Author Topic: Australian mobile plan guide!  (Read 76174 times)

Fresh Bread

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #150 on: August 10, 2018, 11:20:29 PM »
Thanks for all your hard work, Dean.

I am currently sticking with ALDI and take the $15 a month prepaid pack. It now includes 1.5GB of data and the data will rollover each month to a cap of 30GB.

Daley

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #151 on: August 12, 2018, 09:44:04 AM »
Right, I think it’s probably time to bring this guide in to land.
[snip]
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Wise closing words have been snipped. Heed them, gentle readers.

Dean, it's been a pleasure all these years, and I appreciate your own efforts and our personal back and forth on this stuff. We had a good run.


alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #152 on: August 20, 2018, 10:02:18 PM »
Right, I think it’s probably time to bring this guide in to land.
[snip]
Peace *drops microphone*

Wise closing words have been snipped. Heed them, gentle readers.

Dean, it's been a pleasure all these years, and I appreciate your own efforts and our personal back and forth on this stuff. We had a good run.

Thanks Daley, I've also much appreciated our discussions and your advice/input.

After a bit of thought, whilst the guide with list of carriers/plans is more effort to maintain than I can be bothered sparing, I wonder if there's still some value in a discussion thread (this or a new one) here about these topics (from an Australian perspective/situation). Potentially the scope could change as a result, especially with the ongoing NBN rollout and with 5G on the horizon.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2018, 10:20:05 PM by alsoknownasDean »

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #153 on: August 20, 2018, 10:51:33 PM »
I signed up to Kogan Mobile back in March when it was heavily discounted. The Vodafone network has generally been fine, I've seen over 200mbps from speedtests here in Melbourne, and coverage has been good (I did have a couple of small spots of missing coverage when on holiday but nothing major). I paid for the annual 16GB recharge, which I've found is far more than I tend to use, even when I went on holidays away from wifi, and this month I've barely used half of it despite doing a bunch of speedtests. I should have saved the $50 and gone for the 6GB (now 7GB).

I tried Google Play Music and Apple Music, and ended up going back to Spotify. The $11.99 for premium is a price I'm more than happy to pay.

What about home internet? How many of you have switched providers upon connecting to the NBN? The NBN hasn't yet arrived in my area, but I'll have probably moved before it arrives. For now I'll stick with my reliable iiNet ADSL.

Notch

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #154 on: August 21, 2018, 05:06:57 AM »
What about home internet? How many of you have switched providers upon connecting to the NBN? The NBN hasn't yet arrived in my area, but I'll have probably moved before it arrives. For now I'll stick with my reliable iiNet ADSL.

I switched from paying Telstra $75pm for 100GB of 12/1 ADSL2+, to paying Belong (Telstra) $50pm for 100GB of 12/1 NBN :)

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #155 on: September 19, 2018, 08:13:44 AM »
Who here has been lining up to pay $2000+ for the latest iPhone (iPhone XS Max 512GB is $2369AUD)? No-one? Good.

Crazy how expensive the things are nowadays.

middo

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #156 on: October 31, 2018, 05:15:55 PM »
I'm hoping for an Australian specific perspective here:

We bought my daughter a phone on a plan 2 years ago, a Samsung S7 on a $65 a month Optus plan.  The plan has just recently expired and the payments are due to go up to $85 per month.  The phone is in good condition and she has no need or desire to upgrade it any time soon.

Her plan has unlimited calls, texts and 7 GB of data, which she has only once gone over when the uni wifi was down for a couple of weeks.  (She is at uni interstate hence we pay for her phone so we can contact her and feel she is safer).

Looking at whistle-out, it appears we can get similar plans for $486 for 24 months - about $20 per month, also on the Optus network through Southern Phone.  We are happy to use Optus or Telstra, but not Vodaphone as she will do some country driving over the next couple of years.

My question is really this - should we be looking at a 24 month contract?  Will we be missing out on hugely better contracts in 12 months time?  Or should we just bite the bullet and make the change?  Ideas anyone?

