Remember Wind Mobile? If you do, and have been with the company into the Freedom Mobile era, then you need to check your monthly bill. If you’re like me and don’t do deep dives into bill payments you might be paying more without realizing it. I’m paying $20 more per month! Let’s break this down and provide you a solution you will be happy with.
First, this is going to be considered old news. However it doesn’t change the fact that most people assume discounts or monthly bills for their mobile phones are set and won’t randomly change one day. In the case of Freedom Mobile they most certainly changed the terms. This means for a lot of loyal, long-term customers, you are now paying more every month.
Wind Mobile and up until recently Freedom Mobile has a program called “better together savings”. Add another line to your account and save. For a family with 4 lines, you could save $20 per month. Great deal, no doubt about it. Too good of a deal as it turns out. Freedom Mobile ended this program early in 2020.
I’m sure there were emails sent about this change and rate increase for many. However, are you like me and get a bunch of promotional emails that go in one ear and out the other? In the modern era you would hope when it comes to changes that are going to cost customers more money, these increases would be clearly and forcefully communicated to customers. If you use a pre-authorized payment then it’s very easy to overlook how much you are paying or if there was a random increase to your bill.
In my case, the only reason I knew something was up is because I noticed a couple consecutive months of higher bills. It seemed odd, so I investigated. With four lines, my bills are confusing, to say the least. It was ultimately through a search engine that I read about the ending of the “better together” program. Even as I found out, I was months after the fact. The program ended a couple months prior to me even realizing it! So for this reason I feel compelled to notify our site visitors because it may have slipped past you as well.
“To support additional investments in improving network and customer experience, we are discontinuing the Better Together Savings/Team Savings program as of March 3, 2020″ — official Freedom Mobile statement
I was certainly furious at first. Freedom Mobile justified this move by telling customers that they are building a better network and expanding which costs money. Make sense. However I was completely happy with the existing coverage and the expansion might be good for their business but I didn’t request the expansion of their infrastructure nor will I make any use of it. But ultimately as a customer it has cost me more whether I like it or not.
After speaking with customer service and a supervisor, I was left with two options. It was also quite funny that the supervisor was blunt and rather unconcerned. In fact, he was more than happy to actually have my line disconnected and was will to do it right then and there rather than finding a solution I would be happier with!
Freedom Mobile is offering either $3 off per line for a year or 50GB data for each line. To clarify the 50GB of data per line, this doesn’t expire and is used for those times when you’ve exceeded your monthly full-speed data allotment. Further, this 50GB is viewable in your account so you can track the usage over time.
Simple math for me. $3 per line x 4 lines = $12 per month or $144 discount for one year. Considering I’m now paying $20/month x 12 months more a year, which works out to $240 more a year, the one-time $144 seemed laughable to me.
The 50GB data offer is slightly more appealing. If you look at it as saying, okay, I’m paying $20 per month more to increase my data on each line by 1GB/month for the next three to four years, maybe that’s reasonable. This is the option that I chose.
After the dust settled and I had a chance to decide on what direction to take, staying with Freedom Mobile is easily the most logical decision. If they continue to expand service it means that the data with my plan become a lot more useful especially in areas that you may frequent but haven’t had Freedom Mobile home coverage. There is expanding “value added” to my monthly bill and I can’t lose sight of that.
Even if Freedom Mobile moves further away from what Wind Mobile represented, it’s still good for Canadians to have them as a new player. They are inching towards folding into the big four but they are also disrupting the industry here in Canada which is getting people more data for cheaper.
Please share your experiences with Freedom Mobile especially as it relates to the ending of the “Better Together” savings plan. Did it impact you? Did you only realize long after the fact like me? Please share in the comments below.
