Prepaid Mobile & Prepaid Internet Plans

January 2012
Prepaid Mobile & Sim Only BYO Mobile Special Offers

Special offers are becoming more and more popular. I usually cover special offers via our fortnightly newsletter however I thought you might prefer to see them on our home page. You can now keep track of them and tell others about them. There are a few special offers around at the moment, most of which are expiring at the end of January or February 2012.

Virgin Bonus $1200 Credit
If you purchase $2, $5 or $29 sim pack and recharge with a $29 Your Cap before 31/3/12 you will receive $200 bonus credit each month for 6 months. Bonus recharge must be issued in total before 30/9/12.

Optus New Turbo Cap Plus – Unlimited Weekend Calls
Connect with the Optus New Turbo Cap Plus before 31/3/12 and stay connected for the entire year with minimum credit and you will receive unlimited weekend calls to Australian standard numbers. This includes national voice calls to mobiles, landlines and 1300/1800.

Amaysim – 20% off your first order
Sign up to the Amaysim Unlimited, As You Go or Mobile Broadband and activate before 15/2/12 (extended) and you will receive 20% off your first order.

Vodafone 365 Days Special Offer
Recharge with $30 on the 365 Day prepaid mobile plan by 29 February 2012 and get infinite standard national Vodafone to Vodafone calls for 365 days (standard voice calls within Australia). Must activate recharge by 29/02/2012.

Telstra Prepaid Cap Encore Free Calls
If you sign up with Telstra’s Prepaid Cap Encore you will receive unlimited calls from 6pm to 6am every night of the week to any network. This offer now runs until the 23/4/2012. You can sign up with a $30 recharge, which offers $250 in calls and 500MB of data. Lets hope Telstra keep extending it!

Lebara Mobile Mega Plan $9.90 Bonus Offer
Buy a $39.90 Mega Plan Starter pack online between 25/01/12 and 29/02/12 and receive a BONUS $9.90 Mega Recharge voucher. The Mega Recharge voucher can be used to top-up your included call credit for international calls and data, at Lebara’s standard low-cost rates.

December 2011
Year in Review

Prepaid Mobile Internet & Prepaid Mobile Data Plans2011 is almost over. This has been the busiest of years when it comes to prepaid mobile plans. Not only have we had new plans join the race for your mobile phone but we have also had lots of changes to existing plans.The newest entries have been Lyca Mobile (just over a year ago), Woolworths Mobile, Red Bull Mobile and just last month we saw One Mobile join the market. Lyca Mobile have hit the international call market hard this year, taking on the likes of Lebara and gotalk with cheap international calls. gotalk’s prepaid range has grown and changed significantly this year, they not only boast very competitive international call rates but the cheapest local call offer with Aussie Extra. The international call market has also received focus from the big players in Optus through its Connect 4 Less offer, Virgin with its Simple offer and even Telstra with its Simplicity plan.When it comes to cheap call rates, gotalk lead the pack at the moment with 9c/min and then you have a growing list sitting at 10c/min including Optus, Savvytel, and Crazy John’s. To challenge all of this we had the launch of Red Bull Mobile. See the review below but what really impressed me with Red Bull Mobile is that they through the rule book out of the window with the unlimited offers. You select the term want and all calls and SMS are endless during that period.

Mobile internet has also seen a lot of attention. Remember the Optus Data Blaster (some might still be on this plan), it has been superseded many times now by the Turbo Cap and the New Turbo Cap Plus. Woolworths joined the prepaid race with its newest offer, the $29 and $49 Caps which offer 5GB of data.  Even Telstra have removed the handcuffs with their prepaid cap plans (Encore offer) which boasts competitive call credits and data. What has also become rather popular is the inclusion of free/unlimited social media access covering Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. Optus, Amaysim and Vodafone all offer this feature.

Finally we move onto the sim only or BYO Mobile month to month plans. Pioneered by KISS Mobile, we now have over 20 providers competing in this area. This will be the battle ground for 2012 as these plans potential offer greater value for customers but also more revenue opportunities for the providers. The biggest flavour here in 2011 has been the unlimited offers. It started with Boost $40 on the prepaid side of things but quickly spread to the BYO monthly plans. They might not all be calling it “Unlimited” but that is what they mean when they offer 4000 minutes in call credits.