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #157 on: October 31, 2018, 06:53:39 PM »
My question is really this - should we be looking at a 24 month contract?  Will we be missing out on hugely better contracts in 12 months time?  Or should we just bite the bullet and make the change?  Ideas anyone?

You shouldn't have to lock yourself into a contract. 

I'm very happy with Belong, which is a cheap subsidiary of Telstra.  They have a $25pm plan with 5GB of data and unlimited calls/texts.  Best part is there is no auto data charges if you go over, it just limits the speed and then you can buy more data if you need.  And any unused data automatically rolls over and accumulates each month.

Oh and here's my referral code for a $20 credit ;)
IAFB8K15C


middo

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #158 on: October 31, 2018, 07:15:16 PM »

I'm on a pre-pay Aldi plan (which uses the Telstra network): $15 per month with unlimited calls and texts and 2GB data that rolls over if you don't use it.  I haven't researched in a while, but there are slightly more expensive plans with Boost and lots of others. $20 per month doesn't seem too bad, except for the lock in. We're getting to the point of diminishing returns at these prices.


You shouldn't have to lock yourself into a contract. 

I'm very happy with Belong, which is a cheap subsidiary of Telstra.  They have a $25pm plan with 5GB of data and unlimited calls/texts.  Best part is there is no auto data charges if you go over, it just limits the speed and then you can buy more data if you need.  And any unused data automatically rolls over and accumulates each month.

Oh and here's my referral code for a $20 credit ;)
IAFB8K15C




Thanks.  My thoughts were that I should be looking at a shorter contract, so this focussed the mind to see what else is available.  I appreciate the feedback.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #159 on: October 31, 2018, 07:34:10 PM »
I wouldn't bother with a contract at all, especially if the data usage isn't high and you're not purchasing a new handset.

Telstra have just updated their prepaid offerings. The new Prepaid Max is great value.

Consider the prepaid offerings of Telstra and Optus themselves. $30 per 28 days gets 10GB (Optus) or 8GB (Telstra), with the ability to continue to roll-over unused data (Telstra call it a Data Bank, and Optus offer the same), and some bonus data for the first few recharges. The flexibility of prepaid beats a contract any day :)

Otherwise you'll be able to get a similar amount of data for a little bit less (5GB for $20 and 10GB for about $25 is doable for Optus MVNOs, less if you buy in bulk from MVNOs like Catch Connect).

I bought a 12 month Kogan Mobile recharge back in March. The service has been fine, but I'd rather be able to change carriers where needed. I'm planning a short trip to Tassie this month and I doubt Vodafone reception will be great.

Is the flexibility worth another ten or so dollars a month? Up to you :)
« Last Edit: October 31, 2018, 07:54:38 PM by alsoknownasDean »

Gremlin

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #160 on: November 01, 2018, 06:22:42 PM »

I bought a 12 month Kogan Mobile recharge back in March. The service has been fine, but I'd rather be able to change carriers where needed. I'm planning a short trip to Tassie this month and I doubt Vodafone reception will be great.


I'm on the Kogan pre-paid deal.  We just got back from a bit of time in Tassie.  Coverage was perfectly fine most of where we went.  The north-east corner (Scamander, St Helens) was a blackout zone, as was the unpopulated west coast.  But pretty much everywhere else was fine.  Having said that, we weren't doing the Overland Track.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #161 on: November 24, 2018, 05:10:44 AM »

I bought a 12 month Kogan Mobile recharge back in March. The service has been fine, but I'd rather be able to change carriers where needed. I'm planning a short trip to Tassie this month and I doubt Vodafone reception will be great.


I'm on the Kogan pre-paid deal.  We just got back from a bit of time in Tassie.  Coverage was perfectly fine most of where we went.  The north-east corner (Scamander, St Helens) was a blackout zone, as was the unpopulated west coast.  But pretty much everywhere else was fine.  Having said that, we weren't doing the Overland Track.

