Another Use for Telstra Prepaid Credit

EDIT: Google has terminated this service. Do not attempt to use it as your money may disappear into the ether.

Hi.

I wanted to let you know about a little service I have put together to help you squeeze a bit more value out of telstra prepaid SIMs. I hope I'm not violating guidelines by posting it here. It's not right for the classifieds section, and I don't want to call it a deal either.. As you might infer from some comments below, some in the community know about this already and are doing their best to downplay the value of services like this one, and keep it to themselves.

There are quite a few tricks we use already, like getting the starter kits at half price, and then using cashback. If you have an android or windows phone you can use the recharge credit on their app stores, which is also pretty handy. And you can use creditme2u to send excess funds to a friend, or buy a plus pack.

That said, it's still easy to run out of useful stuff to do with it, particularly if you're an iPhone user. So I have tried to put together a little web service some of you might like.

The basic idea is this:

  • you SMS me your paypal email address, to 0476785291.
  • I send a confirmation email to that address, and you follow a link in the email, then enter your phone number to confirm it's yours, and you haven't mistyped it. It should only take a few seconds to arrive. If you don't see it, check your spam folder.
  • You start a creditme2u to my number. (#100#, then 1, then 6, then my number, then the amount of up to $10). Alternatively, you can make it super-fast by saving #10016047678529110# to your contacts list [where the 10 means $10].
  • At this point I receive an SMS from telstra telling me you are about to transfer money to me. If everything is working smoothly on my side, you get back an email a few seconds later, confirming everything is good to go.
  • You complete the creditme2u. (press 1 to confirm)
  • A few seconds later I start a paypal funds transfer to your account, of X% of what you sent me. It should take about a minute for the paypal email to arrive.

Magic!

Before going any further, be clear on this: there is no commercial agreement, there is no onus on me to do anything in response to your sending me some credit. What I describe above is purely hypothetical, and I have no obligation to actually do any of it. Any funds you transfer to me are entirely voluntary and obligation-free, and anything you might receive from me is similarly simply a friendly funds transfer!

What do you think of this idea? I only came up with it recently, and haven't thought about it too hard.

I'll try to anticipate some of your questions:

How much do I get?
To start with, during the testing phase I might donate to you 50% of what you send me. This is not sustainable but as any early users will be more likely to experience 'hiccups', I want to do my best to be fair. This testing phase would run for a couple of weeks.
Later on, once things seem to be running smoothly, this would eventually drop down to 30%.

Why would I do this?
You have excess credit, and I can make some use of it, and I would show you my appreciation.

Is there a limit?
Yes, I can only make use of about $500 of your donations each month. Any excess would be queued. That is one reason for the pre-transfer email, to help ensure you only transfer something if I can use it. If there is a lot of interest I might be able to do something, but I want to test the waters first.

What if I don't see an email straight away?
Probably things are just delayed. But to be on the safe side, you should wait, then try again later.

Can I give it a try?
If you want to help me test this one, PM me and I will give you the test number. I only want a couple of testers at this stage, for your safety and mine.

(edit: added SIM number)

Poll Options

  • 82
    I have no use for this, I have better things to do with my credit
  • 1
    I don't have a paypal account
  • 14
    It sounds too complicated
  • 6
    Maybe I would use this sometimes
  • 10
    I would use this for sure, if it works as described

Related Stores

Telstra
Telstra

Comments

  • +40

    So you want people to send you credit and there is no obligation on you to pay them. . Interesting….

    • +1

      No obligation…

      Hey, I see some bikies in the distance! What a coincidence!

      • +1

        lol we need more deals relating to bikies and their services… that get a lot of work out of us ozbargainers!

  • Sounds like he wants to start a business selling credit on eBay :)

    • No, nothing than ambitious. I can use the credit on the android play store for a few things, but there's a limit on that. I hadn't even considered people might want to buy the credit actually..

    • +16

      I think there should be a sixth poll option: I can't trust you, especially with no obligation/commitment for you to pay. It's nothing personal against you - but who's to say you won't take everyone's credit and leave them all hanging? I'm sure it'd work out great with people who knew you irl, but not sure how many people would willingly give away their credit (which is really just money) to a stranger without knowing for sure they'd get something in return.

