Understanding your TELUS Business bill & charges

The first bill can be upsetting when you don't know what to expect or are unfamiliar with the charges it may show. While it will almost always be higher than all subsequent bills, a few specific charges ought to be taken into account. 

Partial Charges

• As our invoices always include charges for a month in advance as well as those for the days leading up to the first billing date, partial charges are likely to be applied. For example, if you have added an Office Phone, a Smartphone, or a Business Internet plan in the middle of a billing cycle, a partial charge from the date of your activation to your billing date*, as well as a charge for the next full month of service, will be added

Activation fees

• Activation fees may also contribute to a higher bill. Those charges are unique to your first bill and are charged PER LINE activated and not as a single charge for the whole account. For example, if you have activated 4 lines on 1 account, you will see 4 activation fees

Device Taxes

• Device taxes may be applied following an activation if you have ordered over the phone through us. Those are taxes charged PER LINE activated for mobility services relative to the value of the device you are financing

Upfront Cost 

• Also related to the device, the device upfront cost may appear on your first bill, depending on the device financing tier you have chosen for mobility services

Other charges

• Other charges may also appear if the limits of the plan were not respected. We will look at those in the next section

*Note: The billing cycle begins on the day following your billing date. For example, if your bill is printed on the 1st of the month, your cycle begins on the 2nd.

This is likely due to partial charges following a renewal or a rate plan change mid-billing cycle*.

Partial charges

• For example, if you renewed an office phone or mobility smartphone in the middle of a billing period, you will see a partial charge from the date of your activation to your billing date, as well as a charge for the next full month of service. This is also true when changing your plan outside of your billing date

It is also possible that you may have incurred overage charges, third-party charges or even one-time charges. These charges are explained further in the next section.

*Note: The beginning of the billing cycle is the day following your billing date. For example,  if your bill prints on the 1st of the month, your cycle begins on the 2nd.

You may see some charges that appear on your billing statement if the limits of your plan are not respected. These are mostly, but not limited to, calling and data or Internet usage.

These are the most common costs that may contribute to a higher bill:

• Data/Internet overages

• Long-distance charges

• International calling charges

• Roaming charges

• Going over your local calling minutes

• Call forwarding

Thankfully, these are easily avoidable by checking what is included in your plan. To do so, log in to your My TELUS.

If you see this type of charge, you will be able to know which third-party vendor is causing the charge. Here are some common examples of third-party charges:

• Yellow pages advertising

• Android Play Store

• Apple App Store

• In-game purchases

• 1-900- numbers

• Directory assistance (411)

• Collect calls

• Google Pay

• Apple Pay

• Skype

• Telehop

• Triton abbreviated dialing services

• Voxtel premium dialing services

• Boku

• And more

Please note that TELUS cannot refund these charges as they are not charged by us. Any dispute must be directed to the original third-party vendor.

Changes made to your account may bring about what we refer to as one-time charges. Unlike the monthly plan, these charges will only show once each time you make a change.

Here are some examples of one-time charges:

• Phone number change

• Connection

• Renewal

• Early Device Upgrade 

• Cancellation 

• Installation on site

• On-site maintenance

• On-site repairs

• Rate plan change

• Transfer of ownership

Please note that you will be charged for any changes made with an agent. You can avoid most of these charges by logging in to your My TELUS profile and making changes yourself.

This type of multi-line discount is only available through TELUS Business Mobility. It applies only to certain plans such as Peace Of Mind for Business or Simple Share for Business. The current discounts are:

• 2 active lines, 10$/line discount*

• 3 active lines, 15$/line discount*

• 4 active lines and up, 20$/line discount*

When applied on your bill, you will see it applied before tax and only to the plan cost segment of the monthly cost. 

For example: you have two lines, one with a Simple Share plan and one with a Peace of Mind plan. You then get the 10$/line multi-line discount which is applied like this:

• Line A = $75 minus $10 + tax*

• Line B = $80 minus $10 + tax*

The lines don't need the same plan to have a discount, thus allowing you more flexibility to tailor the plans to your business needs.

*As stated, certain conditions may apply. Discounts are subject to change when adding, cancelling or renewing contracts or changing plans.

*Note: Partial month billing always assumes 30 days in a month, regardless of the month.

How TELUS calculates long distance charges is relative to many factors:

• Where you are located and where you are calling

• The price plan, as it states what restrictions and cost are applied

• The length of the call, as long distance costs are calculated per minute

Though long distance can be confused with roaming, it is not the same thing. You can incur roaming PLUS long distance charges if calling another country when outside of Canada.

It is important to know that if you are not in your local calling area and your plan is not equipped for it, calls that you answer can also be charged long distance fees.

Fortunately, these can be avoided by making sure you have the best plan and features tailored to your needs. Log into your My TELUS profile to check your plan and add the features of your choice.

Two things determine if a forwarded call is local or long distance:

• Your local calling area, which is the geographical boundary associated with your phone number

• The number to which calls are being forwarded

If the number your calls are being forwarded to is within your local calling area, your forwarded calls will be considered local. 

If the number your calls are being forwarded to is outside your local calling area, your forwarded calls will be considered long distance.

Overages are calculated by seeing which limit has been exceeded. The plan and overage type dictates the cost. Here are how the different factors come into the equation.

Plan

• The plan dictates the limits and the overage costs per local minute and megabyte. It also dictates any long distance costs.

