Rogers Communications added a new daily payment option for its Chatr prepaid brand, aiming to accommodate customers impacted financially by the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

The Day Pass tariff allows customers unable to make their full monthly payment to extend their service day-to-day for up to 30 days, with unlimited domestic voice and international text available for CAD2 ($1.48) and an option adding 250MB of high-speed data for CAD3.

Roaming and calls to the US are not covered.

Rogers Communications claimed the tariff was the first of its kind in Canada.

On its Q1 earnings call in April, CFO Tony Staffieri warned it was “seeing the early signs of customers looking to downsize” their mobile costs and an increased number of customer care calls related to bill payment.

He added the trend was expected to grow as the pandemic impacted employment.

Last month, US operators AT&T and Verizon amended their prepaid tariffs to ease the financial burden during the pandemic.