      • -6

        I can't update the poll sorry.

        If I were on the receiving end, and I had excess credit lying around that I had no use for (no friends needed it, I had bought everything I could think of on the android store, no need for plus packs, etc.), I would try it out with a dollar or two and see how it went.

        If it didn't work well, I pretty much hadn't lost anything, and if it did work, I had effectively reduced my monthly spend. Once I saw how it worked, if I liked it, I could use it again, maybe transferring a bit more at a time as long as everything kept working smoothly.

        Certainly it does require a bit of trust, particularly at the beginning. That's one reason why I did not limit this service to e.g. only $10 transactions. If you try it out with $1 you will get $0.50 back at the moment, which is a pretty low risk way of trying it out.

        Because you get the immediate feedback, I think that helps you gain confidence pretty quickly: you're not waiting around, and it's not done manually. I am not treating anyone in a special way, it's just processing whatever it gets.

  • -2

    Why would anyone do this, even as a commercial enterprise and someone could determine you were 100% trustworthy, why would anyone bother? Serious question.

    • -3

      What I said to lizzle I hope mainly answers this. Once you've registered your email, it takes about a minute for you to key in the creditme2u to your phone, so it's super easy. If you don't want to do something useful with that excess credit it's fine with me, but this is OzBargain, where every dollar counts :-)

  • +7

    no need to send to the OP he is just giving idea. do it with your sister brother parents.
    thanks OP!

    • Yes of course. Like I said, if you have friends who can use the credit, send it there.

      I just find that many of my friends run out of use for that excess credit, and IMHO this is a better option that letting it go unused.

      If you do a $30 recharge, this could result in only really paying $22.50. Or if you get a half-price starter back, you are only out of pocket $7.50. With cashbank you can easily come out ahead.

  • Seems like a … pointless exercise?

    • Why do you say that?

      If you try it, you will see the point.

      • I say that because I could spend the credit myself at the applicable app store ;)

        • If you have things worth buying then go for it. You're missing the point.

          The purpose of this is for people who have bought everything that can/want to, and don't have friends who can use the credit. If you are not one of these people that's fine: this is pointless for you, but not for them.

      • +1

        You should read PayPal's fine print before you go any further.

        • What fine print are you talking about?

        • Are you someone who is afraid to use paypal in general, or is there something particularly relevant to what I am offering?

        • @nicois:
          I think it's a good idea…Just a suggestion to keep it legit.

        • +2

          Sure, I want to be as legit as possible without actually entering in to any commercial agreement. Hence the disclaimers.

          Thinking about the PayPal fine print, the most nefarious thing I can think of would be this:
          - I accepting 'donations' for a while, acting as I say, and building up confidence in the community
          - One day I suddenly attempt to retrospectively cancel many of my payments.

          I remember reading somewhere that a person was selling bitcoins on ebay, and got burnt because the buyers there were able to revoke their payments, claiming the bitcoins never arrived, burning the seller. That is the 'best' way I can come up with for misusing the system, and I certainly have no intention of trying anything like that. Apart from bad karma, I don't think PayPal would let me revoke my payments, and we're talking about pretty small values here anyway.

          At the end of the day, there is a bit of trust needed on both sides.

          That said, I'm happy for all this feedback, as I want to make sure I am not overlooking any serious issues.

  • 30% lol.

    I can provide any user that wants to PM me, at least 50% going forward.

    No testing required. I have a need for credit.

    PM me.

    • How will you transfer me the credit? And how long will it take from when I transfer, to when I see the money? If so, you should list this on the ozbargain front page as a deal, shouldn't you?

      From time to time everyone has a use for the telstra credit, sure. What I am offering is a fully automated way to instantly do something with it.

      In the past I have shown my friends various things they can do with their credit, but their eyes glaze over pretty quickly. I want to set something up which works instantly, 24/7, and can be set up in a couple of minutes.

      I really don't care if people prefer to PM you than use my service. The main purpose of this is to help reduce wasted credit, one way or another.

      • Because it's not a deal in either case.
        It's not value giving people 50% of what it's actually worth.