Have a safe festive season.
Arthur Koulianos

July 2011
Prepaid Mobile Review – Savvytel

Savvytel are one of the first plans that I reviewed when I started this website, in fact I have converted hundreds of Savvytel customers over the past few years, two of them within my own family. Savvytel have become well known for their Savvytel Credits Never Expire Offer. At 12c per 30 seconds and a 20c flagfall, the rates are pretty competitive, certainly not the cheapest going around but if you hardly use your phone and get annoyed when you discover that the $50 recharge you applied last month has already expired even though you only made a few calls in that time, then you need a prepaid mobile plan like Savvytel. With Savvytel, the $50 will not expire even if you haven’t used your phone in the last month.

This month Savvytel launched SavvyLite. For those who want an ultra low call rate, 10c per min is as good as it gets and no flagfall means that your 2 minute calls will only cost you just 20c. If you only make 1 call every day that is under $1.50 per week in call costs. Add to that 5c per MB for your mobile internet access and you have a very competitive offer. Credits in this case last for 90 days which is great. So how does SavvyLite stack up with some of the cheapest plans out there. A 2minute call using Virgin Bean Counter will cost you 45c, Crazy Johns FlatChat would be 30c, gotalk Max 35c. Therefore we can confidently crown SavvyLite as one of the cheapest Australian mobile plans.

October 2011
Prepaid Broadband Review – Amaysim Prepaid Mobile Broadband

Amaysim launched their prepaid mobile offer Pay As You Go almost a year ago now. From what I can tell in terms of traffic to their page on our Prepaid Plans website it has gone gangbusters. Along with the Pay As You Go plan, they also introduced competitive data-packs at 1GB for $9.90. Add to this Amaysim Unlimited for $39.90/mth and you can see why they are now considered a leading Australian mobile plan provider.

Last month, Amaysim took the next step with their data offers to launch a prepaid mobile broadband data sim pack. No hardware just the sim card and the data. For $9.90 you are provided with 1GB of data, which lasts for 30 days. For $19.90 the data increases to 2.5GB (30 days). At $29.90 the offer is 4GB for 30 days. Finally you have the 365 days offer for just $99.90.

Amaysim also offer a Pay As You Go plan for 5c/MB, pay only what you use. These plans are on the Optus Network and also provide unlimited social media access eg Facebook, Twitter and Ebay. You do need an unlocked USB dongle to use with your sim pack. It can be from any provider as long as it can operate on either the 900MHz or 2100MHz 3G frequency. Learn more…

June 2011
Sim Only Mobile Review – Amaysim Unlimited

It all started about a month ago when Boost Mobile launched their Recharge $40 offer across many of their prepaid mobile plans. Boost Recharge $40 currently offers unlimited calls and text to anyone, unlimited social networking about 3GB of data. I covered it within the PrepaidPlans newsletter as ‘Could this be the best prepaid mobile plan ever?” At the time it must have been coming close.

This was followed by Vodafone launching their All-time prepaid mobile plans. Giving you unlimited calls, unlimited social networking + 1GB data when you recharge $55.

This week, Amaysim held a Press Conference to announce they had launched a sim only no contract month to month arrangement called Amaysim Unlimited. This the latest offering from Amaysim gives you unlimited calls to anyone in Australia, unlimited SMS, unlimited MMS plus unlimited social networking and a bonus 4GB of data for just $39.90 per month.

This is a month to month arrangement which means there is no contract so you can leave whenever you like however until you do so, you have a recurring $39.90 charge to your credit card which gives you access to all of these great services.

Whilst it might not be fair to compare it to prepaid mobile plans, at the sim only level it is by far the best offer available at the moment, particularly when you compare it to plans such as Virgin’s topless which offers unlimited calls and text to anyone in Australia and 4GB of data for $89 if purchased online. The difference between $89 and $39 is significant.

There are a couple of things to note however. 1300, 1800 numbers are not included and are charged extra at 29c/min and data is charged per MB increments, so touch the net with an App or directly and 1MB is used. Already the traffic to this plan on our site has been extraordinary. If you would like to know more then visit Amaysim Unlimited now.

October 2011
Prepaid Mobile Review – Best Prepaid Data (Internet) Offers

Prepaid Plans offers a free Chat service which operates in the evenings. One of the most popular questions we receive is what is the best prepaid mobile plan if i want to use the internet on my phone.Probably the best way to answer this question is to consider a couple of key points which differentiates each of the offers out there. The first is the cost of the plan (recharge) and how long it lasts, the second the network that the plan is using (ie Telstra, Optus or 3 Mobile/Vodafone) and the third is the data increments used to count your data allocation.

In terms of Network and increments you can’t go past Telstra Prepaid Cap Plus+. Telstra’s Next G network is the best in the country, no doubts and with increments of 100kb they certainly receive a couple of ticks. The data offers are also pretty good with a $30 recharge offering 500MB and $40 1GB. So two stars out of three for Telstra Prepaid Cap Plus+.

