Happy 5th birthday to Circles Life – why I stayed on in Circles Life

Here’s a big 5th Happy Birthday to Circles Life!

It’s been close to 5 years since I joined the Circles.Life network. I would still say it is definitely one of the best choices that I ever made so far even though it was a ‘painful’ choice. More details below.

Anyway, here’s my story on my journey of Circles.Life, and some key highlight moments of myself and of Circles.Life as well too.

1) BEFORE JOINING

I remember being on my former telco and not being able to do things like watch Youtube or stream music because I only had about 3 GB of data.

And for one month, I was scrimping to make sure I don’t use more than 100 MB a day. I made sure not to view any videos, and to reduce my usage to only messaging and relatively data-free stuff.

I only used my data for important things, and to make sure that I was always connected to Wi-Fi whenever I got a chance to.

Thinking back about it and my current data usage now, I feel like a broke person really and being forced to not enjoy using my phone 😂

All I can say is the data was definitely not enough, and I was stressed to a certain extent to make sure that I didn’t exceed my data plan.

At least I managed to achieve that without paying an extra cent as I didn’t exceed my data.

2) INTRODUCING CIRCLES.LIFE TO MY LIFE

Then came along a Facebook ad by Circles.Life at around August 2016 where they were advertising for an NDP promotion.

While I don’t have the picture, the promotion was simple. 6 GB base plan sign up, plus 2 extra GB per month for signing up during NDP. All for only $28 a month.

At a time when data plans were just 3 GB for $40, this was really a good deal. But it sounded too good to be true 🤔

As I was initially skeptical, I decided to sign up for a new line first just to see how everything worked. As Circles.Life was a digital telco, it made it even more suspicious since they were relatively new to the entire market at that point of time.

A few days later, I received the SIM card with instructions on how to activate my line. With just a few simple steps, I managed to activate it easily and got access to the app pretty quickly.

While the onboarding process isn’t as good as what it is now, it was sufficient enough for me to actually get set up and get ready to roll.

I saw that I had the data as well, which was pretty cool. I never knew that to do with so much data, but the thing is that it wasn’t on my main line.

3) TERMINATING MY CONTRACT

The next month came about and I was paying both my current phone plan and Circles.Life plan and it cost me even more really.

With still about one more year left in my former telco’s contract, I had to sit down to do the math.

So it came down to calculating the costs on whether to stay on with my current telco or to fully port over to Circles.Life.

That also meant paying about $300 in terms of termination charges.

But in the end, it was definitely worth it because I immediately could start using more data and actually save more in the longer run.

Not to mention, Circles.Life gave a lot of promotion in the past which I took part in and still am benefiting from ‘till today!

With many promotions, the 20 GB for $20 upgrade and more, it justified the port over more and more.

The best part is that I actually enjoyed another 10 GB for about 7 months as there was a future promotion to actually break up your contract at the end of 2016, and the offer worked retroactively!

4) THE $20 FOR 20 GB PROMOTION

I would say the biggest promotion that ever got the biggest traction was when Circles.Life introduced the $20 for 20 GB promotion.

…and it actually worked!

I got a ton of sign ups under myself, and it was just a mere 200 mb of data unlimited forever at that time. Imagine if I received the 3 months of unlimited data that you get from referring now 😂

While this was just the beginning, Circles.Life actually refined this promotion over and over until its current iteration of $20 for 100 GB 4G data, with rollover data included as well. Better bang for your buck!

5) THE EVENTS

I remember when I was actually invited for Circles.Life’s first birthday party back in 2017.

It was quite an unexpected thing, but I figured they invited a few prominent users including people who referred a fair bunch of people which landed me an invite (See above point on how I did it).

Looking back, this event was actually held in a night club with food, games and prizes. At this point I remember thinking, which of the old telcos would actually do something like this?

And for those who attended the event would remember this:

In case you can’t see, the biggest prize was that small golden slot where you could win up to 20 GB forever.

And if you think it was difficult to win, I remembered at least 4 to 5 people winning that prize that night!

I actually won a prize as well but it was one of the big purple wedges if I recall. Not too big, but the event was pretty fun as well.

I remembered this event being quite a huge milestone as it marked the one year celebration. Circles.Life also went on to do its 2nd year celebration in 2018 but skipped in 2019.

But due to the pandemic now, a 4th and 5th year celebration like that would be impossible for sure.

Besides this event, there were quite a lot of other events held by Circles.Life that I attended, too. There were way too many to count, but I met a lot of people and enjoyed the experiences as well, too.

6) THE FUTURE

One thing’s for sure, Circles.Life has never stopped innovating ever since they stepped into the market.

In terms of being crazy, I actually covered it in a blog post here on the 3 viral campaigns that they did right in the past. Some of those I actually covered in this blog post as well including the $20 for 20 GB and contract breakup!

Also after joining Circles.Life, I never had to worry about running out of data again, too. No more trying to ‘save’ data and more binging on Youtube and Netflix.

Which is also the biggest reason why I’m on the unlimited data plan as well (with some free unlimited talktime from Circles.Life for a few months).

Just not ‘worrying’ about data is one less thing off my mind, and it’s something I definitely don’t mind paying for. Besides, it’s still cheaper compared to what I had to pay in the past as well, too.

During the pandemic, Circles.Life has really stepped up and given away a lot of freebies including vouchers, coupons and rebates to help its customers tide through the tough period.

CONCLUSION

I would say that being on Circles.Life has been a great customer experience even until today. From my first mobile plan to purchasing my last 2 mobile phones from Circles.Life now, it has been a very seamless experience.

One of the most underrated ones is definitely the live chat. No longer I have to dial in and press numbers, then wait on the line just to get help which may take a very long time.

Plus, I’m an introvert so I’ll take texting over talking on the phone any time of the day 😂

Also I have to credit Circles.Life for really bringing the competition to the next level. If it was not for them, we wouldn’t have so many choices in the marketplace with such competitive price points for data plans now.

If anything, The biggest reason why I have stayed on for 5 years is because of the entire experience ever since I ported in back in August 2016. It’s also the reason why I am probably staying for years to come, too!

To end it off.. Here’s another Happy Birthday to Circles.Life, and here’s to more great years to come!