So You Think We Have It Bad? A Look At Canadian Termination Fees

Over the past few years I have learned quite a bit about wireless plans in Canada. I remember the first time I heard of a 3 year contract… I used to think that carriers sucked in the US due to ridiculous early termination fees (ETF) and 2 year contracts. Then I started getting some insight into how bad it is just north of the border and all of a sudden I feel quite lucky. I recently did some digging into ETF (known as ECF’s in Canada) so I could get a bit more insight about how things work over there. I actually found it quite enlightening as to how bad it is in RIM’s own country.

So lets get down to the details. In general you will be forced to always sign a 3 year contract to get decent pricing on any phone. The only exception is FIDO who has a 2 year option deal for regular phones (not smartphones). To get a decent deal on any smartphone you will almost always sign a 3 year Voice Term + 3 Year Data/3 Year Surging contract.

NOTE: All numbers are in Canadian Dollars. There may be some slight errors in here just because this stuff is simply confusing! Let me know if I got something wrong.

Rogers – Rogers & Bell are more or less the same

• Practically no discount for 2 year contracts
• 3 Year Voice + 3 Year Data for all BlackBerry Handhelds.
• Cancellation Policy:
• Voice – $20 for every remaining month in contract, Max $400, Min $100. 
• Data / Vision / Surfing – $5 for every remaining month in contract, Max $100, Min $25. 
• NOTES: They require 30 days notice to cancel so you may get charged for another full month before cancellation is applied. 
• Real World Example:  BlackBerry Bold retails for $599-$649 + tax on Rogers.  Rogers sells the Bold for $249+tax on a 3 Year Voice + Data.  Maximum cost for the Bold if one cancels their contract early in their contract is $249+$400ECF+$100DECF+tax = $749+tax (which in Ontario is ~$850)…

Bell Mobility – Mostly the same as Rogers with a few exceptions:

• Data appears to be required for Smartphones as there is no 3 year ONLY option for these devices
• ECF appears to be $400 MAX for ALL Devices and $100 minimum for ALL devices
• NOTES: As usual cancellations take 30 days to process.

Telus Mobility –

• Practically no discount for 2 year contracts
• 3 Year Voice + 1 Year Data for all BlackBerry Handhelds. After 1 year, you can remove data.
• Cancellation Policy:
• Voice – $20 for every remaining month in contract, NO MAXIMUM, Min $100.  No maximum means that at 36 months remaining, the Voice ECF is $720 + tax. 
• Data / Surfing ECF is $100.
• NOTES: Cancellations take 30 days to process.
• Real World Example:  BlackBerry Storm retails for $599+tax on Telus.  Telus sells the Storm for $199 when the client’s Voice, Data and Email totals $40 before taxes.  Maximum fee is $199 + $720 + TAX ($1039 in Ontario). There is also the possibility of the $100 fee for cancelling data within the year.

I just find these numbers staggering. I know it is slightly offset by carriers in Canada letting you resign a contract while you are 2 years into it to get a new device. On the other hand most of my BlackBerrys barely last a year let alone 2 or 3! Let me know what you think or if you found a country that has worse cancelation fees.