Phones for You, Phones for Me !

I'm going to post lots about this later, but quite the USD-CAD exchange rate, eh?

So noting this new strength of the Canadian dollar, I'm convinced we have to pay more for [some] goods/services just to have the honour of being labelled a Canadian. Case in point for this lovely Sunday afternoon:

$49.99 mobile phone from Virgin in the US.

$49.99 mobile phone from Virgin in CANADA.

Sigh. I would rather buy an American phone. However, I assume it wouldn't work in Canada, as I currently have an American Virgin mobile and it's rather useless here. My US phone is about one step down from the link posted for the Canadian phone. The only real different is my US phone has a black and white screen, and the phone is a nicer colour. Oh, and it was $49.99 cheaper, because it was free provided you purchased $20 in phone credit.

One may argue that the taxes make up some of the difference. However, all prices listed are BEFORE taxes.

Oh, and my first mobile was a Virgin phone from the UK. That was a few years ago, so I can't remember how much I paid. But now, for the equivalent of $50 CAD, you can get this phone, or for about $10 cheaper, this phone.

These all pay-as-you-go phones, I'm quite aware that one can get substantially better phones for cheaper when signing up for a three-year plan in Canada. But wow, three years is a long time. Although perhaps I'm just a wee bit of a Canada-committment phobe.