        Yes my automation is linked to a bank transfer. How ever long it takes for a bank transfer to take.

        I'm sure most people here would take an extra 66% on the value of their credit. (30% v 50%) by waiting for a funds transfer to clear.

        There's no need to rip members of this community off.

        • The telstra credit is worth different things to different people. If you pay $15 for a $30 starter kit, and get $12 cashback, you have paid $3 for it. Sure, you can buy $30 'worth' of stuff with it, but it's not real money, it can only be used for a limited range of things.

          I completely agree that it's worth more than the funny money you get to spend on calls each money (e.g. $220 with the freedom plans with a $30 recharge). But you can't really be serious about saying $30 telstra credit is worth the same as $AUD30. If you were, why not give me $AUD25 for $T30? You would make a $5 profit, according to your logic!

          If you actually have a fully automated solution, please share with us the method to sign up, and tell us more about how it works. Why would you have developed an automated solution if you are so adamant that it's not value giving people 50%? I think you are being less than completely truthful with your claim. I have a real service people can use, that I have offered to anyone who wants it. I am already happy with the responses I have had privately, and have complete confidence I am offering people what they want, at a fair rate.

        • +2

          My automated solution is

          1) Text me or PM me your phone number, BSB / Account (or Paypal)
          2) Send credit to me with Me2U.
          My system detects the credit and will process a bank transfer or PayPal payment to you.

          And it's not a might donate.
          We will pay out 50% or more if you are a regular user.

          I have a real service too and I've had it in place for months, with many active users.
          So nice of you to call me out on being less than truthful.

          We pay out 100% of the time (not this voluntary crap), and guarantee to be at least 50%.


          Also it's not a bargain as people can sell it on eBay for approximately 60% after fees.
          Probably a lot of effort compared to our methods, but the option is there.

          http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=te…

        • @Pigey:

          If it's a real service that's been around for months, and you are running it as a business, why haven't you told anyone on ozbargain about it? And even if you hadn't, wouldn't some of your "many actual users" have mentioned it, either here or on whirlpool?

          You said earlier "It's not value giving people 50% of what it's actually worth." How does that stack up with what you say you are doing?

          Lastly, if this were real, and by 'we' you say there are more that one of you involved, and it's used by so many people, why haven't you automated the signup process? I have spent a couple of days, and people just text their paypal email, then they're good to go.

          But I agree with your last point, that if they can be bothered, they can try to sell their excess credit on ebay. It sounds like a pain to me. If I were sitting on $10 of unused credit, I would prefer to get $3-5 for it now than wait a week and stuff around with ebay.

        • @Pigey: Got a link Pigey? I may want to sell of excess credit at some point in the future.

        • +1

          @marquise:

          PM'ed you.

        • @Pigey:
          I also have excess credit to sell.

        • @tonytone:

          You can PM him directly if you want to do it his way. I suggest you try sending $1 credit to him, and $1 credit to me, and see which way is easier to do, and which way is processed faster.

        • @tonytone: I see your registration message, but you have not verified your email yet. Just checking you know to expect an email.

          I have this verification step to ensure you didn't make a typo when sending me your email address..

        • +1

          @nicois:
          All good. Its working.

          Great service. Don't know why so many people are hating.

          If you're worried he's some bodgy guy just transfer a couple of bucks and see if it works.

          I have transfered $17 all up and got paid within a couple minutes.

  • Has anyone else noticed that Telstra has raised the $20 limit for carrier billing on prepaid to $100? I got a new user agreement yesterday when I tried to buy something. Then I tried to click on a boxset tv show worth $70 that would normally give me a msg saying it was over the carrier limit and there was no warning like that. I haven't yet tried purchasing over $20 though.

  • Yes, it must be a new change, I only noticed it a couple of days ago too.

  • +7

    Hey, are you that student from a prestigious Melbourne School who ran an unsuccessful get rich quick scheme? lol

  • +1

    If only…

    Really, it's just a little side project which I thought would appeal to some people.

    There's no chance I'll be getting rich from this, I won't be doing that much more than covering costs really.

