If you’re feeling savvy enough to deal with Telus support or want to go down to a store in a few days, with some tricky moves, you can get a really good discount on a Pixel 9.
The carrier has the phone down to $2.50 a month on its bring-it-back program, which on its face seems like a good deal until you realize that it only pairs with a $90 plan. Alternatively, you could go to Freedom and get a Pixel 9 for $5 per month and a $50 plan, which is still almost $1,000 less than you would pay at Telus over two years.
That said, Telus appears to have structured its deal as an upfront $1,125 discount instead of spreading it out over 24 months. However, your first bill will have one and a half months charged to it, which will cost you around $140. Once you pay that, you can contact Telus, cancel the service, and you’ll be charged $60 for the phone, plus $100 for the Bring-It-Back program, and potentially any other early cancellation fees.
Altogether, these are the charges:
- Day one – $47.20 (taxes on the phone and the cost to ship it to your house)
- Bill one – $138.75 (first month and a half of service)
- Bill two – $60 (outright cost of the phone)
- Bring-It-Back fee – $100
Total – $345.95
Rogers is offering an even better discount, bringing the Pixel 9 down to $1. However, its plans are even more expensive, and its discount is rolled out as bill credits, so the phone’s cost will be much higher if you try to buy out of the contract early.
While this Telus option is a fine deal, if you live in an area with Freedom’s coverage, you can get a Pixel 9 (not on a device return plan) and a 100GB plan with CAN/US/MEX data, calling, and texting for $54 per month. This is actually a pretty great deal and only costs about the same over two years as doing the weird Telus workaround that I described above.
That said, if Freedom doesn’t work for you, you can do the Telus method and get a cheap plan at Public Mobile (also Telus), and you’ll still end up saving a lot of money on your device.
