Want to buy a Samsung Galaxy II using a gift voucher - need advice (and then how to manage data?)

saxlady on 21/10/2011 - 23:49

DH and I both have Crazy Clarke cheapie phones with Amaysim PAYG sims, total usage between the two of us is a few dollars a month. We don't make many calls and mainly have them for security, backup, being able to be contacted etc
DH has talked on and off for the past year about getting a smart phone - not that he needs it, but would like one, but we've put it off due to being on a tight budget, - don't really need it etc

This week he has earned a bonus from his work - a $1k gift voucher that he can request to be for Coles Myer, Westfield, Woolworths or David Jones. It woule be really nice for him if we could somehow use it to get him a phone/data etc

He'll probably have fun playing around with it initally but after the novelty wears off, it will probably be used minimally - maybe a couple of maps here and there, and a bit of browsing while we're out, but no youtube, streaming etc

we don't really need that much - we get all our download needs fulfilled at home, just being able to do a bit while out and about will suffice, plus . So I'm trying to figure out how to use this voucher to our advantage - to keep DH happy, and still get good value.

He's interested in a Samsung Galaxy II, but would consider the HTC Sensation (?) or something similar - would prefer android.

So these are my ideas -

Request a Woolies voucher, go to Dick Smith (maybe try to find the phone advertised elswhere and get them to pricematch - seen any??) and buy a phone outright, then buy a Woolies Sim and get their $29 recharges - in theory if we manage to get the phone price down a bit at least, this would keep him going for approximately a year and half. This option would take nothing away from our current budet - but it seems a shame to get so much data/call credits and I know we won't be using even close to that amount- would be so nice if there was no expiry date!

Same inital idea as above, but instead use leftover gift voucher credit towards groceries etc, and just pay the $1 per month access fee to use TPG Pay as you go (offset by the groceries) - we're already with them for our ADSL so should get 150MB per month, but still have to pay connection fees right? 20c? (Or have I got that wrong - be great if I have!!) So it's still going to add up to a few dollars (??) in just the connection fees per month, so I'm probably looking at maybe - $60-$100 a year? So with this idea we'd stick with Amaysim for calls, and he could just swap sims for data access - which is a pain I know. I think some phones have the ability to take 2 sims - anyone confirm this with the Galaxy?
In theory this would keep him going for a few years - and of course by that point you can reassess plans etc

My other idea is to look into whether any of the mobile carrier shops within a Westfield complex could do a deal for me, accepting a voucher towards the phone on a plan etc - but I'm going to guess not, plus I'm pretty sure minimum costs will end up with at least a couple of hundred out of our pocket for a 24 month contract - and even if you are getting more calls and data, it's pointless if you don't use it (and no it won't make up for other access/calls - we use MyNetfone for cheap calls at home, minimum mobile calls, and a TPG unlimited plan)

As I said - it's not something we really need, but I figure DH has earned it, it would be nice for him to get something cool that he'd like with his bonus (although believe me I could spend it many other ways - haha)

I know that most people wouldn't think twice about $50 for a monthly mobile bill, but this is OzBargain right?
So I'm hoping there are at least a few like minded people here - with maybe a few more ideas.

Any ideas appreciated

General Discussion

Comments

  • llama on 22/10/2011 - 00:24
    +1

    No matter how you cut it, mobile data is expensive. Your problem is that you have no idea how muuch you'll use. Thus, locking yourself into a plan is a major bad idea - you might pay too much, or you might get locked in and cop huge excess usage charges.

    One easy and good solution is to stay with the prepaid sim, then buy data packs. This means not locking yourself into anything AT ALL… You pay a similar fee for your phonecalls, just like you do now. Then, you buy small amounts of data as required.

    For example, using Amaysim you can get 1GB for $9 per month. You'd struggle to use that much per month, unless you are watching heap sof Youtube and other stuff like that. Once you know what the usage pattern is, you might drop back to the 5c per MB casual rate.

    http://www.amaysim.com.au/mobile-plans/amaysim-mobile-broadb…

    If you have cash to buy the phone, then don't get a plan. There is no need. Use the bonus $1K to buy a phone, and then basically use and pay for it the same way you do now.

    The great thing about prepaid data is that once it runs out, it blocks you. If you go prepaid (except for some outrageously large plan) then going over the cap will cost you HEAPS. Thousands just for leavinga streaming radio running or watching full-length movies and forgetting to switch it off.

    Oh - and also get a Wireless modem so that when at home you can use WiFi. For the majority of the time, that is where you will use the phone. Most businesses have WiFi you can hook into as well, which reduces mobile data usage there too.

  • kirasuran on 22/10/2011 - 02:00

    Seems like you know enough about TPG mobile plans, and i'm currently on the 19$/month 'cap' which gives me 'hundreds of dollars' of calls to all networks + TPG numbers + 500mb (or i think it changed to 1GB) of data per month. It doesn't sound like you need that at all so have a look at their cheaper plans, i know their cheapest is something like 9$/month. Definitely check out TPG's mobile plans, or liveconnected ?

