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Thread: Mobile Phone Charges
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25th January 2014, 11:46 AM #1GOLD MEMBER
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Mobile Phone Charges
I live in a semi rural area and having a mobile is kind of nice when travelling around and it might save me walking one dark and dismal night. But the phone company charges me $25 per month for a phone I basically do not use since I got out of business and don't work. Has anyone found a cheaper way, my wife uses pre paid and it expires with heaps of calls never used but I think it might be a cheaper option. What do others do in this situation, last month I did not make a single call.
CHRIS
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25th January 2014 11:46 AM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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25th January 2014, 11:57 AM #2GOLD MEMBER
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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.Geoff
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25th January 2014, 12:00 PM #3SENIOR MEMBER
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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.
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25th January 2014, 12:29 PM #4
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.
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25th January 2014, 12:34 PM #5
+1 for Aldi
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25th January 2014, 01:54 PM #6GOLD MEMBER
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Thanks guys, off to Aldi we go.
CHRIS
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25th January 2014, 02:12 PM #7GOLD MEMBER
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25th January 2014, 02:17 PM #8
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25th January 2014, 02:35 PM #9
+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.
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25th January 2014, 03:32 PM #10.
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prepaid chicken and eg situation
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?
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25th January 2014, 04:38 PM #11SENIOR MEMBER
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25th January 2014, 04:51 PM #12
+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.
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25th January 2014, 08:53 PM #13
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.I used to be an engineer, I'm not an engineer any more, but on the really good days I can remember when I was.
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