Prepaid phone plans often get a bad rap, which isn’t really fair. There’s a common assumption that they’re worse value, but if you’re looking for a new SIM-only plan and not considering prepaid, you’re missing out.
Prepaid inclusions tend to match postpaid plans these days, meaning they have plenty of data. They’re contract free, so you can swap provider or move to a better deal whenever you want. And best of all, prepaid plans are fool-proof. Since they have a hard cap, you can’t get caught unaware by excess fees. This is perfect if you’re on a fixed budget you want to stick to.
Prepaid plans under $20
If you’re looking for pure bang for buck, TPG is a clear winner when it comes to prepaid. Its $19.99 recharge gets you 4GB per month with unlimited talk and text. You’ll have to pay a $10 setup fee, but this is made a little bit more palatable by the fact you’ll get 50% off the plan for your first six months. $10 for 4GB is a bonkers, given that a $10 prepaid plan typically gets you 1GB. TPG is powered by the Vodafone 4G network.
If you don’t want to go with TPG, Kogan Mobile is a close runner up: you’ll get 3GB for $16.90 on a 30-day recharge with no setup fees. Kogan Mobile is also powered by the Vodafone 4G network.
Prepaid plans under $35
TPG’s aggressive discounts make it another solid contender in the under $35 per recharge category. While you’d normally pay $34.99 for 15GB and unlimited talk and text, new customers get their first six months for $19.99.
If you want more than one service on the same bill, you might want to consider Yomojo thanks to its family bundling. The more plans you have on your account, the more you’ll save. For example, bundling four services will knock 10% off your total bill. Yomojo is powered by the Optus 4G network.
Prepaid plans under $50
Opting for a prepaid plan doesn’t mean skimping on inclusions; if you’re okay with spending a little more, you can get a prepaid plan with a hefty amount of data.
Boost Mobile is one of the best options for a big data prepaid plan, offering 30GB on its $50 recharge. This also includes data rollover, and data-free access to Apple Music. Better yet, Boost is powered by the Telstra network.
And I’m going to sound like a broken record, but the TPG deal is once again worth calling out. $39.99 per month gets you 20GB, but new customers get a discounted rate of $24.99 per month for their first six-months.
There is something usually ignored when comparing pre paid pricing to post paid contracts. At the start of a contract, the pricing often compares favourably to pre paid deal value but over the 2 year period of a contract the pre paid deals get cheaper or provide more value. A pre paid customer could then switch to a better deal while the people on contracts are stuck with outdated pricing. After two years the gap has greatly increased, but the less savvy shopper never notices.
This isn’t accurate at all. Telstra beats any other small companies, hence why it’s the best network in australia. I have been with telstra since 16, so 10 years, switched over to optus once but that was shit. Had no service some of the time and I was in the city areas. The people working are horrible to work with and the best money for what you get is pre paid plus extra. I can tell you that noone else provides this great service. Anyone who goes to any other company needs to rethink where the money is actually going… Read more »
If you really need Telstra reception, consider one of the virtual providers who use the Telstra network such as ALDI mobile or (Telstra owned) Belong. Also consider that the network holes that you experienced years ago on other networks might be gone by now.
Boost Mobile is 28 day plan but if you select automatic payments you pay by the month, as in 30 or 31 days. I don’t know why they don’t promote it on their website.
Optus Epic Data prepaid plans also include an additional 10GB of streaming data for Netflix, Stan and ABC iView for those who want to take advantage of it.