Rollover plans from Bell a first for Canadian mobility customers
New rate plans are the first in Canada to let wireless subscribers carry over their unused minutes into the next month.
Good news for folks who seem to keep finding themselves at the end of each month with extra minutes on their plan that they haven’t used.
Starting today, Bell is offering new rate plans that allow users the ability to carry over those minutes into the following month.
The rollovers aren’t cumulative however – you can’t take unused minutes from month 1 into month 3 for instance.
For full details, see Bell.ca: http://www.bell.ca/rollover.
Update: As some folks have pointed out below, pre-paid plans have offered a rollover option for quite some time, however Bell’s plan is new for people who want a post-paid rate plan.
Excitable 
Hi, what a great idea.
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bell sucks
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Read the fine print everyone, "Bell" is the biggest crook in the market! carryover for 30 days only! 3 year contracts! Get outta here! The idea is great but don't limit/cap how long you can carry over the minutes for and tie it in to lenghtly monthly plans, utter nonsense!
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I HATE BELL!
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Bell sucks. Go with Fido.
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I'll believe it when I see it… Bell has the worst customer service & are the biggest crooks of the bunch. When I terminated my contract they billed me 6 months later for a final bill I paid already. Stay far away… they'll find a way to charge you for any benefit they may promise you.
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What are you talking about? First in Canada? Not likely. I've been with Rogers PayAsYouGo for years and my current credit is over $300 in air time. My credits are cumulative and roll over every month so long as I top up.
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Same here with rogers payasyougo,guess Simon didn't do his homework on this one!
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Hey Glen wake up… all Canadian providers do 3 year contracts, which is ridiculous. This is the first for regular monthly subscribers, who cares about pay as you go. Too bad they don't roll for at least 6 months or even better 12 months like AT&T in the US. Still better than any plan that Robbers, err Rogers has. They are by far the biggest crooks.
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Actually this is not the first plan of its kind in Canada; I currently have plan with Bell where I simply top-up my phone with $25 (2 months worth) of Air Time every 2 months. (I don't pay any other fees – no System Access Fee, no Monthly Fee, etc. plus I have free Call Display & Voice Mail.) As long as I top-up my phone prior to the previous top-up expiry date, my minutes from the current period are carried over into the next period. I do not use my phone very much, so this plan works very well for me.
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Oh yea, I forgot to mention there is no contract with this plan; I can opt out at anytime plus if I am not going to need my phone for a few months, I can let my airtime run out, and then for up to 4 months my number is still mine and can be re-activated (for free) with another top-up.
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BELL SUCKS
DO they renew your contract again for another 3 years with this and not tell you??
Currently they are holding my business hostage until 2010.
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Bell can shoot the bull all they want. We cannot get service in our local and they will not let us out of our contract. We went to Rogers and still saved money
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The comments about Prepaid service are absolutely valid – this has NO place being touted as anything special.
My kids are with President's Choice – unlimited texting for $10 of the minimum $12.50 monthly top-up (plus taxes) with airtime at .20 per minute billed to the second with perpetual rollover and NO monthly maintnance charges whatsoever.
I USED to have an analog Rogers Paygo account for an emergency backup line for the alarm in my country house – kept it for five years and except for the bogus 911 charge there were no deductions beyond the monthly test call the alarm made . . . and then I managed to get all but $35 of my $550 airtime balance back when I sold the property and cancelled the service!!!
Well Bell, as usual, too little, too late.
This (and and Fido's new rollover minutes by the way) are meant to counter an upcoming new competitor in Canada.
I've been with Rogers since day 1 – I pay them too much money, but manage to get a LOT in return – don't need rollover minutes, because I have unlimited calling and browsing for $65.
Now, what I'd REALLY like is an unlimited everything plan like they offer at Verizon in the US.
http://www.howardforums.com is your cellular friend.
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Excellent decision by Bell. Wireless providers in Europe have been providing this facility for years, and its about time that the Canadian providers caught up. Rogers Wireless take note….and kepp up with market demands!