  • +1

    I think I'd rather let my credit go to Telstra (As greedy as they are) then send it to some random from the internet along with my PayPal/bank details who might send back 50% of it's actual value.
    I'm not even sure if this is allowed under Telstra's conditions or whether this post which seems like a borderline scam should be on this site.

  • This is not a scam, nor is it a business.

    There are plenty of people selling their credit on eBay going by the above link, which is far more dubious from Telstra's perspective.

    Everyone on this site is a random. If you don't want to use my service I am more than happy. And if you think giving me your email is dangerous, I guess you'll have no choice.

    It's sad to see so much fear and anger from some people. It's like I was offering cash for their firstborn…

    • +3

      Its not fear and anger, its your T&C which puts you on sticky turf.

      • +5

        its the "maybe" and % that puts people of.

  • +5

    How about you sending me $10 Telstra credit, and maybe I will send you $5 credit into your PayPal account.

  • But on a serious note, I advertised an apartment for lease.
    I recieved an email from an Asian lady going by the name of YI who wanted to lease the apartment.
    However she works out of sea and could not be reached.

    She wanted my PayPal email address so she could transfer the bond into my PayPal account and show her employer and get reimbursed.
    She also wanted the address so she could ship her furniture there.

    Now obviously this is a scam, and I reported it.

    But I would like to know what the scammer's plan was?
    What benefit do they have by sending me credit to my PayPal account?

    • You mean no obligation on that lady, right?

      • what do you mean? What obligation?
        I played along with the scamer.
        I told her that she is welcome to move in, there is no bond, and she can pay when she arrives in Oz.
        The scamer never replied!

        • They didn't want to transfer a piece of cupcake to your PayPal account! thats what it meant

        • @pal: huh?

          If they have my PayPal email address and address, what scam can they do?

          I have a feeling that PayPal may not be as safe…
          Correct me if I am wrong.

    • +1

      I think the scammer would use stolen credit card details on their Paypal account and send you 'bond' money. Then they would change their mind about renting the apartment and you would have to transfer back the same amount of money. Scammer withdraws money and leaves everyone else to sort out the aftermath.
      That's the only angle I can think of.

      • As I said earlier, the worst I can think someone can do with your paypal email is make a payment then try to get it reversed after they have received some benefit from it.

        Every time you sell something on ebay and accept paypal, this is a theoretical risk. Maybe this actually happens with some high-value purchases.

        I have been on ozbargain for a while and this is not a fake account. If I were being dodgy I would try a bit harder to separate this fake identity from my real one…

        • +1

          Was not even talking about you, was purely referring to the rental bond scam. In my scenario, the scammer wouldn't need to reverse a payment, as it would be a stolen credit card number with a throw-away paypal account.

        • @marquise: yeah. But it is risky as I may choose not to return the bond money?
          And they can't do anything about it?

        • @congngo: Yeah that's true, so this particular mark (you) didn't work out, but they will probably try it a number of times and someone may fall for it. Whilst, you are left with fraudulent funds and Paypal/police will eventually get in touch.

        • @marquise: Got you.
          So they can try this on 1000 people, if they get a handful out of the 1000, that enough to fund their dodgy practice.

          BTW, she (they) wanted to pay for the bond plus 2 months rent upfront. So it was a fair of money.
          Cheers

    • +3

      Probably something similar to the overpayment scam: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/brc/avoid-popular-scams

      Essentially, will put more than asked for into your account using a fraudulent check. Then ask you to wire the difference back to them (using something like Western Union etc). Later, the check bounces (as the money never existed), but you've sent them your real money.

      • sounds about right, btw link doesn't work

      • Thanks for the link.
        That is interesting.

    • LOL someone messaged me the same scam !!

  • Sounds good. Better than letting Telstra take it back. What apps can you use phone credit?

  • Not sure what you're asking champstarr. The windows and android app stores lets you use telstra credit yourself. So if you have those phones and there are any paid apps you want, that's the best use for the credit.

    If you are asking what apps you need to use my service, you don't need any. Just SMS your paypal email address to a special numbee, then use the credit me2u facility.

