How do I get my money back?

[BLUE2017]

I'm using a pay-as-you-go prepaid 40c/minute plan, which is not available anymore, it seems. Other plans with CAD 10-15 per month are not suitable for me, since I'm mostly not in Canada over the year.

I cannot top up my account, to keep the plan alive, web self-serve is now unavailable to me.

How do I get my CAD 230 back, before Fido eats that money just for fun?

Frustrating.

[Cawtau · Accepted solution]

Hello BLUE2017,

  As you note, Fido has not offered their Anytime plans for a while now. It's regrettable that you do not feel the other pre-paid options suit your needs. Unfortunately, deposits in your account for pre-paid services are non-refundable (see Terms of Service; section 7b). In addition, those funds would also be non-transferrable to other accounts.

  It's strange that you were able to accrue that amount in your account. As far as I am aware, they implemented a $150 cap on pre-paid balances to prevent excessive account balances (see here).

  Some people might advise you to reach out to the CRTC regarding this matter, however,  the Wireless Code only specifies provisions to extend expiry of balances by topping-up within seven calendar days (section J1 ; see also here).

  While the funds are not refundable, you are certain able to use the funds for services before their expiry date.

**edit** Although it might not suit your situation, you might be able to transfer those funds if you switched to post-paid services (see here). Though, you should note that the funds might not refundable if you immediately cancelled the post-paid services (see here).  **

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers

[BLUE2017]

Thank you. Sorry for the late response. I missed to reply at that time.

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@Cawtau wrote:

  It's strange that you were able to accrue that amount in your account. As far as I am aware, they implemented a $150 cap on pre-paid balances to prevent excessive account balances (see here).

---

It's simlple. A top-up of CAD 100.- for keeping alive the SIM another 365 days. After a few years you're there, if you do not actually use the funds. Since I'm in Germany most of the time, I do not use the funds that much.

The whole idea was to gain and have a clean mobile number at the end of the day. Canadian providers re-use mobile numbers as soon the're returned. So you never know what history a number had. I'd really like to avoid the nightmares of having arbitrary debt collectors calling me constantly. I went trough it already. So it's better to have a number, you have kept (or reserved against others) for years.

Post-Paid starts at CAD 25.-/month or so. It's not an option, if you compare Pre-Paid top-up CAD 100.-/year, which is just CAD 8.33/month. For keeping alive a mobile number it's not that bad.

Pre-Paid handling became quite worse with Fido. I use their dial-in bot off from German soil. It works, but it's 90ies.

I wonder why pre-paid users are treated as second class users. Mobile providers get the money in advance, so they have no issues coming from there. That should be worth something.

In Germany some mobile providers allow you to just hold your SIM with just 1.- Euro/month, no plans activated. That's fair and a good example to keep providers SIM databases clean (their focus) on one hand, but to have a cheap option to keep a SIM alive if you want on the other. An use case can be to have a very cheap emergency phone, as you can call emergency services with it still. Emergency calls without SIM aren't possible (over here) anymore.

Since private mobile phone numbers are of more importance than land line numbers nowadays, I'm not understanding, why Canadian mobile providers are so less flexible about that. Two choices left, either you get eaten alive by expensive plans, or you lose your long time number well known by friends.

[Cawtau]

Hello again,

  Thank you for your reply.

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@BLUE2017 wrote:

.....It's simlple. A top-up of CAD 100.- for keeping alive the SIM another 365 days. After a few years you're there, if you do not actually use the funds. Since I'm in Germany most of the time, I do not use the funds that much....

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  I understand topping up the $100 in order to extend the expiry date for 365 days. However, as mentioned, I was under the impression Fido implemented a $150 cap on pre-paid accounts (see here and here). As far as I was aware, they implemented the cap to prevent customers from accumulating excessive amounts on their accounts (>$800).

  I think that is also why they removed the Anytime minute plan (pay-per-use) and now only offer monthly or yearly pre-paid options (see here).

  I understand the different providers in other Countries might have different offerings and policies. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any provider in North America offering similar means to keep a phone line active. However, there are other means of keeping a number. While all of the pre-paid offerings in Canada have expiring balances, some offer the 365 days with all of their top-up values. In addition, some people have opted to port their number to a voIP provider. Though, there may also be fees for keeping the line.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers