Prepaid Mobile Plan with Manual Recharge?

seanbaussie on 02/04/2019 - 20:51

My parents like the old days of paying bills when they arrive rather than direct debit etc. Right now they're on Telstra paying $45 per month that they don't need to pay but they get a bill and pay it at the post office and they like that. They make calls and use a bit of data.

Does anyone know of a prepaid service that will SMS/email them reminding them to recharge rather than auto recharging? In my dream world a prepaid service that sent a bill would be even better (or a cheap postpaid that sends a bill?)

Looking for unlimited calls & text, 2-3GB per month and preferably $10-20 per month, preferably month by month though maybe 3 months like Kogan do. Has to be easy to recharge but be done manually.

Mobile Prepaid Mobile Plan

Comments

  • Quantumcat on 02/04/2019 - 22:06
    +1

    Why would they prefer to recharge manually? Then if they forget they might need to make a call urgently and be unable to do so. Or are they trying to stretch out the recharges so they get a few days "free", only recharging when they actually need to make a call? I too liked to live dangerously as a uni student stretching out every last cent, but surely for older people that's more trouble than it is worth (saving tens of dollars a year at best in exchange for extreme inconvenience).

    • seanbaussie on 02/04/2019 - 22:12

      It's a worldview thing - they don't like money coming out of their account without them taking it. They pay bills themselves for this reason.

      • Quantumcat on 02/04/2019 - 22:23
        +3

        What about a 365 day plan? Then they are paying on purpose, nothing comes out without their sayso, and saves the monthly inconvenience of needing to recharge.
        I can understand not wanting money to come out without them asking, just takes one overdrawn fee to make you gunshy.

  • stirlo on 02/04/2019 - 22:20

    If they go Telstra prepaid they can recharge at the Telstra shop and they’ll apply it to the account for them. They’d still have to remember to walk in there once a month though…

  • steinmeister on 02/04/2019 - 22:20

    You don't have to auto-recharge on Optus prepaid, it's an option when you connect or recharge. They have a value plan, $30 for 42 days w/2GB and a daily plan with long expiry where you only get charged $2 if you use the phone on a particular day - might be handy if they go days without using the phone to stretch the value out?

  • Jonski on 02/04/2019 - 22:44
    +1

    here you go: https://boost.com.au/shop/150-prepaid/

    since they are on Telstra and they can stay on that network.

  • whooah1979 on 03/04/2019 - 06:13

    Kogan have a sale now. 90 days at the time.
    http://tinyurl.com/y53za274

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 03/04/2019 - 10:06

    Experienced this with older family members. My suggestion - tough love.

    Tell them you won't assist them, direct debit is better, nearly foolproof and if they want to pay manually they'll have to work it out themselves.

    Now they all direct debit everything and my "tech support" time is greatly reduced.

  • jjjaar on 04/04/2019 - 00:57

    Go a Kogan 365 day plan and get them to write on the calendar when it expires so they know to get it again. They’ll only have to remember once a year.

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