Mobile plan for teenage girl - high SMS and data credit, low voice call credit ?

davidmwilliams on 02/09/2014 - 10:24

Hi all,

Hoping someone has recently gone through this exercise themselves and can share their research.

I'm looking for a plan - ideally prepaid so they have to manage their costs and don't risk blowing out - for my teenage daughter. She is on a Telstra prepaid plan at the moment but doesn't really make a lot of voice calls. She mostly uses SMS and wishes she had more data available. At the moment she can only really use data on WiFi and not much when out and about.

From my brief searching I can't really find any compelling prepaid plans that are slanted more to SMS/data than voice - or if they do have a lot of data it generally has to be used in 30 days.

Do you know of any good plans? What do the teenagers in your life do?

Thanks !

Mobile

Comments

  • andy19363 on 02/09/2014 - 10:36

    make your own with yatango…..

    • davidmwilliams on 02/09/2014 - 10:39
      +1

      Thanks … I'd never heard of yatango before. Looks interesting: https://yatango.com.au/mobile/

      • [Deactivated] on 02/09/2014 - 14:41

        With Yatango, you can indeed skew a plan in favour of text instead of voice, but beyond attaching a modest data-allowance, that data gets VERY expensive relative to other providers. Be careful.

        Alternative is to send your daughter to England to study…
        This might turn out to be slightly more expensive (…), but a friend of mine is studying there at the moment, and her provider offers various plans that feature modest included-voice (lower than most plans in Oz), but offer, instead, unlimited text and unlimited data (and not the bogus variety, either).

        There isn't anything directly comparable to that in Australia.

  • hellbound on 02/09/2014 - 10:52

    What telstra pre-paid is she on? Switch to Beyond Talk and use the credit for either text or data packs, depending on which she needs more of.

  • rambutann on 02/09/2014 - 11:06

    How much a month is it costing her/you? I'm thinking either Amaysim or Lebara Mobiles mega plan (http://www.lebara.com.au/mega)

    Sure, you could go with cheaper plans but you might run the risk of exceeding the data allowance..

    • davidmwilliams on 03/09/2014 - 09:04

      I'm not certain what she is paying now; she just tops it up when it gets low but I'm sure it is not the best value plan, and certainly doesn't offer much data. I will check out your suggestions - thanks !

      And yes - nobody rational wants to pay excess data costs!

  • ProjectZero on 02/09/2014 - 11:21

    I actually saw this yesterday… $20 for 3G Telstra network, 1Gb of data and unlimited SMS…

    Seems pretty good to me.

    • davidmwilliams on 03/09/2014 - 09:04

      Many thanks! Will check that out.

  • scotty on 02/09/2014 - 11:39
    +2

    Instead of being on a fixed plan, what about PAYG prepaid + data pack?

    I usually suggest Amaysim As You Go plan (12c/min call, 12c SMS) + Amaysim data pack ($100 for 10GB with 365 days expiry). I'll go for the long-expiry 10GB pack because your data usage might not be different month to month. For example using lots during school holidays, and very little when it's close to exams.

    • davidmwilliams on 03/09/2014 - 09:07

      Thanks for this, this is great.

      I definitely like the idea of having a long-expiry option.

  • Davros on 02/09/2014 - 11:42
    -5

    Prepaid . When it runs out it runs out.
    Of course they can always earn some money and pay for extra themselves, you know, like kids used to do when they wanted stuff.

    "What do the teenagers in your life do?"
    Work for their extra's.

    • davidmwilliams on 03/09/2014 - 09:01

      In your haste to make a rant you clearly overlooked that I said I had a preference for prepaid so she could manage her own costs. Of course she will be paying for it.

      Whether she pays or I pay, I want her to get the best value for money.

      Your post is rather bizarre. You are essentially saying we shouldn't help our youth be smart with their finances.

      • Davros on 03/09/2014 - 09:31
        -3

        "Your post is rather bizarre. You are essentially saying we shouldn't help our youth be smart with their finances."

        If you think that's what I said you have a comprehension problem
        I said the complete opposite.

        You asked what teenagers in my life do and I told you.
        If you can't handle that there is no need to neg vote.

        • davidmwilliams on 03/09/2014 - 20:24
          +1

          Yeah, I'm not going to feed the trolls.

  • parson on 03/09/2014 - 07:46

    Boost
    $40 pm unlimited text. Sms and mms 2 gig data
    Port your number after receiving there sim posted in 24 hrs took me 20 mins from telstra boost uses telstra network 3g can't really see much difference from 4g
    www.boost.com.au

    • davidmwilliams on 03/09/2014 - 09:02

      Thanks; I will check it out. I was hoping for something ~ $30/month but this could be a good option especially because there are multiple recommendations for it here.

  • SirFlibbled on 03/09/2014 - 08:56

    I'd 2nd Boost for the ulimited pre-plan. She can text and talk all day.

    A cheaper option would be Vaya (Optus network) which is $29 a month for unlimited text, 2.5GB and about 600 minutes of talk time but it isn't pre-paid but unlike Boost it's 4G.

  • tildakoj on 03/09/2014 - 18:47

    Vaya.net.au
    $18 plan or $29 plan per month - (month by month) are great
    $650 phone calls
    Unlimited text
    1.5 or 2.5 gig data
    Unlimited calls Vaya to vaya

  • Acdc1001 on 03/09/2014 - 23:07

    Just ported my daughter's mobile over from Live Connected to Vaya's $18/m and so far so good. In my case, it took about 3 days to port over and this may be due to porting b/t Optus resellers.

    There is also Spintel, who provides some degrees of flexibility of moving up and down the plan cost as needed on a month to month basis.

    The plan could be as low as $18/m and will get auto bumped to the next level when needed. At $36/m, it includes:

    Unlimited talk
    Unlimited sms
    2.5GB of data

    There are some points to be aware though:

    Initial sim cost is about $20 for Vaya and $25 including postage for Spintel.

    Data is charged in 1mb increments.

    Extra data cost if going over the allowance.

    Spintel.net.au

    Cheers ac

  • SlickMick on 04/09/2014 - 07:54

    I wanted same thing, and went with Telechoice $20pm. I think it's unlimited texts, 1G data and "some" phone calls. (Pointless saying $ included, because their call costs are high.)

    My greatest fear though is going over allowance and getting stung with a big bill. I probably should have stuck with Aldi mobile prepaid, but get less for $20. Equivalent deal is $30pm.

    • tonyjzx on 08/09/2014 - 22:57

      seems a bit scammy in that regard

      why not put hard limits on the account so you cant go over talk or data allowances???

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