Thanks for that, yeah I actually just got back from there (lovely place and will be back). In and around the Hobart-Launceston-Devonport-Burnie corridor Vodafone was generally fine, but outside of that things were a bit patchy, although it seems that there was still a bit of service (a relic of the old roaming agreement with Optus, voice and very limited data speeds) in a number of towns on the west coast. Wasn't a big deal. Surprisingly no coverage at all at Cradle Mountain or Port Arthur, given the number of tourists who may be more likely to use Vodafone than locals.

The new Kogan offers are brilliant value. I'm having a tough time of deciding whether to sign up for another year with them, go for month to month or quarter to quarter, or take up one of the SIM-only deals with Optus or Vodafone directly (poor Telstra reception at my workplace, and my phone is ex-Optus so I'd get VoLTE if I went with them). It may depend on if I decide to set up fixed internet after I move next year or just use mobile data.

The last six months on my ADSL I've used (going backwards from October) 58.7GB, 50.1GB, 52.6GB, 46.4GB, 54GB and 35.8GB. If mobile data speeds weren't arse here (usually about 5mbps even on 4G) I'd probably give ADSL the flick now.

Does anyone tether as their primary internet connection?
« Last Edit: November 24, 2018, 05:12:49 AM by alsoknownasDean »

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #162 on: November 28, 2018, 03:51:14 AM »
I just signed up with Kogan as my Virgin contract just expired and they're a sinking ship. $18.60 a month for 13GB data, much better value than I was getting with Virgin and they were cheaper than Optus/Vodaphone/Telstra.

middo

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #163 on: January 15, 2019, 01:21:51 AM »
Last couple of weeks I have changed one daughters optus $85 per month plan to a prepaid one at $40 per month. More than twice the data she had for half the price. I wish I had found MMM  before I signed up for two year contracts on three phones. Mine expures in February, and the wifes expirse about March. We should be saving over $100 per month.

Also about to cancel an internet service we will no longer be using, at anothe $55 per month.  Over $1800 per year savings coming up this year.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #164 on: February 01, 2019, 04:54:41 PM »
Last couple of weeks I have changed one daughters optus $85 per month plan to a prepaid one at $40 per month. More than twice the data she had for half the price. I wish I had found MMM  before I signed up for two year contracts on three phones. Mine expures in February, and the wifes expirse about March. We should be saving over $100 per month.

Also about to cancel an internet service we will no longer be using, at anothe $55 per month.  Over $1800 per year savings coming up this year.

Nice stuff! That’s not all that long until the contracts expire so it’s not a big deal, a two year old phone should still be good for a little while longer. :)

Are you going to just use your phones for your internet?

Recent news is that TPG are no longer rolling out a mobile network, so that’ll be interesting to see what happens to pricing, especially in the context of the potential TPG/Vodafone merger and the impending rollout of 5G.

There seems to be a bit of a trend of ‘12 month prepaid’ offers. Vodafone are offering their 350-day ‘bulk buys’ on prepaid, and Optus now have a $180/60GB 12 month prepaid offer, in addition to the Kogans and Catch Connects of the market (and Aldi).

middo

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #165 on: February 01, 2019, 06:31:25 PM »
Last couple of weeks I have changed one daughters optus $85 per month plan to a prepaid one at $40 per month. More than twice the data she had for half the price. I wish I had found MMM  before I signed up for two year contracts on three phones. Mine expures in February, and the wifes expirse about March. We should be saving over $100 per month.

Also about to cancel an internet service we will no longer be using, at anothe $55 per month.  Over $1800 per year savings coming up this year.

Nice stuff! That’s not all that long until the contracts expire so it’s not a big deal, a two year old phone should still be good for a little while longer. :)

Are you going to just use your phones for your internet?

Recent news is that TPG are no longer rolling out a mobile network, so that’ll be interesting to see what happens to pricing, especially in the context of the potential TPG/Vodafone merger and the impending rollout of 5G.

There seems to be a bit of a trend of ‘12 month prepaid’ offers. Vodafone are offering their 350-day ‘bulk buys’ on prepaid, and Optus now have a $180/60GB 12 month prepaid offer, in addition to the Kogans and Catch Connects of the market (and Aldi).

