2x 100GB of 4G Telstra Mobile Data for $104 (Requires Sending SMSs)

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2x 100GB of 4G Telstra Mobile Data for $104 (Requires Sending SMSs)

nicois on 08/08/2015 - 17:31 whirlpool.net.au (4489 clicks)
Last edited 21/08/2015 - 10:35 by 1 other user

Edit: looks like transferring of credit from MBB using 1258888 has NOT been disabled but I am leaving the deal marked as expired as some people are reporting trouble.

Want to get some serious 4g data for use in your dual-sim chinese android devices? Want to stop paying landline fees for ADSL? Don't mind expending a bit of elbow grease? Well, this is for you.

Telstra has a very convoluted set of offers and they have made it hard for their customers to understand the best way of using their offers. I have selected just one specific scenario here. There is a lot more information around for other tricks, if this whets your appetite.

OK, here are the steps. This works at the moment, no idea how long it will last:

Buy two telstra SIMs for $2 each and activate them as Mobile Broadband SIMs. (Alternatively, Telstra livechat can switch a starter pack across for you if you prefer, and you will keep the $30 credit I believe)
Purchase a $50 recharge for each SIM. You now have 12 months' validity on 5Gb of data.
Each day for the next four days, do the following ten times from each Mobile Broadband SIM. You can either put the SIMs in a normal phone, or your MBB device may let you send SMSs via its web interface.

- SMS 1258888 with the word 'transfer'
- enter the phone number of the other MBB SIM
- select $1
- press '1' to confirm

After this, you will have an additional 20Gb of data on each SIM, giving you a total of 25Gb on each. The $50 credit on each is now reduced to $40 (as the 40 transfers cost $0.25, or $10 in total, in each direction).

Do the same as step 3, but as you have $40 instead of $50 credit, you will only get 32 transfers in each direction, yielding an additional 16Gb on each SIM, bringing the total to 5+20+16=41Gb.
Rinse and repeat. Eventually you will run out of credit, and each SIM will have a touch over 100Gb credit.

Remember you will only have 12 months to use it up!

Variations:
- use $140 top-up instead of $50, which will give you 280Gb on each SIM, plus a 2 year expiry.
- if you don't need 100Gb on each SIM, use the 1258888 method to transfer excess funds back to your mobile prepaid account and spend the money on the android play store.
- use something like iMacro for Chrome to help automate the SMS sending
- use something like Tasker on android with this to automatically send SMSs back to the other device.

Mobile Mobile Broadband Plan Prepaid Mobile Plan SIM Card Telstra

10 Aug 2015 4:04pm

Related Stores

Telstra

whirlpool.net.au

closed Comments

nookular on 10/08/2015 - 16:28

Do CME2U transfers from a prepaid voice SIM still add 500mb and 3 days to use it?
- nagel on 10/08/2015 - 16:29
  
  +1
  
  No, it does not give you data any longer
  - nookular on 10/08/2015 - 16:31
    
    How can they call it a Datapass sim then, if there is no way of passing any data?
    - nagel on 10/08/2015 - 16:32
      
      The name has nothing to do with passing any data. And it was never intended to, it was just a glitch that they fixed this morning.
    - nookular on 10/08/2015 - 16:40
      
      @nagel: I thought the MBB to MBB back and forth hack to massively increase the available data with very little expense was the glitch. Surely the bonus 500mb when transferring credit using #100# CM2U from a voice sim was always an intentional feature?
    - nagel on 10/08/2015 - 16:47
      
      Im not sure if that was a feature or not, but the $1 dollar CM2U from voice sim has been fixed now also and no longer gives you any data.
    - Kenb0 on 10/08/2015 - 16:53
      
      @nookular:
      
      That definitely wasn't an intentional feature. Was confirmed several times by someone who worked at Telstra over on the whirlpool thread. There were two glitches,
      
      1) Transferring $1 credit from voice sim to datapass sim resulting in extra 500mb on datapass sim
      2) Being able to transfer credit out from datapass sim via SMS transfer
      
      Those two glitches compounded together, ping-ponging credit back and forth was what resulted in the massive data. Glitch 1 by itself would result in a fair bit of extra data, and thats the one they've definitely closed off. Glitch 2(unverified reports say this still exists) by itself doesn't really affect much, but combined with Glitch 1, results in the ping-ponging of credit and increase of data.
    - nookular on 10/08/2015 - 17:15
      
      @Kenb0: Thanks for clarifying. It seems there is no longer any good reason to transfer credit from a voice sim into a data sim.
    - kima on 10/08/2015 - 22:46
      
      +1
      
      @Kenb0: I find it hard to believe it wasn't intentional because they knew it was happening and changed it from 1gb to 500mb. its not like they cancelled it completely when they knew that. its more likely they were using it bolster numbers, but they were not accepting the credits being transferred out of data pass. now its the new financial year they don't need the numbers
lolmao on 10/08/2015 - 16:34

+1

damnit OP
nickj on 10/08/2015 - 17:00

+1

Oh well. Telstra got $4.75 out of me because of this - $2 in real cash for the datapass SIM (my first, have only used voice SIMs before), and $2.75 of "funny money" in creditme2u fees (which came from $1 real cash paid for a $30 starter pack, so actually $0.09 in real money).

