its a great deal, so I signed up =)

If your thinking about making the switch feel free to use my link, I appreciate it. – Virgin Mobile Affliate

Hope this helps you save a chunk of change next time you go upgrade your phone or get into any kind of contract. Do you got any tips with providers you use to save others more money?

Rob

Hey I’m Rob, creator of Passive Canadian Income.

In 2011 me and my wife had almost $60,000 in debt and a negative $7,000 Net Worth. Through hard work and financial education we paid all that off. Now we are focusing on increasing our Passive Income Streams to make the money work for us. Feel Free to Follow along the Journey by clicking the Social Media links below or subscribing to get notified of new posts on the sidebar.