My beloved LG Chocolate is cracking. And by cracking, I mean it’s already been cracked several times over on the keypad portion only. The touch sensitive spots on the front are still great and responsive, I have no issues there or with any other keys, except for the keys for 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 0 and #. I must not use 4 (ghi), 7 (pqrs) or the * (vibrate) keys very often, hehe.

Luckily, my cell phone (which is on a 3 year contract) is coming up for a contract renewal soon (my current contract ends on September 2, 2010). So I have some options!

I don’t talk on the phone much at all – my big thing is texting (last month I may have had 1500+ incoming and 1500+ outgoing) and I’d really like a phone that also comes with separate keys (for the LG Chocolate that I have, the number pad is all one piece with grooves to separate the numbers – not the best thing in the world, but it didn’t really start to die until maybe this year…)

Both phones that I’ve been looking at (that would be at $20 for a 3 year contract and $100 for buying outright) have slide-out QWERTY keyboards. The phone for Option #2 is also touch screen (oooh, ahhh), the phone for Option #1 does not have a touch screen (awww). Both have expandable memory with a miniSD card, both have a music player, camera, video camera, voice recording, alarm clock, calculator/tip calculator, global clock and a lot of other features that my current (beloved, but cracking) Chocolate has.

Phone for Option #1 has up to: 5.5 hours talk time, 12 days standby

Phone for Option #2 has up to: 12 hours talk time, 7 days standby

Option #1 – Stay With Current Provider

Total cost (for 1 year): $425 (before taxes)
Total cost (for 3 years): $1145 (before taxes)

Caller ID is $8/month and not included above. If I include Caller ID, it would be $96/year and $288/3 years and bring the totals up to $521 and $1433 respectively.

Cons: No Caller ID without additional money. On a contract. What in the fudge is up with this fee to move my number from one phone to the next?? Activation fee?!

Pros: Would for sure be able to keep the same phone number. Picture messaging! Unlimited evenings and weekends – no need to ‘top up’ or worry too much about running out of minutes. Voice mail.

Option #2 – Jump Ship

Total cost (for 1 year): $480 (before taxes)
Total cost (for 3 years): $1160 (before taxes)

Cons to switching to Option #2 is that I would be unlikely to transfer my number from provider #1 to provider #2 (and I’d then have to go through and change my number on a bunch of accounts – like school, the libraries, bank, etc, etc – not to mention telling everyone about it) – however, if it is possible to move my number from provider #1 to #2, provider #2’s website states that it will do it for free. I’d also have to pay additional $$ for regular minutes (hence the $100 or additional top-up money).

Pros would be… unlimited mobile browsing? I’d get the unlimited texting that I want as well! Also, no contract. Overall, less expensive if I were to add in caller ID for Option #1. No activation fee. Free chatting with my sisters (like they don’t hear me talk enough as it is).

So… Internet, what do you think? Tell me your thoughts on my Option #1 and Option #2!

6 Responses

  1. That sucks about your phone. I dropped my favorite phone in a glass of milk, it really sucked. 🙁

    Anyway, I think option 1 sounds the best. I know you’d have to pay a little extra to get caller ID, but to me in the long run it sounds like the better deal. If it were me I’d go with option 1.

    1. Overall it’d be more expensive *with* Caller ID though (additional $96/year at $521 for the first year and $1433 for three years).

      I like my number, but I’m not married to the idea of keeping it for the rest of my life, know what I mean?

  2. Telus makes you pay an activation fee for a new phone? That’s kind of ridiculous. You’re currently a customer with them… Why should you have to pay an activation fee? As far as I’m aware, Rogers doesn’t make you pay an activation fee if you get a new phone.

    1. Ahh yes, it’s an activation fee for the *new phone*, plus there’s a fee for transferring it from the old phone to the new phone (on top of the activation fee, of course).

      And Rogers doesn’t, they’re Option #2. 🙂

    1. I would stick with my current provider, but I’d have to sign another contract in order to get a discounted phone (or anything remotely near under $100). And when I was on the phone with their customer service rep, the person informed me that if I did sign another contract in order to get a discounted phone, they weren’t able to continue giving me the plan that I’m currently on (and if I wanted to stay with my current plan, I’d have to stay with the current phone…). It was all kind of a headache, and they kept on listing all these fees.

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