Virgin Mobile Canada SIM card

The Virgin Mobile Canada SIM card is a great option for saving money on mobile phone use while visiting Canada.

*Please check your phone frequencies carefully - the Virgin Mobile network requires a quad-band 3G phone that is compatible with the 850/1900 UMTS 3G bands*

Prepaid rate plans

The cost of calls and your included monthly value varies depending on which rate plan you choose when you activate your service. The most popular rate plans are:

35c/minute Talk & Text plan

This is the basic pay as you go plan that is best suited if you’re only making a short visit of around a week of so or if you don’ t plan on using your phone very often. If you’re travelling for longer than 10 days or so, Virgin Mobile’s monthly prepaid plans will work out much better value. Call costs on the 35c/minute Talk & Text plan are:

• Local calls cost 35c per minute; calls outside your local calling area cost 70c per minute
• Incoming calls cost 35c per minute in your local calling area and 70c per minute outside your local calling area.
• Text messages cost 20c per message to Canadian mobile phones and 35c per message to mobile phones outside Canada.

This plan doesn’t include any data, but you can add a data add-on to add data to your mobile service.

$25/month Talk & Text plan

This is a good option if you don’t plan on using your phone much while in Canada. . This rate plan costs CAD $25 from your prepaid credit balance (for each 30 days service) and gives you:

• 100 minutes that can be used anytime (for incoming calls and local calls while you are inside your local area code)
• Local calls cost 30c/minute after you have used your included 100 minutes
• Incoming calls cost 30c/minute after you have used your included 100 minutes; if you are outside your local calling area you pay an additional 35c/minute (which is 35c/minute or 65c/minute if you have used your 100 included minutes)
• Long distance within Canada (outside your local area code) and the USA cost 65c/minute after you have used your 100 included minutes or 35c/minute if you still have your included minutes left
• Unlimited SMS text messages to other mobile phones in Canada and the United States (text messages sent outside North America cost 35c per message)
• 100 MB data (excess data is charged at 15c/MB)

$35/month Talk & Text plan

This is a good value plan, however it does not include any data. However if you have a smart phone and plan on using a lot of data, then this rate plan combined with an additional data package is your best option. This rate plan costs CAD $35 from your prepaid credit balance (for each 30 days service) and gives you:

• 150 minutes that can be used anytime (for incoming calls and local calls while you are inside your local area code)
• Unlimited incoming calls when you are inside your local calling area (regardless of where the call originates); if you are outside your local calling area you pay 35c/minute to receive a call
• Unlimited calls on weekends and evenings (all day Saturday and Sunday and 7pm-7am weekdays)
• Local calls on weekdays between 7am and 7pm cost 30c/minute
• Long distance within Canada (outside your local area code) and the USA cost 65c/minute before 7pm on weekdays and 35c/minute on weekends and evenings (after 7pm)
• Unlimited SMS text messages to other mobile phones in Canada and the United States (text messages sent outside North America cost 35c per message)

Data is not included with this rate plan so you will need to add a data feature to your plan when activating your service.

Adding extra data to Talk & Text plans

Data is not included with the $35/month Talk & Text plan. If you want to add data to this rateplan, you may add one of these three data plans when you activate your service:

$10/month 100MB data package, which gives you 100MB data (excess data will be charged at 15c/MB)

$25/month 500MB data package, which gives you 500MB data (excess data will be charged at 5c/MB)

$35/month 1GB data package, which gives you 1GB data (excess data will be charged at 5c/MB)

$35/month Smartphone plan

The $35/month Smartphone plan is the best value option for most people visiting Canada as it includes enough data to cover most people visiting Canada for a couple of weeks. This rate plan costs CAD $35 from your prepaid credit balance (for each 30 days service) and gives you:

• Unlimited incoming calls when you are inside your local calling area (regardless of where the call originates); if you are outside your local calling area you pay 35c/minute to receive a call
• Unlimited calls on weekends and evenings (all day Saturday and Sunday and 7pm-7am weekdays)
• Local calls on weekdays between 7am and 7pm cost 30c/minute
• Long distance within Canada (outside your local area code) and the USA cost 65c/minute before 7pm on weekdays and 35c/minute on weekends and evenings (after 7pm)
• Unlimited SMS text messages to other mobile phones in Canada and the United States (text messages sent outside North America cost 35c per message)
• 250MB data (excess data is charged at 5c/MB)

Saving on international calls

International calls are expensive (around $2/minute) on Virgin Mobile Canada's prepaid plans, but fortunately there are several ways to save on international calls including Skype and Rebtel.