If they had left it running, then I would happily have paid $50 real cash for a recharge, so as to get the 1 year data expiry - and that's way more than they would ever get out of me normally in mobile fees. I'd also have most likely have purchased a 4GX-compatible modem to get best use out of it. Seems to me like a potentially useful strategy for segmenting your users into the majority who will pay a premium for simplicity, and those who are tightarses like me who want high bang-for-buck but who have to do a lot of faffing about to prove it. Looks to me like Telstra are leaving money on the table, but only if their network has excess data capacity, i.e. if we're not depriving them of premium customers.

And no, I don't blame the OP - it was a bargain, this site is about sharing them, and if that makes the company withdraw the offer then so be it. My annoyance is directed at those people with an entitlement mentality who seem to think they should have access to this, and that nobody else should.
cdaddy on 10/08/2015 - 17:13

+3

I hope when Telstra look at thier profits for this sector they know why prepaid broadband got a huge boost. I would have gladly paid $100 for even 50gb
- [Deactivated] on 10/08/2015 - 17:32
  
  I don't see $100 for 50GB happening anytime soon, though if they gave 20-30GB on that expiry it'd be a decent deal.
  - nagel on 10/08/2015 - 17:37
    
    Not with telstra, vodafone is on the right track, but their reception is horseshit outside of most cities
    - Ronnnie on 10/08/2015 - 18:04
      
      Vodafone are still in the darkages. I live in a city of around 100k, and still the best you can get is around 2mb/s. Have had Telstra for years, and can get up to 100 mb/s on Telstra. As soon as you about 50km away from a capital city vodafone is pretty much useless for internet speed and not much better for coverage.
    - Mooncakes on 10/08/2015 - 18:24
      
      @Ronnnie:
      
      I get 190mbps :D
    - mirridon on 10/08/2015 - 22:30
      
      @Ronnnie: I get over 50mbps Northside of Brisbane. Honestly, optus are more concerning. I think vodafone are picking up their act a bit. I also get great reception outside the city as well :)
DEvok on 10/08/2015 - 17:45

I can already see that Telstra is going to reverse all the excess data people have given, And an apology to customers this was not intended and will fix it for you so both sides are happy.
- philart on 10/08/2015 - 18:02
  
  I doubt that a company like Telstra would be overly concerned when only nought point something percent of the Aussie public would have caught onto the glitch and wholesale data is very cheap, otherwise ISP's couldn't offer "unlimited" plans on cabled broadband. MBB data remains expensive to us the end customer because it's a great way for Telco's to continue increasing profits at a time that line rental income etc is diminishing.
  
  I think if it was a loophole left open by someone high up on the technical side it will more than likely be hushed up and the company would not wish to be involved in lawsuits even if they may be in a strong position to defend them - Just my take on it.
- [Deactivated] on 10/08/2015 - 18:20
  
  -2
  
  We bought $50 and $140 recharges especially, so if they want to "reverse" what they gave us they should stop nothing short of a full refund lest there be TIO intervention.
- 11112007 on 10/08/2015 - 18:28
  
  +1
  
  Maybe for the OP…..
STE on 10/08/2015 - 18:30

+3

you must be really popular on whirlpool about now, getting this oz bargained. I did also read something interesting about a play store app almost doing the same thing. coincidence OP?
iratepirate on 10/08/2015 - 18:54

+20

Mission Accomplished Nicois
You got it shut down. Now everyone head over to his google play app to exchange all the play credit you've been caught with for half value…

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nikkell.pa…

With such stellar reviews as :-

Dont buy - Beware Took my money and showed an error. I am short $20 and never got the money either. Dont use. Beware

Do not use This is a useless app. It does nothing but take your google play credit.