We are currently using our phones for most internet, with occasional hotspot for computer use as necessary.  We have a dongle with telstra somewhere (it got lost in our bags somewhere a couple of weeks ago). From memory, $150 for 12 months, 50 gig.  We don't stream movies or use the internet a lot compared to others.

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #166 on: February 01, 2019, 08:21:34 PM »
My Kogan $17/month 7gb (365 day) plan which I posted about earlier in this thread was automatically upgraded when they changed it to 13gb! Pretty amazed they did that for me, given that I'd already paid and agreed for 7gb.


Lately I've tethered a few times in inner metro adelaide for work. No problems at all. Youtube fine. Haven't tried netflix but I don't need to.


I've convinced after 12 months my gf to switch over to Android, a Redmi 6 (newer version than what I've got), and the same Kogan plan. Massive savings over having an iphone and plan with optus. Just crazy people sign up for that stuff.

middo

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #167 on: February 16, 2019, 02:21:33 PM »
Hi All, I posted this on my journal, but thought it might be a warning that could fit here:

Yesterday my "clown phone" contract expired.  What a circus.

It turns out that my wife has the contract, and I am not an authorised person on her account.  Therefore I cannot change the terms of the contract.  This is in spite of me signing the paperwork without her being in the shop.

The phone is a lease phone.  I took out the lease when they were new, just before I found MMM.  The terms of the contract were not made clear to me at the time, and I was misled on some terms.

I was told that to keep my phone, I would pay a nominal fee, "probably $1". Well, no.  I was quoted $183 yesterday.

I was also told yesterday that my phone is permanently locked to the lease contract and can never be put on prepaid.  This was news to me, as I am sure it will be to many others as these leases expire.  There will be some pain over these I believe for the telco in question.

We have used this telco for over 25 years.  I told them I would take our business, and our families elsewhere.  In 10 minutes I received a call.  It could all be sorted out for a one off fee of $110. No more lease contract and I keep my phone.

Incidentally, along the way they tried to call their franchise branch that I bought the phone from, in rural WA.  The number was not connected.  I thought it summed up their business.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #168 on: February 26, 2019, 12:24:28 AM »
Updated prepaid offerings by Telstra and Boost. Holy moly there's a lot of cheap data around on all three networks.

I'd even port to Boost if Telstra reception wasn't trash at my workplace. $150 for unlimited calls/messages and 80GB data with a 365 day expiry would probably be plenty.

It's probably fair to say that many 'discount' MVNOs may struggle to compete. A whole bunch of $10-20 per month customers can't be very profitable. If you want to pay $30 or more for service, then the big three carriers are very competitive.

Sent from my HTC 2PS6200 using Tapatalk

middo

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #169 on: February 26, 2019, 02:03:18 AM »
Yep. We went Telstra for coverage reasons. $30 per month, unlimited calls and texts, 8 gb data (with bonus 22 gb per month first three months), excess data rolls over.

So much better than our postpaid plans.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #170 on: February 26, 2019, 02:30:04 AM »
Yep. We went Telstra for coverage reasons. $30 per month, unlimited calls and texts, 8 gb data (with bonus 22 gb per month first three months), excess data rolls over.

So much better than our postpaid plans.
10GB now :)

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alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #171 on: March 27, 2019, 11:27:10 PM »
Just changed to Optus prepaid from Kogan.

Kogan service is fine, but I don't want to lock in for another year when I plan on moving in the next six months (in case Vodafone signal is rubbish at the new place). 45GB from the starter kit.

Data roll-over is nice too, but Telstra's offer there is brilliant. Unfortunately for Telstra, their network doesn't work at my workplace, otherwise I'd use their excellent prepaid offer.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2019, 11:32:53 PM by alsoknownasDean »

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #172 on: April 16, 2019, 03:05:16 PM »
Wow - very impressed with the offers out there at the moment.