    As for the phone, well…i'm tossing up between telling you that you can probably buy one for second hand cheaper + use the voucher on groceries etc - but that would make it hard to calculate your FUTURE savings compared to the present out-of-pocket cost of buying the phone upfront. But to me it seems like buying the phone upfront would be not an 'efficient' usage of the voucher if you get me !?

  • Geewhizz on 22/10/2011 - 08:03

    Saxlady, APN on/off widget is a handy little app that prevents applications on the phone from updating several times a day and quietly chewing into any data allowance you may have.

    Because neither of you are big users of the mobiles you have, I'd also advise you against getting tied up to a plan. As you say, the novelty is likely to wear off, and an unnecessary hefty monthly bill is something you can avoid, so seems to be by far the better way to go.

    In your situation I think I would probably be inclined to go with the Woolworths/Dick Smith option, but are they able to give say 5 X $200 vouchers rather than one of $1000? This would give far more flexibility of what you can do with any left over $ after he buys the phone …… or he might decide to be generous and buy you both a phone that falls within his budget ;)

  • bargainr on 22/10/2011 - 09:06

    If you're with TPG for ADSL it's a great deal. $20 SIM fee sucks.

    I don't know if they're any good, but Woolworths do sell phones outright and unlocked. I am sure I have seen a cheaper HTC in one of the Woolies near me. Their website has unlocked phones.

    http://www.woolworthsmobile.com.au/handsets

    Someone who knows more may give an opinion. Galaxy SII is a better phone but if you're on a budget, think he'll get bored with it - might be worth having a play with a cheaper smart phone in a store first before spending big.

    If Telstra shops take Westfield vouchers and price match, you can get a HTC outright from them and get them to price match Mobicity http://www.mobicity.com.au/htc-sensation.html?gclid=CN_JmKXj…

    I wouldn't connect to a 2 year contract.

  • binusam2007 on 22/10/2011 - 09:38

    If you have TPG broadband their new "super value mobile plan" is very good.For 14.99 a month you will get $550 worth calls(including international calls),1.5GB data,unlimited calls to TPG mobile/home phone and unlimited access to some social networking sites….

  • YadaYadaYada on 22/10/2011 - 10:58

    If you want to use it for maps, I guess it really depends on where you want to go. If you make a lot of out of town trips and want to use it as a GPS, vodafail and 3 won't cut it becuase 3g dies as you roll out of Sydney suburbia. A friend has gotten Telstra and not looked back because of this. Reception almost everywhere. Pays only $30/month prepaid, but isn't a heavy user.

    and if you use just use the wireless at home and work, it's not hard to get by with a small data pack on hte go, unless you stream a lot of videos or music, or download a lot of apps.

    • A Banana4scale on 22/10/2011 - 16:38
      +2

      SGS2 has navigon which is pretty much as accurate as google maps.

      • blackrider on 22/10/2011 - 18:17

        Yeah I used it for the way to Adelaide and it was pretty good. Battery drained though…

        • A Banana4scale on 22/10/2011 - 18:50

          yeah GPS takes a lot of the battery out. Best to get a car dock/charger when going on any journey taking more than 2-3 hours in total

  • Deebs on 22/10/2011 - 12:42

    If his on a budget and likely to get bored of his phone, the SII is around $800 normally in retail stores and isn't really worth it for this situation. I would suggest going on Amaysim since it has 15c per minute calls, 12c per text and 5c per MB of Data so for 15$ it'd be up to 300MB and lasts for 3months. Phone wise something like the Optimus 2x for 379$ would of been good, the one from Harvey Norman except it's expired last week. Might want to look at the Huawei android phones, I've heard they were quite good and are cheap otherwise the galaxy S first one shouldn't be too expensive now.

  • bargainr on 22/10/2011 - 14:07
    +2

    +1 for Huawei. I had an Ideos 8150 (until it was nicked) cheap but good.

  • epicaricacy on 22/10/2011 - 14:32

    Stick with TPG, the Woolworths deal charges you in 1 Mb increments, so all push requests etc use a Mb at a time - and your 'massive' 5Gb will be gone in just over a week without you really doing anything at all!

    TPG charge in 10kb increments, and as you are low users, you would go nowhere near even 1gb (I listed to streaming radio a lot in the car, use maps, play online games when i am out and about and don;t go near to using all my data)

    $14.99 per month - $550 calls, 1.5Gb data should easily cover you. you will find that once you do have it, you will use it more, so take care saying we don't use much at this stage!

  • holdenmg on 22/10/2011 - 18:06
    +1

    Use http://www.cardlimbo.com.au/sell-gift-cards.html to SELL the Coles Myer voucher.

    Receive the Cash and buy what you want from where you want.

  • Dm3er on 22/10/2011 - 21:57
    +1

    Wondering who is DH?

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join