1. It's the first five minutes of every call. If you make more shorter calls than longer calls, it's a good choice, but after the first 5 minutes it costs more. If you use it more at night, see if you can get the Evenings & Weekends plan; they were offering it at 1 cent a minute after 9pm (though I know they also were once offering it beginning at 6pm). If you use it a lot any time of the day, go with the AnyTime Plan. With all of them, voicemail is included free, but uses up your time when you check it. Call display is included for free, as is call waiting and call forwarding.
2. Yes, you can buy any phone, but you'll have to pay for it outright, and it will cost a lot more. The Rogers phones to buy outright start at around $229. You can also buy them from online vendors, as long as they are labelled as "Unlocked GSM" phones. You'll still have to buy a proper SIM card for them and at least $20 worth of time (both of these come with the outrighted phones from Rogers).
3. Yes, the $100 card exists; it lasts 365 days or til the time runs out, whichever comes first. Other cards come in $10, $20, $30, $40, and last 30 days or until the time runs out. You can carry time over if you purchase more before the end of each 30 days. If you're forgettful, buy the $100 card. You can also txt for more time, and have credit card top up options. You can buy them at Rogers wireless stores, Mac's convenience stores, The Source by Circuit City, Wireless Wave, Wal-Mart and pretty much anywhere you see a Rogers wireless sign on it.
4. No, you don't pay extra for the auto top up - in fact, it's about 20% cheaper. Rogers has it because this way, you're ensuring that you're continually purchasing time from them, as opposed to eventually fogetting about it and getting a phone with another provider. It's easier for them as well, because they don't have to do any extra work entering the information, as it's done automatically. Nicely enough, the same applies to you.
Last edited by snowles; Nov 24th, 2006 at 11:18 AM..