Cheapie Prepaid Plan w/ International Roaming?

LG0bbo on 14/03/2018 - 10:30

tldr; are there any cheap (sub-$30/month) but value-filled pre-paid plans which offer international roaming?

I'm currently on a grandfathered Woolworths mobile plan ($26/45 days, 5GB data + calls, but SIM locked to 3G) which offers international roaming (albeit at expensive rates). The data quota on my plan is starting to wear thin, so I'm hoping to jump ship to something with slightly more GB while keeping the roaming option.

International roaming is a need for my phone as I travel overseas for work periodically and need to be reachable on my (normal) number without buying travel SIMs and/or sharing a new overseas number each trip. I'm not too fussed on the data/call costs while I'm away, so I'm happy to take a hit in that respsect.

Briefly looking over recent offers from Amaysim, Kogan, Optus, Lebara etc, I can't find any prepaid plans which offer international roaming in that price bracket. Note that I'm not adverse to getting a plan, but would prefer to not be locked in for >12 months and don't need a new phone.

Any help welcome please :)

Mobile

Comments

  • dcep on 14/03/2018 - 10:33

    why prepaid ?

    cheap prepaid , either comes with no int roaming , or requires holding deposit for int roaming

    • G0bbo on 14/03/2018 - 10:34

      Doesn't have to be prepaid, but you generally seem to get more quota for pre-paid vs contract in that price bracket

  • Beanvee on 14/03/2018 - 13:34
    +1

    Strange you're 3G locked, I've also grandfathered a woolies SIM on the $26 / 45 day prepaid and they gave me 4G like 2 years ago for free.

  • retiredfeline on 14/03/2018 - 13:38
    +2

    Amaysim prepaid plans have IR. Cheapest is $10/28 days.

    • G0bbo on 14/03/2018 - 13:40

      Oooh good pickup! I swear last time I checked that wasn't an option :)

  • MathNerd on 14/03/2018 - 14:24
    +2

    OVO Mobile (I'm currently with them) have the option to add an "International Roaming" pack of $20/$50 at any time, and it's active immediately. I use this feature a lot when going overseas and it works wonders. A bonus is that even if you don't add a pack, you can still receive SMS (for online banking etc).
    A really good feature that I will dearly miss when I switch over to Kogan.

    • retiredfeline on 14/03/2018 - 14:27

      A bonus is that even if you don't add a pack, you can still receive SMS (for online banking etc).

      Interesting. That would satisfy the need of most IR users I suspect.

      • MathNerd on 14/03/2018 - 14:35

        Yeah, I couldn't believe it myself. My fiance just got back from a trip overseas and she hadn't activated the roaming, but was able to receive my SMS's no problems. Of course she couldn't reply to these, make or receive calls or use mobile data, but receiving the SMS was more than enough.

      • G0bbo on 15/03/2018 - 09:07

        Looks promising, thanks MathNerd

        greenpossum's point about that satisfying the need of most IR users might apply to me too…

  • josetann on 14/03/2018 - 19:25

    Get a dual SIM phone. Make sure your Australian SIM will allow you to receive texts overseas (maybe nearly $1 to send a text, but should always be free to receive). Even if you get a voicemail, you could use voip to check it, no need to dial direct. This is a good solution if you need to still be reachable, but not going to be receiving a lot of calls.

    Bonus, you don't have to keep switching SIMs to take advantage of all the cheap/free SIM deals posted here. Just use one SIM as your main number (I like a Telstra prepaid SIM activated on Long-Life and then switched to Long-Life), and the other for data. When overseas, you'll be doing exactly this (using the other SIM for data).

    • G0bbo on 15/03/2018 - 09:05

      I did look into this when I was phone shopping for my current one, but the offerings were too limited for me to choose the dual-SIM feature over what features the competing single-SIM phones had.

      Can't say I'm willing to splash out on a new phone (plus an additional SIM when overseas) but can see it being useful for the regular and high-data/calls traveller.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join