Using Rebtel to make cheaper international calls from Virgin Mobile Canada SIM

If most of your international calls are to a handful of numbers, you can significantly reduce the cost of international calls with the Rebtel service. Rebtel works by assigning a local Canadian number to each of the regular international numbers you call, then you simply call this local number and your call is diverted to the international number. You are charged for a local or national call by Virgin Mobile and the international portion of the call is paid to Rebtel at USD 2¢ per minute to Australian landlines and USD 16¢ per minute to Australian mobiles. Check the Rebtel website for rates to other countries.

It only takes around five to 10 minutes to set up a Rebtel account online, however you need to access the internet as soon as you arrive in Canada to complete the set up process as Rebtel sends you a text message with your activation code before asigning local Canadian numbers to your international phone numbers. Once it is set up, however, it is a very easy system especially if you save your Rebtel numbers to your phone's address book.

To get these special Rebtel international rates, click here to sign up for a Rebtel account

If you have a smart phone that can run the Rebtel app (such as Android phones, BlackBerry devices and the Apple iPhone), then this is another way that you can use Rebtel to make cheap international calls. The advantage of making international calls using the Rebtel app is that you can dial directly from the app without first setting up your contacts.

Using Rebtel to make cheaper international calls from any Virgin Mobile prepaid plan

If most of your international calls are to a handful of numbers, you can significantly reduce the cost of international calls with the Rebtel service. Rebtel works by assigning a local US number to each of the regular international numbers you call, then you simply call this local number and your call is diverted to the international number. You are charged for a national call by T-Mobile and the international portion of the call is paid to Rebtel at USD 2¢ per minute to Australian landlines and USD 16¢ per minute to Australian mobiles.Check the Rebtel website for rates to other countries.

It only takes around five to 10 minutes to set up a Rebtel account online, however you need to access the internet as soon as you arrive in the US to complete the set up process as Rebtel sends you a text message with your activation code before asigning local US numbers to your international phone numbers. Once it is set up, however, it is a very easy system especially if you save your Rebtel numbers to your phone's address book.

To get these special Rebtel international rates, click here to sign up for a Rebtel account

If you have a smart phone that can run the Rebtel app (such as Android phones, BlackBerry devices and the Apple iPhone), then this is another way that you can use Rebtel to make cheap international calls. The advantage of making international calls using the Rebtel app is that you can dial directly from the app without first setting up your contacts.

Activating your Virgin Mobile Canada SIM card

You need to activate your Virgin Mobile Canada SIM card yourself to choose your rate plan and assign yourself a Canadian mobile phone number. This can be easily done online before you travel and step-by-step instructions are included with your SIM card.

Your local calling area

The main thing that is different about mobile phones in Canada is that each mobile phone number is linked to a specific region of Canada. This not only means that you have a phone number with an area code that is specific to a particular area of the country, but it also means that you pay domestic roaming fees when using your phone away from the local area code that your phone is activated in. For this reason, it is important to specify the area where you plan on using your phone the most when activating your service.

When you are travelling outside your local calling area, a local call (within the area you are visiting) is charged at the same local rates as a local call within your local calling area; however you pay an additional long distance charge of 35c/minute to receive a call or to call outside the area you are visiting.

Great coverage on Virgin Mobile’s Canada-wide network

Virgin Mobile’s Canadian network covers 97% of Canada’s population at 3G HSPA+ with data speeds of up to 42 Mbps in major cities and up to 21 Mbps in most regional areas.

If you have a phone compatible with LTE (Band 4/AWS) you will be able to download at super fast LTE speeds in the centres of most major Canadian cities.

You will need a quad-band 3G phone that is compatible with the 850/1900 UMTS 3G bands.

Adding credit to your account

This is a prepaid mobile phone service and payment for your monthly charge, add-on features and additional calls is taken from your prepaid account balance. You can add to this prepaid account balance by buying top-up cards from thousands of retailers throughout Canada including: 7-Eleven, Best Buy Mobile, Booth Wireless, Future Shop, London Drugs, the Mobile Shop, the Source, Walmart, Wellers and Wirelesswave.

Virgin Mobile Canada top-up cards come in the following denominations: $15, $25, $50 and $100.

How long is my service valid for?

The validity of your prepaid mobile phone service depends on the value of your last top up. When activated you get $5 of starter credit, which keeps your service alive for 30 days. If you add a $15 top-up you keep your service active for 30 days, if you add a $25 or $50 top-up voucher you keep your service alive for 60 days and if you add a $100 top-up you service doesn’t expire for 365 days.

Please note, however, that if you are on a monthly prepaid rate plan payment for additional months will be taken from your prepaid balance if there is enough credit in your account to pay for it. In other words adding a $100 top up will keep your service active, but as payment for your service on a monthly prepaid rate plan is taken from your account every month you will not have any prepaid balance left if you return to Canada six months later for a subsequent trip. If you plan on adding a large amount of credit to keep your service active, it is advisable to change to the 35c/minute Talk & Text plan to avoid having monthly charges debited from your account.