According to my accounting software, since March of 2011 I have spent $847.16 on SO services (including the cost of the phone and the taxes) but I currently have $174.50 in credit at SO. Since the credit includes extra bonus dollars when buying $100 plans the accounting is a bit off if we count this as pure money credit, but subtracting the two anyway gives me $672.66 in costs spread over the 877 days since I bought in.

Since the start of March I have been using UB, so that is $10/month for seven months for $70. Thus for the 877 days my voice and SMS charges have been $602.66, or just under $0.69 per day. On a per-month basis this seems to come out to just shy of $21/month ($20.92/month), plus the $10 UB lately for a total of $31/month.

These numbers all include taxes when making the initial credit purchases, so I suppose the before tax number is more like $27.35/month.

If we try to figure in the promotional credits I have received, which I have not tracked anywhere, it looks like I've purchased five $100 vouchers, so maybe I've got about $110 in promotional credits (I think some were $25 credits and some were $20 credits).

So I have spent $847.16 total, which pre-tax was $750. I think the phone was free as part of the initial purchase, so this is purely for SO credits. This resulted in extra credits of $110 SOD ("SpeakOut Dollars) giving my account a balance of $860.00 SOD, giving an exchange rate of about $1 CAD = $1.1466 SOD (or $1 SOD = $0.8721 CAD).

This means my current $174.50 SOD credit is worth about $152.18 CAD, meaning I have spent $597.82 CAD on phone service pre-tax. The UB is charged at $10 SOD per month, so that comes to $8.72 CAD each of seven months for a total of $61.05 CAD, so my non-data costs have been $536.77 CAD over 877 days for a cost per day of a bit more than $0.61 CAD, or just shy of $18.63 CAD per month for voice.

So with all that yammering, the past few months I have been paying a total of $27.35 CAD/month for voice and UB, which is exactly the same as my calculation above without properly considering the various credits. I think this is just chance since the earlier calculation would be altered if I went out today and bought $1000 CAD ($1130 CAD with taxes) in top-ups to receive $1250 SOD in credits. My total cost would have been $1977.16 CAD and I would have a credit balance of $1424.50 SOD. With the earlier calculation of just subtracting the credits from the costs I would think I had only spent $552.66 on phone service, when clearly just buying more top-ups should not change the result. The later calculation would be much more accurate.

In any case, it looks like I am spending about $18.63 CAD per month for voice, and $27.35 CAD per month total.

Maybe I should be switching to one of the "Value Plans", since they are charge in SOD, as long as I continue to get $20-$25 when purchasing $100 vouchers, they are much cheaper in CAD. As seen above, each $10 SOD has only cost me $8.72 CAD, and if I exclusively get $125 SOD for each $100 CAD, that comes to $10 SOD costing only $8 CAD. 200 Min is $20 SOD, which can be had for as little as $16 CAD if you choose your top-ups correctly - I may go turn that on right now and add a couple of $100 top-ups to cover the first year's cost.

Or should I be looking elsewhere? I had not realized I was spending almost $30/month on this. Does anyone else have a 200 minutes + UB type of plan for $25 or less?

Obviously for me the unlimited texting would be a waste - even the older 2500 texts @ $10 would have been a waste. And I had no interest in UMB either, but I am watching to see what sort of data options they come up with next month. If I can get a handful of data for $5 I'll do it. $10 and I'd have to think about it, and anything beyond that and I won't be the least bit interested.

For me, my mobile phone is my only phone. I got rid of the landline 2 years ago when I realized I was paying about $50 / month and the only use I was getting was being hounded by telemarketers.

What I like about SpeakOut is the included call display and voicemail, and that with the value plan, domestic long distance is included. About 75% of my calls are out of town, so the included long distance is huge. It doesn't hurt that there's a 7-11 around the corner from me so I can get top-ups very easily.

I'm also very happy to not be stuck in contracts any more. I had been with Rogers since before Rogers was in the phone business - I had the same phone # and same account since I signed up with Cantel AT&T, that became Rogers Cantel, that eventually was just Rogers. Getting re-locked-in every 2 or 3 years, nonstop, while the cost gradually crept up and up... I'm glad now that that's over!

I've bought it with intention to use it on the $20 / 200min Value Plan and I've been on that since mid February of last year.

So it's $20/ month + some change ( I time the top offs to coincide with the $20 bonus twice a year which effectively means 1 free month + a $20 "overage fund")

The 200 minutes has covered me in 13 of the 15 months that I've had it (the other two times I went over by12 and 8 minutes, so no major cost difference.) Most months I only did 10-15 texts so that extra cost was also negligiable.

This is pretty much what I need. There was a $20-200 prepaid from Virgin and a $19-150 one from Fido, but SpeakOut had the much better terms in case I ever need to downgrade to per-minute, not to mention the huge local calling area and 365 day balance.

Free Display & VoiceMail were also crucial advantages over Wind, Mobilicity & Koodo (although Koodo has since added these features to their $25 nationwide plan ). Adding $8 for VM is totally unaccepatble unless you're getting the rest of the plan for $12!

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with the terms and the deal. The only thing I miss is the e-mail-to-text compatability which I had on Virgin, and the louder sound of the Bell network.

Other carriers have done nothing to make their prepaid offerings more attractive for my type of usage. The SpeakOut deal now makes even more sense then when I first chose it. I do not forsee making a change in the near future as long as the SpeakOut terms & rates remain the same.

I have a landline at home that my wife uses for about an hour a day for local calls. I work in an office, and have a direct line to my desk. So I don't need to use my cell very often. And, that's why SO is perfect for me. $5-7 a month is perfect.

Let me know how much you spend. Do you pay per use, or do you subscribe to a package or UMB or Value plan or texting plan, etc etc. How does SO useage fit in your life. Do you have a landline

I''ll collate the data and work it out.

Please report your contributions as a 'per month' calculation.

Thanks!

Me, I spend about $40-50 year, no data, no texting plan, I make the occasional outdoor calls for craigslisting, but it's mostly texting.