Thread: Mobile Phone Charges

Just having had my 2 year contract with Telstra expire, I decided to go pre-paid -$30/month - as that was the cheapest option I could find.
I make/receive very few calls a month so it works out OK. It's a pain to remember to recharge before the expiry date though.

I'd really prefer an option where I pay very little per month but pay for each call I make but not available.

Look for a prepaid plan with long life (180 days or 1 yr). The call rate is much higher than the cheapies but if you are a really casual user it doesn't matter. Most let you rollover unused credit. They usually miss out on the bonus offerings given to constant recharge plans and some are super exxie for data.

Telstra, Optus and many bit players offer them. I switched to Aldi Mobile when I got fed up with Optus sporadically dropping my voice mail settings. Uses the Telstra 3G networks. Cheaper than most and data is quite reasonable. 365 day expiry.

Aldi has a Pay As You Go plan with very good call rates

https://www.aldimobile.com.au/plans

You buy a $5 SIM (can be done on-line if you don't have an Aldi store near you) which comes with $5 credit.

You can then top up with either $15 or $30 which lasts for 365 days, call rates are very reasonable and you can top up online.

They also have a $15 2Gb data block which lasts 30 days, I buy one of those each time we go away so I have internet access on my tablet.

It uses the Telstra 3G network and on a trip to FNQ last year we had very good data reception on this.

+1 for Aldi

Thanks guys, off to Aldi we go.

No Aldi in Tasmania

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

No Aldi in Tasmania

Doesn't matter, all done on the interweb.

My son lives in SA, no Aldi there either, he uses an Aldi SIM card.

+2 for Aldi....

In our area, Telstra 3G is the only decent coverage; Optus and Vodafail don't even work in some of the smaller towns, let alone bush. Aldi gives you Telstra's 3G network at better/more flexible pricing. You can easily port your existing number to Aldi as well.

I'd suggest start on their prepaid and see how much you actually use (it has 365 day expiry). My first $30 top up lasted me 2 months; moderate voice calls plus some data use. From this I deduced that I don't need their monthly $35 plan....

Fingers crossed that Aldi keeps going - I ended up with them after Kogan's similar offers went belly up. Kogan did provide a pro-rata refund, and did allow the number to be ported, so nothing was lost in the process.

The aldi plan sounds like a good one.
My current plan requires me to talk for more than 10 minutes to be competitive with the Aldi plan and I'm lucky if I talk for 2 minutes.

BTW What do folks with prepaid do when they run out of credit in a location where their only internet enabled device is their phone?
I wonder why the companies don't allow at least enough data access to enable users to access their recharge page?

Originally Posted by BobL

BTW What do folks with prepaid do when they run out of credit in a location where their only internet enabled device is their phone?
I wonder why the companies don't allow at least enough data access to enable users to access their recharge page?

I haven't tried this yet but it's just possible the ALDI app (which you can recharge from) might allow access with $0 credit.

Telstra's does - or did anyway.

+18 for the aldi setup.
the 365 day expiry is what appeals to me, even if I use the 15 bucks in 6 months its still not a lot.
I think its 12 c per call.
The TPG one is 10 c per call and sms but its optus network.
And don't ever ring a 13 number. 1 dollar a minute for that.
But they are like etag, they top you up to 20 bucks and you use it till it goes down to 10. Does cost a dollar a month with 50 meg internet on it as well.
I only have to top up by 10 bucks every 3 months.
I put 15 bucks on my aldi one about 3 months ago and it still has credit.

The 5 dollar ALDI sim is great if its going to sit in a glove box for emergency.

And of course both of them will allow you to take your existing number over at no charge.

Originally Posted by _fly_

+18 for the aldi setup.
the 365 day expiry is what appeals to me, even if I use the 15 bucks in 6 months its still not a lot.
I think its 12 c per call.

The pay as you go 12month expiry is 12c per connect minute, no flagfall cost (was 35c on it's own with my former cheap Optus plan plus timed call charges), billed in 1 minute increments so if a call is 1min 10 seconds i is billed as 2 minutes (24c). SMS also 12c each.

Saving us heaps over our old single phone $9pm Optus plan, currently running 2 mobiles (self and wife) for under $4pm total with a range of family and friend illnesses increasing usage beyond that of the Optus plan. Calls are so cheap that mobiles are now phone of choice for calling other mobiles as they are so much cheaper than our fixed line plan is for calls to mobile.