Vacation Suspension no longer available!

[btrumper]

I recently attempted to place my daughter's phone on vacation suspension while she is studying overseas.  I was informed that Telus has recently changed their policy and although they will suspend the phone, I still pay the same monthly charge.  Has anyone else experienced this?  

[NFtoBC]

You could port her number to an inexpensive pre-paid account for the duration, and get a fresh postpaid plan on her return.

[btrumper]

Thanks for the suggestion.  The problem in my case is that we just renewed her contract and got a new phone in May so the outstanding balance on the phone is almost $600.  I'm upset because when we renewed her contract, we knew she would be leaving the country so we specifically inquired about the vacation suspension and were told that we could basically pay the equivalent of the device balance only for up to 6 months while it was suspended.  Telus has changed these conditions without any notice.  I would imagine that a lot of snowbirds heading south for the winter are going to be pretty upset when they find this out.

[NFtoBC · Accepted solution]

It was never just the monthly portion of the device balance, there was always a fee attached. 

Here is an article from 2016, about the Vacation disconnect option.

[btrumper]

The information in that article is no longer accurate. Even so, it refers to a $30 per month charge for the period while the phone is suspended, far less than the current policy, which is that you still pay the full monthly amount unless you have paid off the device balance.