How to save on Public Mobile

Public Mobile is a Canadian pre-paid self-serve mobile brand owned by Telus with plans starting from $15/month.

You’ll first need to purchase a sim card in advance if activating from home. These sell for $10 when purchased through Public Mobile’s website and are sometimes on sale for $5. There are also third party vendors on the web that may be offering sim cards for less.

Pre-pandemic, I activated my Public Mobile account in-person at a local Walmart and received the sim card for free during a promotion at the time.

The first tip is to always sign up for a new activation with an existing customer’s referral code – this gets you a $10 credit and gives them a $1 credit for each month that you continue to be a subscriber.

Ask your friends or coworkers to see if any of them are already with Public Mobile. Otherwise feel free to use my referral code – ZP2W7O (letter O, not zero) or click on this link if activating online.

Wait until Public Mobile has an attractive flash sale. These are usually advertised through their social media channels and discussed on their support forum.

Among the better promotions are the activate and get one month free offers which has occured a number of times in recent months. You will be required to enter your email address on their website and activate by a certain date with the same email to take advantage of a particular sale.

Secondly, search for any available promo codes that are still valid. There is a field specifically for this code on the plan selection screen, which is separate from and not the same as the referral box during the sign-up process.

Presently, when signing up for a $35 or greater plan, you can use promo code BONUS2GB for an extra 2GB of 1-time use data. This code is currently advertised here and could expire at any time.

During activation, you’ll be asked if you want to activate Autopay which will give subscribers an additional $2 monthly credit.

Note that there are numerous Public Mobile listings on eBay and Amazon – these are not official listings from the company. Many are by private individuals selling their referral codes or pre-activated sim cards in order to guarantee themselves the referral credit. If you go this route, read the listing details carefully.

There is no need to pay anyone for a referral code.

Note that everyone’s referral codes are worth the SAME. There are some websites out there that use some tricky wording that say use their code and get “up to” $25 or even $50 credit. The amount just combines in any promotion that might be going on at that time.

If you have a Koho card, use it for your Public Mobile payments – as one of Koho’s current perks partners, you can earn an extra 2% cashback.

Koho is a no-fee reloadable prepaid Visa with the free tier offering 0.5% cashback on every purchase (along with extra cashback when purchases are made at partners including DoorDash, Harvey’s, Hudson’s Bay, Pizza Pizza, Public Mobile and more).

Finally, for every year you remain with Public Mobile, you’ll earn an additional $1 loyalty credit towards each month’s billing.