fairwayskid

HEY ALL

Just wondering what company you think is best for prepaid?? Only want a sim card as our mobiles our sim free. Currently with vodafone and never had any problems with them.

So any advice would be great

Paddy

Gems

Im with Telstra (rip off company), but it has best coverage if your going rural.

Gems

wannabwarma

Take a look at Virgin mobile...

They sell sim cards with $10 credit for $10, and seem to have really cheap call rates.....(10c a min - with Bean Counter)


https://www.virginmobile.com.au/shop...aspx?mode=plan

Hope this helps x

Kooky.

Oooh can I use this thread as an opportunity to whinge? Thank you

Vodafone. I have been prepaid with Vodafone since before we moved here in 2008. I have recommended them on here ($29 voucher gets you $130 of credit, can't go wrong) even though it doesn't work very well in my house, and I have stuck with them because my husband has two accounts with them (business and personal).

No more. F-wits. Absolute f-wits.

I went into the World Square, Sydney, outlet to ask about using prepaid abroad and was told I'd just need to activate International Roaming - had to do it by phone as didn't know PIN husband set up; fair enough.

Whilst there I asked for a $29 top-up voucher and was sold one.

Just before my trip I went in and asked for another $29 voucher just in case I ran out, and verified I could top up from abroad and how. I was told $29 vouchers don't work abroad. I did laugh and say, why didn't you tell me that a couple of weeks ago, I'm going to waste most of this one? Ok, accepted, so what do I need?

I was sold a $30 voucher I'd never heard of (cos $30 is so different from $29, obviously) and assured I could top-up in the usual way, by ringing the Customer Services number and keying in the PIN on the voucher. I did confirm this with them as it was one thing that worried me.

Bit curious about the voucher, 2 nights before I set off I checked on the vodafone website and could find no mention of this voucher, so emailed vodafone.

The reply was that this one wouldn't work abroad; I needed the $49 voucher. So armed with a copy of the email I went back into the store and explained the situation, said I wanted to part-ex the $30 for a $49 one. Jesus the fuss it caused! Took them about half an hour of phone calls to HQ before they finally agreed I had been mis-sold and they could do it.

So off I set to Europe with my $29 in my phone and $49 in my purse. Bugger me if the phone didn't work anyway, and lasted me almost a week before I needed to top-up. Prats.

Topping up, however - nope. I got no warning that I needed to before it ran out. Dialling Customer Services didn't work, and I couldn't dial the international number as I didn't have any credit. Vodafone Amsterdam told me no way would that ever have worked.

Had to ring my husband from a payphone (10 Euros wasted) and ask him to sort it out. He spent 15 minutes on the phone to Vodafone Tech Support (Customer Services was closed) and ended up speaking to a supervisor before I finally got topped-up.

I'm getting a contract with Telstra or Virgin next week.

Lucky Lucan

Have you had a look at Lebara?

http://www.lebara-mobile.com.au/en/

They use the Vodafone network if you want to check out their coverage.

slipshot

Look at three - they use the Telstra network away from cities.

And be warned - Virgin do not allow pre-paoid customers international roaming AT ALL, and post-paid only if they pay $250 for the priviledge - no credit, just a striaght out cost to activate int. roaming or have been a customer for 3 months. Total joke....

Went to three now - good so far...

Centurion

If you are looking at prepaid only avoid Telstra. The credit you get on prepaid is lousy compared to vodafone, 3 or Optus. If contract then Telstra isnt too bad but still offers the lowest credit for the actual amount paid ($200 for $49 paid), but of course the best coverage.

Ultimately, we had to settle with Telstra contracts as the walls of my house are nuclear proof and repel all other forms of radio it seems

quoll

Check out http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/ all you ever need to know about any of the providers.

I am with Virgin now and coverage is fine (use the Optus towers). They, AFAIK are the only ones who include international calls in your cap if you are post paid. You can get international roaming but it is expensive and you do have to have paid them for 3 months before they will do it but that was irrelevant for me as I keep a UK payg sim going anyway.

3 is fine for major metropolitan areas but then it gets expensive if you need to roam onto Helstra towers.

I used to be with Optus but needed a degree in Billology to be able to decipher their bill and I always had difficulty with their online registration (never did get it sorted). I would probably have stayed with them through apathy more than anything but they couldnt match the deal I was getting with Virgin on the phone I particularly wanted.

Helstra definitely has the best coverage but it is also the most expensive and I dont much like them - pushy sales people around here.

LouiseR

Me and OH both use Virgin and top up online using the Free to V $29 tariff, we get $29 of calls and texts but any messages or calls we make to each other (or any other Virgin mobile) are free. We also still text some people in the UK and the texts are cheap for international as well.

Deancm

Just Mobile is probably the best pre-paid you are going to get in Australia.

39c per minute to local, national, mobile and over 100 international destinations
No flagfall
20c sms
180 day call credit expiry
Per second billing
Vodafone network

www.justmobile.com.au

ABCDiamond

If a phone is locked to the Vodafone network, will it work on the justmobile one without being unlocked ?

Logic tells me it will, but I am curious...

ossigeno

Vodafone to Telstra = Out of the chip pan into the fire.

Deancm

No idea but it's not that difficult to unlock a mobile phone.

Kooky.

Funny, my husband wondered if that would be the case when I mentioned it about an hour ago. I have to be honest, not many can beat the prices of Vodafone. I've been comparing plans and I can get a $20 a month contract that would do me - even cheaper than prepay, and the call rates are cheaper too. Having a contract should eliminate some of the issues I've had but I guess you still get what you pay for.

discobay

PlanetISP if you don't make tons of calls and/or sms overseas frequently.