Another great plan is the Woolworths $29 Prepaid Cap. This prepaid mobile plan gives you 5GB for 30 days and lives on the Optus Network. The only downside is that increments are in 1MB lots. So again two stars.

This week we are happy to also add Red Bull Mobile to this list. An upfront $365 will give you 5GB per month, with increments at 250kb. Network is Vodafone. Two stars here as well.So no one gets 3 stars but there is plenty in the 2 star category. Many of the plans also offer unlimited social media access eg FaceBook and Twitter. If this is all you use on your phone, then also consider these plans as you will find that having lots of GB probably isn’t what you really need.

You can easily compare the best in prepaid mobile data plans here.

October 2011
Prepaid Mobile Review – Red Bull Mobile

Red Bull Mobile is bringing a new way of pricing prepaid mobile to Australia. Recharge for a set amount and you receive unlimited calls, text, MMS and a set red bull mobile amount of data that will last you for a given period. This is more inline with what is available in Europe. So how does it work. Recharge for $10 and you receive unlimited calls, text, MMS and 750MB of data for 7 days. Recharge for $20 and it all lasts for 15 days plus your data allowance for the 15 days is 1.5GB. Recharge for $39 and receive it all again but this time it lasts for 30 days and the data allowance is 4GB. Recharge for $75 and it all lasts for 60 days plus the data allowance is 8GB (beat that, no one does that!). Finally if you recharge for $365 it all lasts for 365 days and the data allowance is 5GB per month or 60GB for the 365 day period.

How about that for value. Ideal if you have already been with Vodafone and know that it (network) works great for you. If you are out of their reach then, maybe not so great. No details are provided in terms of international calls. Access is for Australian numbers only.

The Red Bull Mobile data allowance is phenomenal, it might not say unlimited but 4GB in a 30 day period is huge. Bare in mind however that each time you access data it counts for a minimum of 250kb, so access it 4 times and 1MB is used. No peer to peer sharing is available. Most prepaid mobile offers charge you in 1MB increments (this is a quarter of that).

How does it compare to other plans? Unlimited is the latest flavour at the moment so it compares really well. Plans are now live so you can order your sim pack from Red Bull Mobile.

November 2011
Prepaid Mobile Review – Woolworths Prepaid Cap $29 & $49

Two weeks ago, Woolworths resuscitated their mobile phone program with the launch of the Woolworths Prepaid Mobile Caps. New brand, new plans and a real push through several of the key Woolworths retail chains as well as a significant investment in marketing.

Key question is just how do these new plans stack up?

Whilst the call rates are not anything to get particularly excited about, the call credits on offer as well as the data allowance certainly make up for it.

For just $29, you receive $500 of phone credit, $250 of which is to other Woolworth’s customers and 5GB of data. With call rates at 89c per minute and a 30c flag fall, a two-minute call will cost you $2.08 and provides you with 120 calls to anyone plus a further 120 to Woolworth’s customers. Compared to other $29 recharges, the Woolworths $29 Cap is actually slightly more competitive than Virgin’s Big $29 Cap and equal to the Optus New Turbo Cap Plus.

5GB of data is substantial and whilst it might not offer free use of social media services such as Twitter and Facebook, it is probably much more than most people will require in a 45-day period. Note your first recharge on the $29 is now half price.

The second plan is the $49 Cap, which offers double the call credits ie $1000, $500 between Woolworth’s customers and $500 to anyone. At the $40 recharge level, the competition is much fiercer. Firstly you have Boost Mobile offering unlimited calls and text, plus 3GB of data and unlimited social networking. As well as the Optus New Turbo Cap Plus which with a $50 recharge has unlimited calls and text plus 3GB of data and unlimited social networking.

You also have Vodafone’s Infinite prepaid mobile plan, which offers unlimited calls, text, social networking and 1GB of data on a $50 recharge.

Not to mention, the sim only no contract plans that also come into consideration at the $40 recharge level.

I believe that the Woolworths Prepaid Caps are a great option at the $29 Cap level, particularly given the data that is offered. When we take a step up to $49, the internet data allowance remains are real plus but the call credits aren’t as appealing as the unlimited plans, particularly Boost’s $40 recharge.

Woolworths really seem to be behind this brand. Dick Smith stores are promoting it inn their entry areas and windows, so are the supermarkets (funnily enough Coles Mobile don’t). It is also supported by TV advertisements.

Well done Woolworths for giving Australia consumers another competitive prepaid mobile offer when it comes time to review their prepaid or contract mobile provider.