  • I am going to take a stab in the dark and presume that you are on the Telstra Encore pre-paid plan, and have created an Android app with in app purchases. You then spend all of your Telstra credit on purchases in your app, Google takes their 10% cut and you are left with the other 90%.

    • Google takes 30%

      • My bad, this used to be 10% for apps in Google Play and 30% for apps in the Apple app store. They must have changed the percentage since I last checked.

        • They are getting as greedy as Apple ey?

    • Hi Marrk

      Could you please shed a little more light on this? Why would you have to be on the Encore plan? Also, I'm guessing building this type of program isn't for everyone.

  • It's actually 30% but otherwise you're right.

    What I am doing I'd nothing novel, I'm just making out easier for people who are looking for something simple to do with the few dollars they have at the end of each month.

  • +2

    One of the most useless forum threads I've read in a while (no offense).

  • -5

    I think it's just a bit too subtle for some of the people here. Everyone I have shown it too is impressed, though people commenting in this thread have trouble seeing the benefits.

  • I've sent you a message on Hangouts. Sorry about the username.

  • +8

    Can I please have the few minutes back you stole from my day?

  • +1

    are we now helping you with your high school assignment? can i negative this??? kind of wasting my time…..

  • -3

    It's really interesting how moronic some commenters are. If you don't want to read a topic, don't.

    I am getting good feedback from people directly, as you can see from the poll. They have the number and I'm pretty happy with the testing. If there's anyone with a windows phone I would like you to help, but it's working fine on android and iphone.

    Thanks for your interest. I'm still in two minds about whether to open it up to the public, or whether to keep it as just a small number of people.

    • I'm sold already! I will give it a go, once I'm able to retrieve my paypal password and update my account :)

      I do see where the other OzB members are getting at though, "why trust some random from the internet"? But I also do see why you had to put that disclaimer in, otherwise you're running a business.

      ~M

  • Your service sounds very similar to my "Buy A House" service.

    It works like this:
    - you SMS me your paypal email address
    - I send a confirmation email to that address, and you follow a link in the email, then enter your phone number to confirm it's yours, and you haven't mistyped it. It should only take a few seconds to arrive. If you don't see it, check your spam folder.
    - You start a bank transfer to me for $500,000.
    At this point I receive an SMS from the bank telling me you are about to transfer a crapload of money to me. If everything is working smoothly on my side, you get back an email a few seconds later, confirming everything is good to go.
    You complete the bank transfer. (press 1 to confirm)
    A few seconds later I start a paypal funds transfer to your account, of X% of what you sent me. It should take about a minute for the paypal email to arrive.
    Magic!

    Before going any further, be clear on this: there is no commercial agreement, there is no onus on me to do anything in response to your sending me $500,000. What I describe above is purely hypothetical, and I have no obligation to actually do any of it. Any funds you transfer to me are entirely voluntary and obligation-free, and anything you might receive from me is similarly simply a friendly funds transfer!

    PS. I'm happy to try your service out if you try mine :)

  • Are you only pretending to be clueless, just to waste my time on your false apology?

    If I was talking about half a million dollars then anyone should be sceptical. When it's some credit with your phone provider you have no use for and have the possibility of using it in this way, its a completely different situation.

    90% of people can find a use for their credit but the other 10% will benefit from this. Some of them already are.

  • I very much doubt this sort of disclaimer that it's just a 'obligation-free' and 'voluntary' transaction would hold up in any sort of court or tribunal.

    In any case, it'd cause a big headache for both parties if the OP decided to escape with the credit and the buyer decided to pursue the matter.

  • +1

    I don't understand. Why can't you just go into woolworths right now and just buy 2 months worth of stuff and get 20 $1 sim card packs.

    you know the deal is still on for another day right?

  • +1

    Also I don't think that Ozbargain is the best place to solicit people for experimentation. OP reminds me of all the annoying teen boys found in sites like blackhatworld and hackforums who want to experiment on stuff but don't have the money to do so, so they go around solicit people or business partners for help. go join blackhatworld. you would fit right in

  • +1

    I am not looking for money, a couple of hours work would bring in more than I would get from this in a couple of months.

    I am not experimenting, I just want to beta test my system before opening it up more fully.