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YES it is the first in Canada – They are not talking about Pre-paid airtime. That's has been able to carry forward since the beginning with all company's. They are talking about monthly plans that you get a bill for every month. like 200 day minutes with free nights and weekends – those 200 minutes will roll forward if not used or whatever wasn't used! and FYI Bell Mobility's customer service is excellent – I know, I work there!!!!
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Indeed Rebecca, people do not read full sentences let alone paragraphs. The post did say it is new for "Postpaid customers" with no referral to the prepaid capacities. This is a great idea from Bell indicating to us that Bell is indeed in a new direction. I work for Bell as well and I see everyday what Bell does to take the company into a different steer.For all those who say Bell is a crook, that would be generalizing and stating that all employees at Bell are crooks and I do take offense. Unfortunately there are people in every telecommunication company (Rogers,Telus) who do things that aren't to Kosher so let us not point fingers and say who's a crook.
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You people are talking about prepaid!? Who cares if they rollover the minutes on prepaid!! You pay 35 cents a min for those. Thats great if you NEVER use your phone. This article is talking about actual cell phone plans.
The information in the article is wrong however because Fido was the first to offer roll-over minutes about 6 years ago…on actual plans! It was dropped when rogers took over i believe.
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You couldn't pay me to deal with Bell Canada anymore. I have never had the likes of a company that can't seem to get their stories straight. Had a prepaid plan with them, and when the time came to replace the phone, had three totally different stories as to what I was entitled to. Phoned their customer service, and was unhappy. Emailed their office was COMPLETELY unhappy, finally said I was cancelling it, and they actually "Thanked me for choosing Bell…" You are joking right? I am not choosing bell… infact I have just CANCELLED bell…. Really come on. So good for Bell giving us roll over minutes, good luck with any customer service you require because I am sure you will need it! I will continue to deal elsewhere…. where customer service actually means something!
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Will they ever be doing this type of plan for residence long distance plans ?
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I took a look at the new rollover rates, and the minimum plan is $30.00 per month.
I use my own phone, and put an automatic $10.00 on my phone as I use it only when I drive to and from Toronto.
I do not see any rollover allowances for those of us who buy time each month by pre-paid plans.
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anyone deffending any provider is an utter idiot. All of these are run on BIG BUSINESS PROPAGANDA, they will screw you everyway they can. I was looking at pay as you go and VIrgin had the best deal by far. Spread it around so they dont monopolize the industry as they have for years now
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You have to understand this is a postpaid monthly plan not a pay as you go you CANNOT compare.
People also have to understand ALL of the big service providers have 3 year contracts. Bell offers 1,2 &3 year contracts it depends on how much you want to pay for your hardware. I'm sure all BIG providers are the same way.
Also I have looked into Virgin and Koodoo they offer pick and choose and pay for what you use provider. Which works for some people but if you want a plan with Call Display/VOicmail/texting etc you are actually paying just a much as you would be with a big provider depending on what plan your on with a large provider. The only bonus is no system access fees and no contracts but you pay outright for your hardware.
So is anyone actually winning with any provider? NO!
What we need is some serious competition in Canada as we are getting severly ripped off by these telecommunications giants, if its Bell, Solo (Bell) telus, Rogers, Fido (rogers), Koodoo (telus) or Virgin. Trust me they all make their money somewhere.
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Sorry Rebecca,
i have to agree that customer service sucks! I work for an independant store where we sell Bell products so there's alot of fonctions we cannot do and when we tell clients they have to call customer service they flip! People hate Bell's customer service and to be honest I do to! I would say that more than half the people who work there have absolutely no idea what they are talking about and I know this for a fact because I worked for customer service to!
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And by the way the plans are effective as of the 7th only!
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Mhn we use to be with Fido and every other month we end up looking minutes due to not renewing on time :( Lately we been using cell just for emergency.
