Looking for a pay-as-you-go option for a Canadian cell phone

We just went through this. My son was using my wife's cellphone, which is on Virgin mobile. He put it in the wash. The phone (a smartphone) does not work anymore. But we still have the Virgin account. Luckily my dad had an old LG feature-phone (physical keyboard for texting no less) that he gave to us. We had to take it to a local shop to get the phone "unlocked" so it would work on the Virgin network using our Virgin SIM card. It cost about $40 here in Victoria, including a SIM card adaptor kit. So the phone is now accessing the network using the Virgin SIM card, but the phone can accept any SIM card now AFAIK. 7-11 has some prepaid SIM cards. There is one for $120 bucks or something (just minutes, no data, but if you have WiFi why would you need data?). So when I get around to upgrading the Virgin plan to a better phone we will do the 7-11 thing and get a prepaid SIM card for our son, who can use it with the hand-me-down, unlocked feature phone we're using now (ie, we'll swap the Virgin SIM card back into whatever smartphone Virgin lets us upgrade to, give that to my wife, and give my still-young son the dumb phone).

Be aware that the no-monthly fee options can have a de-facto minimum amount you have to spend. They set it up so if the phone goes X days without any value they deactivate it. Any value you add to your phone expires in Y days (you can't put $10 on it and use it for the year). So de facto you have to spend (minimum value to add at one time)*365/Y if you want to always have value on the phone so you can use it or (min value)*365/(X+Y) if you're ok with the phone sometimes being value-less and unusable.

is it correct, as some people in my previous question said, that I can do this with no SIM card or phone plan at all, i.e. only using the iphone to access the internet? Your last question suggested you will largely be using this at an outside market, so it's worth clarifying that unless you have actual wifi at the time of the transaction, this won't work. This may be stating the obvious, but the transaction is real time - so if Payd is anything like Square (which I use) you will need to be connected either by wifi or cellular data during the transaction. The payg plans I have seen on Rogers all have a minimum fee per month, so that will be your limit. But you shouldn't have much trouble getting that phone unlocked, but all the US plans I have looked at for my stuff (Canada seems to follow them) all follow the $15 THEN pay as you go per month billing model.

Mobilicity is purely PAYG, but I think 90 days without a payment and your account is turfed. However! Your 4S will probably only work on the Rogers/Bell/Telus networks. Mobilicity/Public/Wind all work on a different part of the spectrum, for which the 4-series doesn't have the right antenna. You need 5 or above. I am 99% certain that is also true for 7-11's plans (which if memory serves are just rebranded from someone else; Fido maybe?)

To expand after seeing Brockles' comment: Mobilicity is cost of phone + cost of SIM + cost of monthly plan to start. After that, it's straight-up only the monthly cost. True PAYG, as in you have a phone number and basically a cash account that calls get charged to, doesn't really exist in Canada; PAYG means your service stops immediately when you stop paying your monthly bill, no credit check needed, etc.

I stand corrected! (Also even if you haven't paid your bill, 911 calls are supposed to go through.)

If you're planning to use your payment service over WiFi, rather than over cellular service, then your closest match on Rogers is their http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/plans?cm_sp=wireless-_-pay_as_you_go-_-plans_banner#,Tabset1--3, which have very small monthly fees, but don't seem to allow for data. Unfortunately Rogers isn't really set up to accommodate this kind of low usage user -- they're more of a full-service, high cost provider.

In the link that jacquilynne posted above, Rogers gives the local rate as 25 cents per minute, but doesn't list a long distance rate. This leads me to suspect that it's exorbitant. Anybody know what it is, to save me searching some very small print on the Rogers website?

7-11's Speakout plans are re-branded from Rogers. A Rogers-locked phone will work with a Speakout SIM. It's a good provider for voice and text, but less good if you'll be needing cellular data. I manage to use a smartphone with PAYG data and minutes from Koodo. It works out to about $25/month, but I usually have Wifi access and I don't talk on the phone much. OP, it looks like the PAYG LD rate is +40c/min, from http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/addons