How to Save $$$100s a Year on Your Bundle

Last year I had a standard setup for my phone, TV and internet. TV was provided by Videotron and the phone and internet by Bell.

On average I was paying $182.52 per month plus about $10 for a phone card to ring the UK. So that’s $192 per month in total.

The TV package was modest and was the Videotron a la carte 20 package where I could choose 20 stations and change them at will. We also had access to Illico and could download movies for a fee. Unfortunately, my family and I could never find 20 stations worth watching and the package was a little redundant.

So, I took the advice of a friend of the BritClub and have changed my phone/TV/Internet package completely.

I now have a high speed internet link through Videotron - 60Mbps with 150Gb bandwidth and, at the time of writing, this costs approx $81 per month. Then I pay £5 ($7.90) per month for a UK IP address (For more information Click Here) giving access to all UK TV iplayers, $7.99 for Netflix and approx $30 for a Vonage VOIP phone connection. Also, the Candian stations have Iplayers too so you can watch online.

I love it! For $127 per month (For me a saving of $65 per month/$780 per year) I get to watch great TV, phone anywhere in the world without a phone card and have a very fast internet connection.

If you have a wireless router you can watch TV anywhere in the house on your computer and you can plug your laptop into our TV for a bigger screen.

Worth exploring eh? For a UK IP address Click Here.

Permanent Resident Card Renewal

It looks like Citizenship and Immigration Canada have assigned more staff to the Permanent Resident Card section. In December 2010 I was shocked to find out that it was going to take 201 days to renew my card that ran out on 1st March 2011. In true BritClub fashion I rang them and complained because my two sons and my wife were travelling to the US and UK respectively after the cards had expired. It seems there must have been a lot of complaints because the wait is now down to 127 days.
Having said this, if you are travelling and your card is about to expire, you send in proof of travel with your renewal application and write "Urgent - Proof of Travel Enclosed" on the envelope. The effect of this is that we got the appointment to pick up the new cards in around two weeks and were in possession of the new cards in about 4 weeks. So, to be fair it does seem like Citizenship and Immigration Canada have got their act together after all.