Teenagers and Mobile Phone Plans ....

[Shrekmeister]

Miss 12 heads off to high school next year (YIKES...) ...and is about to get a Mobile Phone for Christmas....!

those that have gone through this scenario....

What plans are recommended ??

clearly don't want to end up with massive bills etc...so am thinking pre paid stuff ...

also thinking of only having the internet activated by WIFI ...if that option is possible...

 

[ForkinGreat]

Amaysim FTW! lots of options. byo phone or buy one from their affiliate. I'm on a $44ish unlimited talk/text. beats the Shit out of my old optus "fuck you, pay us lots of money" plan. :bananalama:

 

[pink poodle]

Prepaid for sure if you want to avoid surprise bills. Check out boost's $40 option. Plenty of data during the week and 2gig each weekend is their current teaser. Plus they are on the telstra network.

Personal experience and friends over the years is avoid the opus network. The coverage is patchy, even in a sophisticated city like Newcastle...let alone once you are off the beaten track.

And yes you can set your phone for WiFi internet only, but your daughter will figure out how to turn that off quick enough.

 

[Dales Cannon]

Prepaid definitely. Some plans will allow free calls to preselected numbers so if they run out of credit they can still call mum or dad or gran.

 

[nickdos]

Aldi prepaid is worth looking at.

Only issue with turning off mobile data (which we tried) is you can't use the "Find Friends" (or Find my phone) feature of iOS to track the little one on their way home from school.

 

[Lazmo]

I’ve got three daughters and they all started off on pre-paid, and as they got over the new phone jollies and learnt to capitalise on the endless wifi at home… we moved them onto an Amaysim shared data plan.

 

[Haakon]

I use Aldi too. Its on the Telstra network which might be relevent depending on where you are.

$25 a month is more calls and texts (although I'm tipping I have less friends than your daughter ) than i can use and 1.5GB.

 

[si618]

also thinking of only having the internet activated by WIFI ...if that option is possible...

You can get a prepaid plan with no data, i.e. just voice and sms, which limits internet access to wifi or (bluetooth/hotspot) tethering. Will save you ~$300-400 a year easy.

Of course if mobile data gets turned on, you will chew through your prepaid very quickly.

fwiw, I spend ~$50-70 a year using prepaid vodafone 365 plan, rarely find I need to use data outside of wifi, which is mostly home or work, but if I do someone will normally let me tether and leech off them for a bit. Guessing my usage will be a lot different from a 12 year old though, so ymmv

 

[northvanguy]

Telstra $30 prepaid

 

[northvanguy]

Telstra $30 prepaid

I'm on it and it is great value. Almost 3GB. $700 in calls. Unlimted txt. Frer telstra to telstra.

 

[slowmick]

am on the $40 boost plan. they have moved on to the 4G Telstra network so i assume you get the same as Telstra customers. There maybe some areas where they kick you back to 3G just becasue they can.

unlimited talk and text and 3 GB data + 2GB data each weekend. then you just need to argue about the phone. From what the recharge app looks like you could swap them between the $20 limited plan and the $40 unlimited plan each month based on their behaviour....

 

[\m/ Moshboy \m/]

Another happy Aldi customer here. I'm on their $20/month M plan (more than adequate as a low volume user) & as of the 16/12, they'll be beefing it up a bit -:


"You are receiving this email because your ALDImobile service is currently subscribed to our M Value Pack.

Great news

We are excited to tell you about some improvements we are making to your ALDImobile plan. These added extras come at no extra charge to you and the M Value Pack remains priced at $20.

These changes come into effect for purchases of the M Value Pack after 16th December 2015.

Extra Value

From 16th December, we are increasing the amount of included credit from $30 to $40. That means up to an extra 100 minutes of calls, or extra MMS messages to help you keep in touch with friends and family.

Extra data

From 16th December, the M Value Pack is going to have increased data included for no extra charge. The data inclusion is increasing from 700MB to 1GB plus we’re adding 500MB of weekend data.

We are also changing the way data is consumed to give you even better value for money. From 16th December, data will be consumed in blocks of 1KB instead of 25KB, helping your data last longer.

The data add-on option of adding 300MB for $5 will remain the same.

So, here’s what the new M Value Pack will give you:
•Same price of $20 for 30 day expiry
•Increased data allowance to 1GB + 500MB weekend data
•Increased included value of $40 for calls and messages
•Data will be consumed in 1KB increments
•All other inclusions remain the same

If you currently have auto recharge set on your service, we will automatically recharge you to the new M Value Pack after 16th December. If you recharge with the M Value Pack before this date, you will receive the current inclusions. If you do not wish to change to the new M Value Pack, you should disable auto recharge on your service.

