Your Internet Promo Just Expired in Canada: A 7-Day Decision Framework

A Canadian internet bill does not creep when a promotion ends. It cliffs. The credit that hid the base rate drops off, the equipment line is still there, and a $25–$40 jump looks like the provider “raised prices.” Sometimes they did. Often the increase was printed in the contract the day you signed, and nobody put it on a calendar.

Give the spike seven days. The job is to separate a scheduled credit expiry from a real price change, price the civic address, and only then talk to retention. Signing a fresh 24-month term on the evening the email arrives is how households buy the old rate back and pick up an early cancellation fee they did not have yesterday. Education only. This is not legal advice, and it is not a retention offer from any ISP.

Read the bill: promotional credit vs base rate vs equipment line items

Open the PDF, not the app summary. You want four numbers:

• Base rate for the speed tier, before credits.
• Promotional or loyalty credit, with the month it was scheduled to die. A $15 credit for 24 months that just hit month 25 is not a surprise fee. It is a calendar failure.
• Equipment. Community Rogers bills have long shown a gateway line around $10, sometimes offset by a matching credit. On 21 Sep 2026 the Rogers internet page also advertised a $25/month upgrade to a newer Wi-Fi 7 modem. Bell’s Ontario Internet and Mobility page the same day included a Giga Hub 2.0 in the package and, in a Fibe 500 breakdown, showed a $105 line before a $15 term credit and a $10 multi-service credit. If your “increase” is a modem you started renting, that is a different conversation than the speed tier.
• Taxes and one-time items (technician, unreturned gear, late payment). CRTC 2026-43, in force 12 Jun 2026, generally bans activation and no-visit plan-change fees. It does not delete a lawful term ETF or a non-return charge. Do not file those under “promo ended.”

Write last month and this month side by side. Circle only the lines that changed. That circled amount is what you are allowed to be angry about.

Check CRTC Internet Code disclosures you should have received

The Internet Code applies to large facilities-based providers: Bell Canada, Cogeco, Eastlink, Northwestel, Rogers, SaskTel, TELUS, Videotron, and Xplore (simplified Code, read 21 Sep 2026). For those companies, offers and contracts must make promotional prices clear, including the minimum monthly charge during and after a time-limited discount, and when the discount ends. A Critical Information Summary is supposed to travel with the permanent contract.

Two clocks that people mix up:

If you are still inside a commitment and the only change is a credit that the contract said would end, you usually do not have a surprise “price increase” to refuse. If the base rate moved and you did not consent, that is a Code conversation: key terms generally cannot get worse during the commitment without express consent, unless the change clearly benefits you. Ask for the permanent contract if you cannot find the end date. When the written contract conflicts with what you agreed, or never arrives on time, the Code gives 45 days from the start to cancel without an ETF. That window is about the start of the contract, not about year two. Details live in the plain-English Code guide.

Smaller retailers such as TekSavvy and Oxio are not on that facilities-based list. Their credit cliffs are whatever their own terms say. CCTS membership is a separate question from “the Code applies in full.”

Price-check independents at your exact address (availability first)

Use the three-quote method. Same civic address, same day, technology written down (fibre to the home, cable, or legacy copper). Availability is the first column. A provider that cannot qualify the suite is not your BATNA, no matter how pretty the homepage is.

• TekSavvy. Public comparisons updated 11 Sep 2026 (Topicks.ca) showed Ontario Cable 100 at $38.95 for 12 months then $74.95, and Cable 500 at $75.95 then $110.95. The homepage the same research window advertised up to 12 months of bill credits on select packages. The cart at your address overrides the table.
• Oxio. Six provinces in its own moving FAQ (Ontario, Québec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia). Flat rate, equipment included, 60-day guarantee on the English homepage used 21 Sep 2026. Topicks’ 11 Sep 2026 Ontario rows included 100/100 at $52 and 500/200 at $79, ongoing. Atlantic addresses will often return “not available.” That is useful.
• The other incumbent or flanker on the street: Bell Fibe or Rogers where both exist; Telus PureFibre in the West; Fizz versus Videotron in Québec. Do not use a Toronto cable price as a Vancouver fibre threat.

Normalize 24 months before tax: promo months times promo price, plus remaining months times the regular price, plus equipment you will actually pay, minus credits that are real. A month-one sticker is how the cliff you are living through happened.

Call retention with a written BATNA (best alternative)

BATNA means the best alternative to a negotiated agreement: the offer you will take if this call fails. Write it in one sentence before you dial. Example shape, not a script to demand: “Oxio at this address is $79 flat for 500/200, no term, router included. I will switch unless you email a 24-month all-in number that beats $1,896 before tax, with the upload speed in writing.”

On Rogers, community threads still describe a future-dated cancellation as the path that more often reaches winback. That pattern is in the Rogers script. On Bell, read the Fibe playbook first so you know whether you are negotiating fibre or a copper leftover. Either way, ask which desk you reached, and do not accept a verbal $10 credit as the close.

Five lines in the confirmation email: monthly rate, each credit (dollars and months), equipment line, term length, ETF schedule if any. If they will not send it, you do not have an offer.

Decide: stay with new promo, switch, or renegotiate in 30–60 days

Renegotiating in 30–60 days is a strategy when loyalty timing or a move is coming, not a way to avoid the spreadsheet. If you stay on the post-promo rate with no date, you have chosen list price.

Avoid panic TV/phone bundles sold as savings

Retention agents are paid to solve a cancellation, and a bundle is an easy solve. Bell’s Ontario Internet and Mobility page on 21 Sep 2026 really does show a $10/month credit when internet and mobility are ordered together, on top of term credits, for new residential customers where the technology exists. That can be a real discount if you already wanted that mobility plan. It is not a reason to add Fibe TV, a home phone, or a speed tier you will not use because the internet credit died this morning.

Run the bundle only after the internet-only decision. If the TV promo is 12 months and the internet term is 24, you have scheduled a second cliff. Home phone at “$0 for six months” is a product you will pay for in month seven unless you cancel it on purpose. The worksheet is the bundle guide. This week, internet only.