Scam. DONT LISTEN TO THE DEVELOPERS REPLY HES A SCAMMER

How can you go wrong.
- cdaddy on 10/08/2015 - 18:59
  
  +7
  
  No surprise that OP"s a flog. Just got to look at this deal and the responses he's got at wp
- nickj on 10/08/2015 - 20:11
  
  If you don't like that app, then maybe try this one that sounds similar and see if it's any better: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.anzurlabs.…
  - Mooncakes on 10/08/2015 - 20:41
    
    +4
    
    It's not that he doesn't like the app it's because this guy just did this so people would use his app.
daver on 10/08/2015 - 20:47

..broken balls 2 days into 12-or 20 day process..thats rough. they really
patch those loopholes fast :(

†None of ours'favourite pack( =16.00)=$0.5 per 350 MB were harmed
in the production of this thread ad : ).
- Food on 10/08/2015 - 22:09
  
  +1
  
  Uh-Oh, looks like that hole is plugged with the new voda plan
  - bonz on 10/08/2015 - 23:01
    
    Damn you Vodafone, was good while it lasted
    On second thought, they might just leave the old cap plans as they are, the new one is called cap combo, so it may be an additional plan
- [Deactivated] on 10/08/2015 - 23:19
  
  When was it a 2 day process??
  - daver on 11/08/2015 - 01:15
    
    Wasn't. Has stopped on 10/8 at 20 transfers(10gb) max before 120 for $30 pack MBB cards could be spent.
    I ventured nothing, but have $60 for for gapp store++std 6gb. Holdn' on to my vodafone 2014 sim 750.00 18gb recharge naturally.
murkywater on 10/08/2015 - 22:01

What are you guys doing with that $50-100 credit now?
- bonz on 10/08/2015 - 22:10
  
  +1
  
  You can donate to Nik Farnell here
  - murkywater on 10/08/2015 - 22:11
    
    +4
    
    No thanks :)
  - cdaddy on 10/08/2015 - 22:16
    
    +6
    
    I hope people realise this scumbag set this up so that when people sent him credit he got 500mb. He was doing it a couple of months back. Just imagine how much data he has now.
    - bonz on 10/08/2015 - 22:37
      
      +1
    - iratepirate on 10/08/2015 - 23:11
      
      +7
      
      And when people sent him a creditme2u he would use the google play credit to run through his own app.
      
      So for every $1 sent to him he would get 500MB plus 20% cash (50% back to you and 30% to google).
      
      When it was discovered that people could transfer out credit from a MBB sim a week ago he decided to shut the whole thing down and hopefully leave people with a whole lot of credit they couldn't use…
      
      That's the sort of sharing person he is
    - bonz on 10/08/2015 - 23:46
      
      +2
      
      @iratepirate:
      
      50% back to you
      
      Not likely, this is straight from nicois' own words:
      
      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!
- Splashtash on 11/08/2015 - 08:42
  
  I managed to get 65 gig worth n can use the credit for online game so not too bad.
MissyMM on 10/08/2015 - 22:32

-4

I'm surprised this loophole got closed. I thought Telstra's policy was to accept a loss rather than lose customers to their competitors. (I should know… I'm still kicking myself for not accepting their offer to me for a second unlimited MBB $30/month plan because I didn't think I "needed" a second MBB, turns out I did but too late!)
IMBI3 on 10/08/2015 - 23:34

Can we still get 500mb if we do $1 transfer from data pass sim to another data pass sim? I will try it after my current data allowance finishes
- nagel on 10/08/2015 - 23:49
  
  +1
  
  Nop, the glitch is fixed.
- kima on 10/08/2015 - 23:51
  
  why would you wait until your data allowance finished anyway?
simmos on 11/08/2015 - 08:42

Took them a while to "fix the glitch". Big companies move slow eh?
zspam1 on 11/08/2015 - 10:31

-3

Be aware, Telstra has suspended all my prepaid accounts today!!!
- 11112007 on 11/08/2015 - 10:37
  
  +6
  
  Proof?
- DEvok on 11/08/2015 - 10:42
  
  That's what I was worried about, revert things back to normal, and both sides would be happy, lucky if these big buys don't give you some penalty, let this be a warning for you all, don't be greedy.
  
  But zspam would be nice to post abitt more than a couple of words…'
  - kima on 11/08/2015 - 11:42
    
    Telstra refused to use my $140 recharge for the data pass saying that I already received the bonus - 6gb data. so they can't have it both ways
- [Deactivated] on 11/08/2015 - 11:23
  
  +1
  
  Why?
- Kenb0 on 11/08/2015 - 13:28
  
  What reason did they give for doing so?
- hippies on 11/08/2015 - 14:12
  
  -1
  
  i think thats not right. its their fault and not the user. if they just suspend your account, and something happen to you while you using it. they can get sued by you. can you provide any proof ?
  - kudoz on 11/08/2015 - 16:23
    
    umm, this was an unintended exploit that was purely a loophole and not guaranteed in the terms and conditions - you would have a VERY hard time proving that Telstra is somehow at fault if they (rightfully so) suspended an account for breach of terms of service. At MOST, they could offer a refund to offset any bad publicity.
    