If you do not have auto recharge set, you will receive the new allowances when you purchase a new M Value Pack after 16th December 2015.

We will also be making improvements across some of our other Value Packs, you can find out more about all of the changes here aldimobile.com.au/newplans "

 

[ctguru]

Another happy Aldi customer here. I'm on their $20/month M plan (more than adequate as a low volume user) & as of the 16/12, they'll be beefing it up a bit -:


"You are receiving this email because your ALDImobile service is currently subscribed to our M Value Pack.

Great news

We are excited to tell you about some improvements we are making to your ALDImobile plan. These added extras come at no extra charge to you and the M Value Pack remains priced at $20.

These changes come into effect for purchases of the M Value Pack after 16th December 2015.

Extra Value

From 16th December, we are increasing the amount of included credit from $30 to $40. That means up to an extra 100 minutes of calls, or extra MMS messages to help you keep in touch with friends and family.

Extra data

From 16th December, the M Value Pack is going to have increased data included for no extra charge. The data inclusion is increasing from 700MB to 1GB plus we’re adding 500MB of weekend data.

We are also changing the way data is consumed to give you even better value for money. From 16th December, data will be consumed in blocks of 1KB instead of 25KB, helping your data last longer.

The data add-on option of adding 300MB for $5 will remain the same.

So, here’s what the new M Value Pack will give you:
•Same price of $20 for 30 day expiry
•Increased data allowance to 1GB + 500MB weekend data
•Increased included value of $40 for calls and messages
•Data will be consumed in 1KB increments
•All other inclusions remain the same

If you currently have auto recharge set on your service, we will automatically recharge you to the new M Value Pack after 16th December. If you recharge with the M Value Pack before this date, you will receive the current inclusions. If you do not wish to change to the new M Value Pack, you should disable auto recharge on your service.

If you do not have auto recharge set, you will receive the new allowances when you purchase a new M Value Pack after 16th December 2015.

We will also be making improvements across some of our other Value Packs, you can find out more about all of the changes here aldimobile.com.au/newplans "

ditto I'm with Aldi and happy!

 

[climberman]

Data is more important than calls for teens. They can live without calls but not without data/messaging/etc. They can mainly live without calls as the only people who will call them will be family and every teenagers' families are sooooooo uncool.

Make sure phones are set to use WiFi for everything wherever possible. Up your home broadband account accordingly. Especially important for downloading apps and other shit they live on.

Make sure your plan can do data. Heaps of data.

 

[Boom King]

17 yo son is on an Amaysim unlimited 2GB plan for $29.90 per month.

BYO phone, unused data rolls over to the next month, unlimited calls and texts. The calls aren't an issue but they text like you won't believe.

 

[Shrekmeister]

17 yo son is on an Amaysim unlimited 2GB plan for $29.90 per month.

BYO phone, unused data rolls over to the next month, unlimited calls and texts. The calls aren't an issue but they text like you won't believe.

we have just gone with this deal half an hour ago....will give it a shot...

she will be using partners old Iphone 5....given she is likely to drop it etc...

thanks everyone

 

[Ivan]

I have heard the Woolworths prepaid is a decent deal for offspring

 

[spoozbucket]

I went with Aldi after reading all the bad reviews on Amaysim, can't fault them, as previously stated it's over the Testra network and Aldi don't send stupid promo messages at the odd times that Telstra do. Telstra prepaid works out to be something like 7X more expensive to make a call over pre-paid and their customer service is still shit, why are they so expensive?

 

[wesdadude]

I went with Aldi after reading all the bad reviews on Amaysim, can't fault them, as previously stated it's over the Testra network and Aldi don't send stupid promo messages at the odd times that Telstra do. Telstra prepaid works out to be something like 7X more expensive to make a call over pre-paid and their customer service is still shit, why are they so expensive?

They have the monopoly and the expensive reliable (in relative terms) network. The random promo messages do suck (and their opt-out is convoluted as hell).

I'm on Telstra (Pre-Paid Simplicity®) because I need signal. $30 lasts 60 days and rolls over on recharges. A bit more than I need but the rates on the long life are crap so I chew through that one (if I've got lots of credit I'll switch to that though, next recharge gets the extended life).

Phone plans are crap over here. In NZ it was 9¢ texts to NZ/AUS and like 12¢ call rates, plus credit lasts a year.

 

[spoozbucket]

Phone plans are crap over here. In NZ it was 9¢ texts to NZ/AUS and like 12¢ call rates, plus credit lasts a year.

That's what Aldi rates are and it's on the Telstra Network, 12c a minute(365 day credit) with no flagfall or 10c a minute on the monthly caps.

There's a few mine sites(and other places) that Aldi won't work on, I used it along with a Telstra work phone in some pretty remote areas and the signal was the same everywhere.