I last looked around about a year and a half ago when Virgin canned my beloved $19 per month post-paid plan.

At that time I couldn't find anything to compete with that so signed up for a $40pm 2 year contract as my old phone was on it's way out and that seemed to be the cheapest way to get another iphone (what can I say, love them).

Contract will be up in October and after a quick look at the Boost website the $150 365day option is probably where I'll be heading. Thanks for the info.

Husband is on the $25 per month ALDI pre-paid (Telstra network) and very happy with that - one interesting feature is that they will suggest a lower top up based on your previous month's use. 

Edited to add: Holey moley - just checked how long was left on my contract and saw that I can break free of charge now if I sign up to an Optus contract (Virgin is merging). The cost of some of the handset plans is insane! $100 per month via $12.50 with Boost if I keep my current phone. An easy choice.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2019, 03:16:01 PM by chasingthegoodlife »

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #173 on: April 23, 2019, 06:08:36 AM »
Contract will be up in October and after a quick look at the Boost website the $150 365day option is probably where I'll be heading. Thanks for the info.

Husband is on the $25 per month ALDI pre-paid (Telstra network) and very happy with that - one interesting feature is that they will suggest a lower top up based on your previous month's use. 

Edited to add: Holey moley - just checked how long was left on my contract and saw that I can break free of charge now if I sign up to an Optus contract (Virgin is merging). The cost of some of the handset plans is insane! $100 per month via $12.50 with Boost if I keep my current phone. An easy choice.

Glad to be of assistance :)

And yeah, much of that is due to the prices of handsets going through the roof. Seems that a top-end phone went from $1000 to $1500-$2000 rather quickly.

Although I'll confess that I've considered signing up to one of those $105 Optus plans, if only because with that amount of data I'd be able to cancel my home internet so it's not so bad.

I've actually recently signed up to an Optus postpaid SIM-only plan for a year, $40 a month, but with 80GB of data and some roaming data. I don't use anything like that much on my phone, but I'm thinking about seeing if I can use the phone's data as my home internet and cancel my ADSL. I've got a couple of Chromecast devices so maybe it's not ideal.

middo

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #174 on: April 23, 2019, 06:48:30 PM »
We have 2 x prepaid telstra deals at $30 per month, and no home internet.  We hotspot the phone for any internet use, and the roll-over data is still piling up.

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #175 on: May 23, 2019, 04:57:32 PM »
Hi there, hope someone could help me here.

I'll be in Europe for about a year and I need to keep my Australian number mostly for all sort of verification purposes, receiving texts etc. Can you recommend the cheapest plan that will allow me to do that? I don't need any calls or data as I'll get a new plan while overseas.

Thanks!

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #176 on: May 30, 2019, 02:12:06 AM »
Hi there, hope someone could help me here.

I'll be in Europe for about a year and I need to keep my Australian number mostly for all sort of verification purposes, receiving texts etc. Can you recommend the cheapest plan that will allow me to do that? I don't need any calls or data as I'll get a new plan while overseas.

Thanks!

The big three carriers each offer long-expiry prepaid plans that have a year's expiry for a certain recharge amount. Aldimobile and Amaysim are cheaper still and have long-expiry prepaid. TPG have a $1 per month plan that's kinda similar.

I'd check the T's and C's of whichever you plan to go with, just in case the carrier requires a call to be made on the service every so often to keep it active.

dystopic

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #177 on: May 30, 2019, 11:22:24 PM »
Hi there, hope someone could help me here.

I'll be in Europe for about a year and I need to keep my Australian number mostly for all sort of verification purposes, receiving texts etc. Can you recommend the cheapest plan that will allow me to do that? I don't need any calls or data as I'll get a new plan while overseas.

Thanks!

The big three carriers each offer long-expiry prepaid plans that have a year's expiry for a certain recharge amount. Aldimobile and Amaysim are cheaper still and have long-expiry prepaid. TPG have a $1 per month plan that's kinda similar.

I'd check the T's and C's of whichever you plan to go with, just in case the carrier requires a call to be made on the service every so often to keep it active.