    Those of us who deliberately spent money hoping to exploit a known loophole don't have anyone to blame but ourselves if our accounts get suspended etc - that being said, I really hope it doesn't happen! Or if it does, only to people who went nuts and DID rack up 100GB per SIM etc…
    - [Deactivated] on 11/08/2015 - 18:22
      
      +2
      
      That's not right, it wasn't against the Ts & Cs - and therefore it is not fraud, but it wasn't published as officially being part of the Ts & Cs either. There is no grounds for suspension unless you are causing "significant network congestion" in which case they must give you a warning and if you continue then 30 days notice
      
      https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/personal/consume…
    - cdaddy on 11/08/2015 - 22:20
      
      I suspect op has at least 6 sims with 100gb
- kudoz on 11/08/2015 - 16:24
  
  "all my prepaid accounts" <- How many did you have? How much data had you accumulated?
Look43Bs on 11/08/2015 - 15:15

.. sounded 2 good 2 last ..
tikei on 11/08/2015 - 17:51

+6

There's a lot of votes on this "deal". Wonder how many actually went out to buy it after reading this. If you're stuck with credits go spend it on Google play or anywhere else, just not the dodgy app the op made :p
- [Deactivated] on 11/08/2015 - 23:26
  
  My personal method: Use credit to buy 'bonds' (in game items) on RuneScape then sell the gold accumulated for real-life money through a third party. Results in around 40% return on credit.
DEvok on 11/08/2015 - 19:31

Votes means nothing just like clicks, doubt to many would risk doing this since it was uncertain, and many worried it would have come to this conclusion.
- lovethebuzz on 11/08/2015 - 19:41
  
  Is it over, or still worth buying the sims and attempting?
  - [Deactivated] on 11/08/2015 - 23:26
    
    +1
    
    It's over, sadly.
- [Deactivated] on 11/08/2015 - 23:31
  
  For those who did the rewards are still there…
  $100 in recharges results in 15GB on each Sim, alongside $45 in credit. Now say you then (using a method of your choice) sell of that credit at a rate of 40%, resulting in $36 total. Now factor in the -10% recharge price @ coles when bought with a sim as well as $1 (instead of 2) sim packs. In total it comes to $56 for the 2 sims, $28/sim. This works out to around $1.85/GB for those who abused the method for only 2 days.
  
  tl;dr: 2 days of abusing method = 15GB/sim = $1.85-$3.40/gig.
[Deactivated] on 11/08/2015 - 20:38

Seriously though, how has OP not been banned from ozbargain?
- [Deactivated] on 12/08/2015 - 15:17
  
  Why should he be banned?
kima on 12/08/2015 - 00:16

+3

people are angry at the op and accuse him of self interests but that anger only comes from their own selfishness anyway. with the way people treat people on here, why would you want to help anyone on here? they just turn around and abuse you. there is only a couple of people - who actually post deals, that actually deserve any respect. most people on here will all freely abuse this deal but not share it if you were in the ops positions and still hate the op for sharing. he is selfish if he posts, he is selfish if he doesn't.
- tikei on 12/08/2015 - 02:19
  
  +11
  
  I'm not angry. I saw the deal and ignored it, I'm not involved and I don't use Telstra. This thread is good entertainment :)
  At first I thought people were harsh on the op too until I realised he was the crafty dude who posted the thread on wanting people to "donate" Telstra credit to him so that he can use the credit to pay in-app on his own app, earning money from it. Sounds so shady that I wouldn't be surprised he publicised this exploit to get it patched so that those stuck with credit will donate/sell for cheap to him and he can profit.
  - ozhunter on 12/08/2015 - 03:47
    
    +1
    
    Maybe, but I think it's safe to say that most people would think this is an exploit, and there is no obligation sell the credit the credit to him.
    - Mooncakes on 12/08/2015 - 15:23
      
      +3
      
      most people would think this is an exploit
      
      Exactly, so why is this on OZbargins DEAL section….
congo on 27/08/2015 - 00:10

Can we you transfer $10 credit from MBB Datapass via SMS to a Long Life phone SIM and get $10 worth of extra calls on the Long Life SIM?
This would save me froming having to recharge my phone SIM when the credit runs out…

This was posted 8 years 8 months 19 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

2x 100GB of 4G Telstra Mobile Data for $104 (Requires Sending SMSs)

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