If you’re a phone lover, you may think prepaid is a dirty word; a term to describe the lowest rung of the phone-plan food chain. But this really isn’t the case anymore. We take a look at the best options for data, unlimited call and long expiry dates.
Once upon a time, prepaid plans were made of exclusively of low-value offers that were chiefly designed for people who didn’t use their phone very often. These days there are prepaid plans on the market that offer as much as postpaid equivalents. Plus, you use your phone safe in the knowledge that your telco will never slug you with a huge bill for excess usage.
When you consider that most prepaid providers offer an automatic recharge feature, using a prepaid plan feels a lot like using a postpaid plan. Here are some of the best prepaid plans you can get today.
Top 10 prepaid plans with the most data
Optus has a great deal running for the next few weeks, doubling data on top Prepaid Ultimate Plus plans, and if 20GB seems like more data than you can use in a month, the plan will rollover up to 10GB into the next month.
Lycamobile also has a promo running with a solid data bump, and access to the Telstra 4G network. You’ll have to be quick though, the deal runs out at the end of August.
Kogan and Amaysim run neck-and-neck on the basics, but if you need to make international calls, then Amaysim is a clear winner in that match-up.
Cheapest with unlimited calls & SMS
If you don’t need a ton of data, and you want to keep your bills down, then you’re in luck. Unlimited national calls used to be a plan feature you’d pay a bit for. These days they are basically giving it away.
Jeenee Mobile’s Pennywise plan is killer value at $9.90. That’s not even a promotional price, that’s just how much the plan costs per recharge. The 1GB data is generous for the money, and you get full access to the Optus 4G network.
Otherwise you can choose from a handful of other providers, all with pretty similar offers for $15 per recharge.
The Amaysim plan is usually $25, but you can get the first 6 months for $15 at the moment. Like all other Amaysim plans, this comes with unlimited international calls to 10 countries.
Long expiry plans
While the prepaid market is shifting towards high-value offers (with matching price tags) there is still a certain type of user who needs a plan with long credit expiry. The plans above all include at least 6 months.
Amaysim and Aldi Mobile are the cheapest options for a full year before the credit expires, and both charge a low per-minute rate for calls.
These are examples of some of the best prepaid plans around today, but you can run your own mobile phone plan search if you’re looking for something specific.
Joe Hanlon is Publisher at WhistleOut, Australia’s phone and internet comparison website. He’s been writing about phones and plans for far too long.