Thanks! Ended up going with Amaysim, $10 credit 1 year expiry. Works perfectly thus far.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #178 on: August 10, 2019, 07:47:12 AM »
Prices seem to be heading up again, especially with the major carriers.

I guess that 5G capex needs to be funded somehow. TPG no longer being a threat has probably contributed to that too.

I'm kinda glad I signed up to a 12 month contract with Optus in April, the same plan now is $19 more, and has half the roaming data and no unmetered Spotify.

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #179 on: August 10, 2019, 06:42:06 PM »
Vaya 4G $16 a month = unlimited calls and 4GB data, each extra GB charged at $10

This plus a phone bought outright, deduct at 47c in the dollar as a business expense = the way to go if you can say that you use your phone principally for work.

Fresh Bread

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #180 on: August 29, 2019, 04:36:26 AM »
Vaya 4G $16 a month = unlimited calls and 4GB data, each extra GB charged at $10

This plus a phone bought outright, deduct at 47c in the dollar as a business expense = the way to go if you can say that you use your phone principally for work.

Oh maybe this is why the ALDI $15 a month has just increased data to 3GB. It was 1, then 1.5, and recently jumped up to 3.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #181 on: August 29, 2019, 08:59:21 PM »
Vaya did the same thing over the past year. Jumped from 1 to 1.5 to 4GB.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #182 on: September 02, 2019, 05:03:32 AM »
I signed a 12 month contract in April and I've now got itchy feet. :)

I tend to average about 6GB per month, so a plan that offers 80GB is a bit excessive, no?

Ovo's $19.95 10GB plan is looking mighty tempting, or going back to Kogan.

Then again, I've got the included international roaming if I want to travel...

I thought about cancelling my ADSL and going mobile-only, but for a number of reasons, I won't be doing that here. One of those being that the NBN is just about to arrive here (HFC but whatever, beats ADSL).

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #183 on: September 24, 2019, 08:51:43 PM »
Here's an article on refurbished phones:

https://www.whistleout.com.au/MobilePhones/Guides/Should-you-buy-a-refurbished-smartphone/

From my experience, you can get some good value (and reusing hardware is an environmentally sustainable choice), but budget for a battery replacement.

A phone that's a year old already has a battery with potentially a few hundred cycles on it.

I bought my current phone refurbished from an eBay seller and would probably do so again, but I'd choose a phone based on the ease of battery replacement :)

Most phone repair stores seem to specialise in iPhones and higher end Samsung devices, getting a battery replacement on my HTC 10 required a bit of asking around.

There are carriers now selling phones that are ex-lease. A bit more expensive than buying off eBay, but still worth considering.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2019, 08:54:25 PM by alsoknownasDean »

Fresh Bread

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #184 on: September 25, 2019, 06:25:48 PM »
When I clicked through to recharge my credit today (for some reason haven't set up auto-recharge) I saw that Aldi now offer an annual plan - $249 for $160GB. That's equivalent to 13MB for $20.

I pay $15 for 3GB that I never use up so have stuck with that for now.

middo

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #185 on: September 25, 2019, 07:23:21 PM »
I know I should be able to sort this out myself, but anyway, has anyone had experience with Telstra prepaid and travellung overseas? We are going to NZ for a week.  Last time we went OS we were on a post paid plan and just didnt use our phones much.

Will they work in NZ?  Do I need to do anything?  I just want to be contactable in an emergency.  I can use wifi for anything else.

AdamK80

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #186 on: September 25, 2019, 11:05:18 PM »
The best deal is Belong pre paid for $10/month.  It's unlimited calls and text and the data is 1gb, but when you go over it gets shaped, it doesn't stop and ask you to buy more data like the others.  Things like surfing the web slow way down, but using apps like facebook etc is fine.  Also if you get home internet with belong, they send you out an $80 voucher for mobile, so you get the first 8 months free. 