To make the long story short, friend of ours told us plan from T-Mobile, u buy a number for $25.00 bucks than update with a gold card which cost $100.00 comes with 1000 minutes and its good for a year. anytime u can top it off with min of 10.00 bucks and it will take u another year. This seems to be much cheaper n working out well for us, one draw back tho, if u call someone it maybe long distance, do your home work.
And finally after moving to Ont, from Sask, we end up with Cogeco, their service was just as lousy, so we thought lets try Bell, guess what? they are even worse like most users indicated..
Sighs
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Sadly, this is not a first in Canadian markets! Fido offered roll over minutes years ago on monthly plans…not pay as you go.
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I refuse to use any of the cell phone companies in Canada. If I had to use any it would be Telus. However I use Verizon. Better phones, better plans and BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE and yes Bell are crooks. I paid my account and over 2 years ago and they still keep sending me a bill. Idiots I say.
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hey joepiscapo…. who do you think owns Virgin? BCE
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I don't believe it…I have had mtm for 10yrs. when I first bought the phone the minutes rolled over. Then I received a letter in the mail that the roll over minutes no longer applied. If I didn't use my minutes I lose them, even though I pay a flat fee automatically. Telus lets you roll over any unused minutes and you have access via their ecare site to view actual usage even though you are not on a plan. We have 2 Telus phones and 1 Bell phone.
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That article/ADVERTISEMENT is simply NOT true.
Go to Rogers with a PayGo account and you can carry over your minutes indefinitely as long as you renew your minutes before the period is up. I put mine on a credit for the minimum of 11.30 a month and it automatically renews. You can accumulate ALL your unused minutes that way.
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Congrates for bringing back rollover Plan in the eve of Competition. It will be really helpful to compete in the field & to bring more customers in with a lot of variety . I have been to States for so many years , there At& T has so many good plans & glad to note that Bell has improved a lot .Though Roll Over ,is not a first in Canadian markets! Fido offered roll over minutes years ago on monthly plans.10 years ago , mtm had roll over plans too .
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Who cares?! Bell is the worst provider EVER. My phone is with them and when I got it I was told I got unlimited calls to one bell residential # (which my parents have) I was heading off for my first year of college so this was great. I specifically asked the guy I was buying it from if this included long distance and told him where I was going and he told me YES. Before heading to school I went to Toronto and called home from there and on my next phone bill what did I see… Long distance charge! I called the customer service line which was no help since that don't speak english so I then called the store directely and spoke with the manager. I told her what happened and gave her the salesperson's name. She promised to call me back after speaking with him. She never did. B!TCH
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I do not believe this at all. I am so disappointed with them. They ruined two of my last phone bill by over charging on my day time minutes when I know for a fact that it did not happen because I barely even use my phone during day time.
It was on calls that did not even occur. So figure, if they cannot even fix this problem and do it right. How do you even expect them to be able to handle these rollover minutes.
Seems too complicated for them, don't you think? They can't even take care of little problems.
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Whoopi!!!! I'm waiting for the day all of these Canadian Cellular PIGS get taken out by American or European companies and get far lower rates, more features and real competition. WE GET SCREWED daily. Rollover minutes….everyone else on the planet has been getting this and more for years.
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How do I read all past comments in addition to the few that show on my screen?
Thanks,
M,
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they would really do their customers justice if they did away with that unnessary access fee that cost over $9 a month. Thats one of the reasons I left them.Anither is that 911 charge that they get away with charging every month. Charge me if and when I use it not every month. (Stupid is what stupid does). It's stupid and I don't know why these companies don't get it, greed will bite you in the ass like a mad dog one day. Now that I have left bell I won't come back they should have respected me when I was their customer. None of my family is with GREEDY bell. The first comapny and far from the best which is a shame because they could be and should be. Canada needs companies that care about their customers.
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this is the same thing they're doing with our service here in usa, and its called cingular or AT&T… same thing..
""roll over minutes " yeah.. same provider that they are using under cingular or AT&T!!!
but i dont believe it until its true because i been on with cingular and i dont see any difference….