Calling overage

• A calling overage occurs when the bucket of calling minutes per billing cycle is exceeded. The overage is calculated PER minute exceeded and is rounded up to the nearest minute. For example, 1 minute 45 seconds is calculated as 2 minutes. This is then multiplied by the cost per minute according to your plan stipulations

Data overage

• Depending on your business plan, you have a monthly data allowance per billing cycle. If you exceed this limit, then the cost is calculated PER MB (Megabytes)

• For context, your plan will come with GB (Gigabytes) of data allowance. Each GB is comprised of 1000MB. For example, if you have a 10GB plan, we calculate your usage on 10,000MB. So if you have used 10.5GB, we will then charge 0.5GB (500MB of overage) times the cost per MB according to your plan stipulations

Fortunately, these can be avoided by making sure you have the best plan and features tailored to your business needs. Log into your My TELUS profile to check your plan and add the features of your choice.

First ensure that your notifications for e.Bill are on, as explained in this step-by-step guide.

Second, make sure that your Bill Analyzer notifications are on as well, as explained in this guide.

You can also view and print your e.bill PDF from your My TELUS profile, as explained in this step-by-step guide.

A one-time fee that is charged PER LINE activated. Only charged when a new number is activated to your account and the term is mostly used for your Business mobility accounts.

TELUS sometimes has promotions only available upon activating or renewing a line. They are often offered over the length of the contract as a monthly deduction from the plan. These credits may show as a larger device discount, leaving you with a smaller device balance to finance over the length covered by the chosen contract.

If you have any unpaid balances carrying over from your past bill, they will show in this section.

The 30 day period beginning on the day following your billing date. For example, if your bill is printed on the 1st of the month, your cycle begins on the 2nd.

This is the last day of your billing cycle/the day on which your bill is printed.

If you do not wish to reprint your own bills and wish for us to do so for you, there will be a cost PER bill. If you would rather save that cost, we do have a step-by-step guide on how to reprint your bill for free.

When incoming calls are routed from one phone number to another. View how those costs are calculated in the previous section.

A cancellation fee will appear on your bill if you choose to cancel a product before the end of your contract term. These fees are relative to the product you are cancelling and the length of time left in your term. They are independent from the device balance.

As TELUS now finances devices, taxes on the financed amount need to be paid upfront.

With TELUS Business Mobility, you can upgrade your device at any time during your contract. With how devices are financed, it's easy to decide when to pay off your current balance and choose a new device to finance. If you choose to upgrade, the new device balance will appear on your bill following the change.

This is the monthly amount you will be paying. It is the cost of the device split over 24 or 36 months according to the choice you made upon signing your contract. It is not taxed, as taxes are paid upfront.

Refers to the 3% charge added to your bill for any past due charges. We do not add the late fee to the current charges.

Not all plans cover long distance calls. If this is the case with your plan, you will be billed long distance charges, which will count as overages. It is always best to check your coverage before making long distance calls. You can do this and add long distance minutes to your plan by logging into your My TELUS Self-Serve Portal or via TELUS Assist.

See how we calculate long distance costs in the previous section.

This type of discount is associated with business mobility accounts and is offered when you have 2 or more mobility lines linked to eligible plans. Not all plans are entitled to this type of discount.  See previous section for more details.

Plan charges incurred in your upcoming billing cycle, as well as as any overages or expenses not covered by the plan from your previous cycle.

Some TELUS Business services need a technician on-site for installation. This includes services like TELUS Business Security, Office Phone and Office Internet.

Fees which appear on your bill when moving TELUS Business Security, Office Phone or Office Internet services to a new location.

You will see these for services such as TELUS Business Security, Office Phone or Office Internet services when a damage or a user error has caused a technician to have to be dispatched to repair the issue.

Non-recurring charges which appear only if there is a modification to your services, account or subscribers. Find more specific examples of this type of charge in the previous section.

This is what we refer to when the set limits for a plan or service are not respected. Depending on your plan, overage charges will appear when your monthly usage allowance is exceeded within a billing cycle. You can find types of overages and how they're calculated in the previous section.

You will be charged a $15 fee per phone number when changed by an agent. If you're calling in, customer service will encourage you to change it yourself via My TELUS for free. Find out how in our step-by-step guide.

Like activation credits, TELUS may offer credits for bringing over your mobility business phone number (port-in) from a competitor. Often starting from the second bill, these types of credits are applied over the following 4 months for a total of 5 months. This depends on the port-in promotion that was available when you activated the line. These only apply to the line being activated and not to every existing line linked to the account.

You may also have benefited from a promotional discount when you activated or renewed your service, or because you have more than one TELUS Business product. If so, these will appear on your bill monthly. They might apply to either the plan or the device depending on the product and conditions when you signed up.

Rate plan or option charges that do not cover a full month, in most cases. In a nutshell, we divide your plan and options costs by 30 (number of days in a billing cycle), then multiply the amount by the number of days left in your current cycle. Find an example calculation in the previous section.

You will be charged a fee when your rate plan is changed by an agent. You can instead change it yourself via My TELUS for free, as explained in this guide.

Like the activation fee, a one-time charge. You will see this fee when you upgrade or renew a line on your account. It is charged PER LINE renewed.

These are charges incurred when out of the country or sometimes when bordering another country, like being in Canada just steps away from the US*. These charges can be charged per day or per minute depending on the type of plan you have. It is important to always verify your coverage before leaving the country. You can do so and add roaming minutes or packages as needed by logging into your My TELUS Self-Serve Portal.

*If this is the case, please contact us for assistance to resolve the issue.

Charges for purchased content from third-party vendors and providers including (but not limited to):

• Advertising services

• Applications

• Games

• In-game purchases

• Music and books

See the previous section for more specific examples.

This type of charge will only appear when adding an existing line from a different TELUS account, or when migrating lines from one Business account to another (if your company has changed name, incorporation number, or tax numbers). These charges are PER LINE migrated.

TELUS offers many ways to finance your device. The upfront cost is the price you have paid for your device APART from the taxes up front.