Prepaid Mobile

Prepaid Mobile Tips

Following the launch of our “Live Chat” service, it has become quite obvious that selecting a prepaid mobile is a great challenge for many of our visitors. To assist you, we thought we would launch a range of tips that might add some additional guidance. These tips will be built around the questions we receive from visitors. If you have any specific questions, please use our Live Chat service or emails us at arthur”atsign”prepaidplans.com.au

International Roaming

If you are looking to go o/seas with your mobile there are a few options that you might wish to consider. You can either use your existing Australian sim card and pay any applicable roaming charges for calls made and received when overseas or you can buy a local sim from the country you are visiting eg Vodafone when in the UK. You will then be able to access local rates for your local calls as well as make international calls with that phone (no roaming charges will apply unless you travel overseas with it). Prepaid mobile sim cards are available in pretty much every country around the world.

If you are looking for a local prepaid sim card that you can also use for international roaming, then you will need to stick with either Telstra, Optus, or Vodafone. All 3 offer international roaming with their prepaid services. Visit the specific provider page to find out more about international roaming. Bare in mind that roaming charges can be very expensive (seriously expense for calls and data).

International Roaming Sim
You might also wish to consider a Global Prepaid Sim card that you can purchase here in Australia and that will work when you are o/seas. We have sourced 6 for you, Travelsim, Backchat GlobalSIM, Roaming Sim, MobiPassport and eTel.  These international roaming sim cards have been designed for both regular and one off trips overseas and offers great rates avoiding the very painful roaming charges that our local Telcos will charge us.

Emergency Phone

If you hardly use your mobile, or a loved one has purchased it for you in case of emergency or to mainly call you (ie you receive more calls than what you make), then take our look at our Quick Search page to see who is offering the best value “Longest Credit Expiry“.

Mobile Credits

Many people have a partner, friends or children with a particular provider (or network) and wonder whether it is worthwhile purchasing a prepaid mobile plan with the same provider. They ask: Is it cheaper? is the credit of greater value? There are 3 main networks in Australia. Telstra (only used by Telstra, Lyca Mobile(2G), Boost Mobile, Kogan Mobile and ALDIMobile for prepaid mobile), Optus (used by Optus, Boost, Virgin, Amaysim, Dodo, OneMobile, Savvytel and Woolworths Mobile), Vodafone (Vodafone, Just Mobile, Go-Talk, Crazy Johns, Red Bull Mobile, RevTel). What you will find is that sticking to the same network as your friend/partner/child will in most cases give you better value in terms of free talk/txt. What you don’t have to do however is stick with the same plan or actual Telco. Eg If your friend is on Optus, you might find that you get better value going with Woolworths Mobile as they offer credit for calls/txt to Optus members. So it pays to do your research.

Connection Quality

Who has the best quality reception and connection. If you live in very rural Australia, then probably sticking with Telstra will be your best bet. However Optus’ reach is always improving and so is Vodafone’s. The beauty of prepaid is that the risk and cost is minimal (cost of a recharge). If you don’t like it, switch. You can port your number pretty easily. Its law that telecommunication providers have to allow porting, so there is no lock-in.