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Hey, for everyone who has a problem with Bell's customer service, or any other company's customer service, let me remind you that in order to pay for good quality client care (including agents in Canada who are well trained), we'd all be paying far higher monthly phone bills. Pick your poison.
And for those who say Bell or any other company is screwing you over, that's more of a reflection of your lack of knowledge on what you formally agreed to. The smart customer is the one who does his/her homework before committing to a contract.
I will side with those who hate the system access fees, etc. Thankfully, in the very near future, most of those monthly fees will be reduced as Canada has finally sold air space to small-time mobility companies from the U.S. This will likely be the worst it gets. Relax.
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I also absolutely HATE BELL WITH A PASSION. They are notorius for screwing up bills and charging fees for services never provided, such as password re-sets, and the majority of their customer service agents are not able to understand the error on the bill then give attitude when you ask for a refund.
When I started with them it took over 6 months, countless hours of my time and finally a decent customer service agent to refund excess charges from my first bill. From that point I couldn't wait for the three years to be up and recently switched to Rogers becuase our Bell contract is nearly at the end of the three years!!! Well, unfortunately, things aren't really over with Bell because I have yet to make another phone call tonight because there are now issues with our final bills. These issues were supposed to have been resolved before we received our final bills, during a call to Bell 3 weeks ago. However, after being on the phone with Bell for over an hour the call was dropped! On top of that they are charging $1 for paper statements now – what's up with that??? A WARNING TO ANYONE CONSIDERING DEALING WITH BELL – REGARDLESS OF THEIR PLANS/PRICE/PHONES I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE.
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have you guys ever tried Koodo Mobile ??? I already purchased my phone thru them, and its the best ever… had u ever thought about it and see the difference bec unlimited text msgin and stuff, its good. I wouldnt put myself on contract. I wanted the iphone and just want the phone itself and they required for 3 year contract .. 3 years ???? hello? i guess i wont be on contract for 3 years.. its crazy. iphone with maybe a phone itself and no contract, for sure i would get it, but on 3 year contact? helloo.. no way and no thanks.. rogers are a big rip off !!!
its good feature for the deaf here.. but 3 years stuck with 'em.. i dont think so…
rather to be on Koodo for now until things are little more different in 2009.. but who knows…
**deaf girl in Canada**
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rut roh!!!
i just got my self roped into bell`s fab 5 plan for the next 3 years, after reading these comments ,
what the S**t did i just get myself into??????
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If this new service is anything like the rest of Bell's services I won't hold my breath. If our business was not tied into the Bell system I would change in a heartbeat.
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Bell is ALWAYS behind the times in introducing anything "new"! I'm an Australian (living here in Canada for over 3years now) and we have had rollover plans from our major carriers for YEARS!! I'm shocked that a developed country that is neighbours with the US isn't anywhere close in offering the same services and tecnologies that the US offers. Why doesn't any of the canadian carriers actually wake up and smell the roses here and start giving REAL SERVICE & TECHNOLOGY to its paying customers like the other carriers all over the world have offered for YEARS! Also another point.. both the US and Canadian carriers DOUBLE DIP in their charges to their customers, charging for both INCOMING & OUTGOING calls yet Australian carriers don't charge for incoming calls.. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT!? Greed is what I call it!
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KOOOOOOODOOOOOO
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I have to agree with Erica, they have poor customer service and they will never get another penny from me. "A WARNING TO ANYONE CONSIDERING DEALING WITH BELL – REGARDLESS OF THEIR PLANS/PRICE/PHONES I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE."
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honestly… i dont want to be stuck with bell with a 3 year plan .. stuck my butt on glue with bell.. hmm…. koodo is better bec of no contract.. sighs……. feel free without being into that mess..
bell …((thumbs down))) what other cellphone companies are good anyways??
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Bell Mobility has done well with their upgraded network but not much else of what they have done is an improvement, namely their customer service.
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