Virgin, Telstra, Optus, 3 mobile and Vodafone are the major operators offering pre paid mobile phone plans in Australia.
Basically customers buy a “locked to a provider” phone from a franchise outlet or major department store and top up from time to time in varying amounts of credit.
Each provider has a different call time rate for pre paid mobile phones when compared to their contract customers. For prepaid buyers there are often special offers such as “buy $30.00 in credit and get bonus time or free gifts” There are also tricks or let’s call them rules.
- Optus credit expires after 30 days.
- Vodafone credit expires after 60 days with the capacity to pay more for a full year to use your time.
- Telstra allows customers to retain credit for 6 months.
- 3 mobile has a 30 day limit after which credit expires unless customers recharge.
- Virgin Mobile has a standard 45 day credit use period with options for 180 or 365 days when a higher recharge amount is purchased.
The lesson for consumers is that they must look at what each provider offers before making a decision. For customers who make few calls and only have the phone to receive calls or for use in an emergency, it is a nasty shock when on day 31 their credit has expired ( been taken – repossessed – forfeited )
Most mobile phone operators allow customers to receive incoming calls for varying periods after credit has expired. Text messages will generally not be delivered to expired accounts.
Prepaid customers should ensure that their phone number does not fall into the hands of scammers who send “reverse charge” text messages with special offers or unsolicited information. These quickly devour credit.
There are not many industries where the supplier can take back what is purchased if it it not used. The morality of that practice is another subject.