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #187 on: September 26, 2019, 05:03:57 AM »
I know I should be able to sort this out myself, but anyway, has anyone had experience with Telstra prepaid and travellung overseas? We are going to NZ for a week.  Last time we went OS we were on a post paid plan and just didnt use our phones much.

Will they work in NZ?  Do I need to do anything?  I just want to be contactable in an emergency.  I can use wifi for anything else.

Roaming should be already activated on your service (check in Telstra 24x7?). As for prepaid roaming rates, have a look here (and yes, it's expensive):

https://www.telstra.com.au/international-roaming/pre-paid-mobile

Keep in mind that you're charged to receive calls while roaming.

middo

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #188 on: September 26, 2019, 06:00:43 AM »
I know I should be able to sort this out myself, but anyway, has anyone had experience with Telstra prepaid and travellung overseas? We are going to NZ for a week.  Last time we went OS we were on a post paid plan and just didnt use our phones much.

Will they work in NZ?  Do I need to do anything?  I just want to be contactable in an emergency.  I can use wifi for anything else.

Roaming should be already activated on your service (check in Telstra 24x7?). As for prepaid roaming rates, have a look here (and yes, it's expensive):

https://www.telstra.com.au/international-roaming/pre-paid-mobile

Keep in mind that you're charged to receive calls while roaming.

Thanks.  I sort of thought that was the case.

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #189 on: October 03, 2019, 11:52:32 PM »
I can confirm its expensive as I recently got stung in Northern Canada. If you are prepaid like me,  you have to buy are roaming pack from your pre-paid balance. Not the amounts of credit you get, but the actual paid balance. So you can have a ton of plan call/data/txt credits, but you can't use them whilst overseas, nor can they be exchanged for roaming packs. 

If you are going to be in one place for a while better to buy a sim overseas.

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #190 on: October 04, 2019, 11:23:28 PM »
I recently changed over to Boost on the Boost Prepaid 80GB $150 12 Month plan, was the best value I could find and on the telstra network so much faster than optus.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #191 on: November 13, 2019, 03:11:57 AM »
There's so many phones around in the $600 or less market these days, especially from brands like Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and realme. The Samsung A series looks like good value for money, the Pixel 3A is well regarded (and you can probably still get clearance stock of a 3) and there's plenty of value out there in the refurbished/used market or older generation flagships.

Plenty of good reasons to not spend $1500+ on the latest and greatest.

Of course the carriers are more than happy to sell you a $1500 flagship to pay off over 36 months.

I recently bought a new laptop refurbished. I'm happy enough with it. There's some good environmental benefits from buying used, although my Macbook was just about done after over ten years

Haven't seen much movement in the MVNO market or new plans. The price war seems to be over as the carriers are desperate to make more money to fund 5G rollouts.

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #192 on: December 12, 2019, 05:45:01 PM »
https://www.whistleout.com.au/MobilePhones/News/amaysim-acquires-Jeenee-Mobile

More consolidation in the MVNO market. I wonder if there's much of a future for smaller MVNOs. IIRC the Amaysim group has around a million customers.

Although maybe there'll be more competition as the big three raise prices to fund their 5G rollout.

Sent from my Redmi Note 8 Pro using Tapatalk


alsoknownasDean

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #193 on: June 03, 2020, 02:09:57 AM »
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/amaysim-buys-ovo-mobile-for-up-to-158m-548880

More still. There can't be many MVNOs left that aren't either part of a major retailer, or part of a fixed line ISP.

It's a scale game.

BTW I have no intention of being the Australian equivalent of the Coverage Critic any more. Can't be bothered :)

I've updated the first post of the guide showing that the guide at the top is now abandoned. Check out finder.com.au or WhistleOut for more up to date and comprehensive comparisons of mobile service. Buy what you need and what works for you, and don't spend stupid amounts on high end phones.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2020, 02:21:00 AM by alsoknownasDean »

JLR

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Re: Australian mobile plan guide!
« Reply #194 on: June 03, 2020, 11:47:48 PM »
Thanks for your work on this over the years, Dean. Much appreciated.