After You Activate: Your Public Mobile Checklist

Updated 2026-07-13 · fact-checked against official Public Mobile sources

1. Confirm your $10 referral credit Within 72 hours of activation, log in to My Account and check your available funds in the Payment section. The $10 credit is applied automatically and goes toward your next 30-day renewal.
2. Set up pre-authorized payments Add a payment card under Payment → pre-authorized payments so your plan renews on time. Prepaid service pauses if a renewal fails, and there is no phone support to call.
3. Find your own referral code Open your My Account overview page. Your 6-character code sits at the top under the 'Sharing is caring' banner. It never expires while your account is active.
4. Share your code and start earning Each friend who activates with your code earns you 1 Public Point every 30 days for as long as they stay — uncapped. They get a one-time $10 credit.
5. Let points-back accumulate Nothing to set up: you automatically earn 2% of every payment back in Public Points. Redeem 15 points for $15 off your bill in My Rewards.
6. Fix a missing credit with a ticket If the $10 has not appeared after 72 hours, open a support ticket via the chatbot on publicmobile.ca with the referrer's name, phone number, and the code.

Your first-week checklist

You activated, your number works, and now you want to make sure the $10 lands and nothing else slips. Here is the short list of things worth doing in your first week with Public Mobile — most take two minutes.

1. Confirm the $10 referral credit (within 72 hours)

If you entered a referral code at Step 4 (Payment) during activation, Public Mobile applies a one-time $10 credit within 72 hours.

To check it: log in at myaccount.publicmobile.ca and look at your available funds in the Payment section. The $10 sits there as an account credit and is automatically used toward your next 30-day renewal — you don’t need to redeem or claim anything.

Two things worth knowing:

• Some people see the credit within hours; others right at the 72-hour mark. Don’t open a ticket on day one.
• The $10 referral credit is separate from any promo-code discount. If you used both fields at checkout, they stack, and the promo discount shows on your plan price rather than as a credit.

If you forgot to enter a code entirely, that’s fixable too — jump to the last section.

2. Set up pre-authorized payments

Public Mobile is prepaid: if a renewal payment fails, your service pauses until you pay. There’s no phone line to call to sort it out, so autopay is the single best reliability upgrade you can make.

In My Account, go to Payment → pre-authorized payments and add a card. Your plan then renews automatically every 30 days, and any credits on your account (including the referral $10) are used before your card is charged.

3. Find your own referral code

Now you’re the one with a code. At the top of your My Account overview page, under the “Sharing is caring” banner, you’ll find your personal 6-character referral code. It:

• never expires while your account is active,
• never changes, and
• can be used by unlimited new customers.

You can share the code itself, or a link that pre-fills it at checkout: https://publicmobile.ca/en/{province}/plans?referral=CODE (swap in your province and code).

One warning to pass along: TELUS shows Koodo “Fast Switch” ads inside the Public Mobile signup flow, and some referred friends have clicked through and ended up activating on Koodo — where referral codes don’t work. Tell your friends to stay on publicmobile.ca from start to finish. More on this in the refer-a-friend guide.

4. Start earning: 1 point per 30 days, per referral

Each friend who activates with your code earns you 1 Public Point every 30 days, for as long as they stay a customer. There’s no cap — 5 active referrals means 5 points a month, indefinitely. 1 point = $1 when redeemed, and the headline redemption is 15 points = $15 off your bill.

For the full earning and redemption picture, see the Public Points guide.

5. Points-back: already running, nothing to set up

Every payment you make earns 2% back in Public Points automatically (this was 5% before October 15, 2025 — Public Mobile cut it, though referral earnings were untouched). There’s no toggle to switch on; just know the points accumulate in My Rewards alongside your referral points.

6. Join the community forum

Public Mobile has no stores and no phone support. Real help happens in two places: the support-ticket chatbot on publicmobile.ca, and the community forum — where experienced customers and Public Mobile staff answer questions, usually fast. Creating an account there before you need it is worth the five minutes. One rule to respect: posting referral codes in the forum is treated as spam, so keep your code out of your posts.

If the credit didn’t arrive

Waited the full 72 hours and still no $10? Don’t re-activate or panic — support can fix it:

1. Open a support ticket via the chatbot on publicmobile.ca (or private-message CS_Agent on the community forum).
2. Give the agent the referrer’s name, their phone number, and the referral code. That’s the exact information Public Mobile staff say they need to add a code manually.
3. The credit is typically applied once an agent processes the ticket.

The same route works if you forgot to enter a code at checkout — the full walkthrough is in how to add a referral code after activation. And if your code was rejected during checkout instead, that’s a different problem with different fixes: see the referral code not working guide.

Frequently asked questions