I just arrived in Colorado for a few weeks of vacation with my brother and his family and the first thing on the itinerary was to go get a local phone. Being from Canada we can use our own phones down in the United States but the roaming rate is $13 CAD every day you are out of Canada. As you can imagine that can add up pretty quickly over three weeks.

So I decided I would go to the local Wal-Mart and pick up a phone. Well actually Kevin suggested that we go to AT&T as they tend to have the best signal around where he lives.

After we forgot to go get the phone as we were side-tracked by buying camping things at said Wal-Mart we drove over to the closest AT&T. I gotta say, the sales guy there was super honest. While online you can get a really cheap phone with a cheap prepaid rate, they didn’t have any in stock at their store. And instead of trying to up-sale me to a $400 phone he recommended going to Wal-Mart as they would have a much better deal there for me. Kudos to you Mr. Salesman. You are actually a hero.

Off we went to Wal-Mart. After another perusal of the camping gear that we really didn’t need to buy more of we landed at the phone section. Now, you have to understand when I say, I usually stay miles away from these phone sections in Canada as, even in our Wal-Marts, the sales people are trained to sniff out potential sales and push those sales no matter what. I hate that kind of stuff. The guy at this Wal-Mart was not that way. He was also super honest.

I ended up leaving with a new but on clearance OnePlus Nord N200 5G. Admittedly an older phone but nothing I can’t deal with for a month. And to be sure, it’ll basically play hotspot for my Google Pixel 6 but still handy to have.

Here’s the kicker though, The phone was free (if activated at Wal-Mart). All I had to do was pay for the first month’s service. $40 USD. For an extra $5 USD you get Canada and Mexico Roaming and Long Distance. So for $60 CAD, I can talk, text and have unlimited data in the US, Canada and Mexico. AND a free $315 CAD phone.

The closest thing you can get in Canada is a 150GB Canada/US plan at $105 CAD a month and you can either bring your own phone (buy a SIM) or finance out a phone on whatever network you choose. And let’s be clear, in Canada there are only three networks that also have their own “budget” options.

I don’t understand how phone companies make their money down here. Obviously I’m missing something our we are getting gouged to death in Canada. Most definitely the latter, by the way. Canadian’s pay nearly the most expensive mobile rates in the world.

All I can say is, I have a free phone that I spent $45 USD to use for a month and that’s it. Incredible.

• Editorial