    There is nothing either black hat or hacking about this, it's just a simple website using PayPal's api. Given the nature of many of these comments I can understand this might be too complicated for you to understand

    • It is not too complicated to understand. From a maths point of view, you are benefiting from the deal more. Whoever uses your proposed service is in fact losing the full benefit of Telstra credit.

      Furthermore:

      • The person gets a better deal selling credit me2u credits on FeeBay+Paypal.
      • Most OZBers need more Telstra prepaid starter packs at heavily discounted price.

      If you are not looking for money, return at least 90% of the credit back to whoever uses your service. Otherwise, you are trying to make a profit.

  • +1

    By the way there's already an app in the playstore which does this. Have used it and got my money. But i just send to my family to use on the simple plan as they don't usually use it a lot.

    But technically with this method you can have the mobile bill down to almost zero dollars provided it's at least a 50% return.

    Buy half price starter pack get $14 back and transfer to another network hopefully for free or Vodafone for $1 and transfer back and start again.

      • Yea that's the one

        • Have you used it lately? It has not been updated / reviewed lately.

        • @Marrk:

          It's mine actually. It is quite s pain working with Google cloud messaging and the delay with getting payment confirmation too.

          It is easy for transactions to be lost which is why I put this service together, as it is faster,more reliable and gives immediate feedback.

        • @nicois:
          I tried this app a few months ago - sent minimum in app purchase $2.50 - never got my $1
          No obligation…

        • @1stOzBarginer: yes and I really don't like how hard it is to use the app. Agree its buggy but debugging Java apps with dodgy docs and changing goalpoats is no fun.

          Hence this service.

        • +2

          @nicois:
          My point was no obligation…(also where is my $1!!!)
          No obligation.. that seems not to have changed with this new "service"*

          The app you have did not deliver as "suggested" why would this "service"* with the same disclaimers be different?

          *this is not a service just a thing between friends which is not a business or anything etc etc. <legal disclaimer which holds no legal weight goes here>

        • @1stOzBarginer:

          Like I said, the android app is unreliable. I have just now updated it to not ask for bank details, as it was not reliably sending them to me.

          If you send me the order number associated with your payment (which is in the email you get from google play), along with your paypal details, I can make sure it goes through. If it was a while ago a rough idea of the date would help too. :-)

        • @nicois:
          It way PayPal only (No bank details)
          Regardless I have PMed you the receipt details

        • @1stOzBarginer:

          I've just rewritten the payback app to be more reliable. I have ditched the Google cloud messaging and am using good old http. Give it a another try if you dare :-)

  • Ok, so if I transfer $10 credit to you now, you will pay me $5 back to my paypal account?

    • Yes absolutely, that's the whole point. It takes a minute or two to set up, then happens automatically when you transfer

      • All right, so once set up, it will just happen almost instantly? I.e I c2u $10 and after few minutes I see $5 in my paypal account?

        • Yes, exactly right. As long as I have your email address associated with that number.

          If you accidently sent it before registering, I would still remember the credit, and process it when you register and confirm your email address.

  • ok so i got 2 packs. what is the steps for NON-telstra customer who wants to use this to buy apps/games/device at google store?

    1. activate sim
    2. switch old sim with this telstra sim (or put T-sim on other android phone)
    3. make purchase select balance from telstra
    4. swap back to main sim card. (no need if using other phone to make purchase)

    can we combine 2x packs? for example i want to buy chrome cast $49 on google store.
    1. activate 2x packs
    2. do CreditMe2u from one to anoother
    3. switch old sim with this telstra sim (or put T-sim on other android phone)
    4. make purchase select balance from telstra
    5. swap back to main sim card. (no need if using other phone to make purchase)

    thats all?

    • I think you can only use Telstra credit for non physical goods. But for e.g. a TV series purchase yes your method should work

  • Tried it. Works great! PayPal email confirmation came through almost instantly

    Thanks :)

    ~M

  • Just letting you know I have updated the original post to include the SIM number, now that I have finished testing.

  • +1

    Sent you $2.00 through your app, now we'll see if I get a buck back.

    EDIT, got my buck within 12 hours, cool, thanks

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