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Which Mobile Phone Contract

Which Mobile Phone Contract

Old May 2nd 2008, 3:18 am
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Question Which Mobile Phone Contract

OH and I are currently on pay as you go with Vodafone and I'm totally confused by the mobile phone world here. All this cap business!!!!

Anyway, I tend to use around $20 per month and OH is a little more. Can't speak for him but my calls are usually just to his mobile plus maybe around 10 texts per week. Would we be better off with a contract that gives us cheap/free calls and txts to each other's mobiles?

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Old May 2nd 2008, 3:22 am
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by herrchook
OH and I are currently on pay as you go with Vodafone and I'm totally confused by the mobile phone world here. All this cap business!!!!

Anyway, I tend to use around $20 per month and OH is a little more. Can't speak for him but my calls are usually just to his mobile plus maybe around 10 texts per week. Would we be better off with a contract that gives us cheap/free calls and txts to each other's mobiles?

cheers
Hello mate, we're both on Virgin pay as you go, for $29 for 2 months we get free calls virgin to virgin, like you i only really speak to Rachel on it and it's a really good deal.

They probably do similar with their contracts and are throwing in fre ipods at the moment, you should check out their site.
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Old May 2nd 2008, 3:49 am
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by fraser
Hello mate, we're both on Virgin pay as you go, for $29 for 2 months we get free calls virgin to virgin, like you i only really speak to Rachel on it and it's a really good deal.

They probably do similar with their contracts and are throwing in fre ipods at the moment, you should check out their site.
Silly question time. I have always had a contract phone but now my wife has a PAYG vodaphone on $49 pm with $300 worth of calls. The sim came with some paperwork and I think it said something about expiring at the end of the paid month, i.e. 3rd May. Is that right?? I thought you paid your $49, used it till it ran out, or nearly ran out, and then just topped it up when required, not every month. Thoughts?
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Old May 2nd 2008, 4:04 am
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by paddyo
Silly question time. I have always had a contract phone but now my wife has a PAYG vodaphone on $49 pm with $300 worth of calls. The sim came with some paperwork and I think it said something about expiring at the end of the paid month, i.e. 3rd May. Is that right?? I thought you paid your $49, used it till it ran out, or nearly ran out, and then just topped it up when required, not every month. Thoughts?
Yup, that's right. With a lot of the PAYG plans the credit is only valid for a certain amount of time after you activate the top up voucher. Sometimes the smaller the voucher the quicker the credit runs out. I went to pick up an Optus $10 voucher for a friend and the credit was only good for 7 days!!
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Old May 2nd 2008, 6:06 am
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by paddyo
Silly question time. I have always had a contract phone but now my wife has a PAYG vodaphone on $49 pm with $300 worth of calls. The sim came with some paperwork and I think it said something about expiring at the end of the paid month, i.e. 3rd May. Is that right?? I thought you paid your $49, used it till it ran out, or nearly ran out, and then just topped it up when required, not every month. Thoughts?
Yep, that's right. With the Vodafone "caps", you get a month then the credit expires. But at the end of the month, she can phone the number to top up and either choose a lower cap (the lowest is $29 with $130 of call credit) or choose to top up with a straight $10, $20 etc.

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Old May 2nd 2008, 6:18 am
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by paddyo
Silly question time. I have always had a contract phone but now my wife has a PAYG vodaphone on $49 pm with $300 worth of calls. The sim came with some paperwork and I think it said something about expiring at the end of the paid month, i.e. 3rd May. Is that right?? I thought you paid your $49, used it till it ran out, or nearly ran out, and then just topped it up when required, not every month. Thoughts?
Yep - prepay caps all expire after 30 days
Plans are different and can have up to 60 days validity and rollover on top-up

Cap plans just give you more credit - like if you were to use all your $49 on SMS's at 25c each
on a $49 ($300) CAP you get - 1200 texts
on a $49 PLAN you get - 196 texts

But the validity is less - you need to keep checking your balance and use it.

On post-pay the plans and caps are very similiar - one warning. Go over you cap amount and you pay 25c of your REAL money for each SMS.

For the OP - you are better off on Pre-Pay nowadays - you can have autoload top-up so you are never without credit but the plans are much easer to control and you get an instant balance. Some post-pay are a good 48 hours out when trying to see how much cap you have left (optus you could never get a post pay balance until your bill comes!)

You are probably better off on the Voda Plan (SMS one) than a cap. I use about the same as you but am in a $29cap instead.
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Old May 2nd 2008, 7:07 am
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by herrchook
OH and I are currently on pay as you go with Vodafone and I'm totally confused by the mobile phone world here. All this cap business!!!!

Anyway, I tend to use around $20 per month and OH is a little more. Can't speak for him but my calls are usually just to his mobile plus maybe around 10 texts per week. Would we be better off with a contract that gives us cheap/free calls and txts to each other's mobiles?

cheers
I'd say you might as well stay as you are. We are all on prepay with Virgin and it works really well, no need for contracts.
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Old May 2nd 2008, 7:49 am
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by mark213
Yep - prepay caps all expire after 30 days
Plans are different and can have up to 60 days validity and rollover on top-up

Cap plans just give you more credit - like if you were to use all your $49 on SMS's at 25c each
on a $49 ($300) CAP you get - 1200 texts
on a $49 PLAN you get - 196 texts

But the validity is less - you need to keep checking your balance and use it.

On post-pay the plans and caps are very similiar - one warning. Go over you cap amount and you pay 25c of your REAL money for each SMS.

For the OP - you are better off on Pre-Pay nowadays - you can have autoload top-up so you are never without credit but the plans are much easer to control and you get an instant balance. Some post-pay are a good 48 hours out when trying to see how much cap you have left (optus you could never get a post pay balance until your bill comes!)

You are probably better off on the Voda Plan (SMS one) than a cap. I use about the same as you but am in a $29cap instead.
I've been looking into a new phone, but the caps and plans are ever so complicated. Even the 'contracts' are based on pre-paying a set amount each month. Quite why they don't seem able to have a plan where you just get billed for what you use at the end of the month is beyond me. And per 30 second billing? It's like the dark ages!

Also watch out for some of the cheaper caps/plans - they are quite restricted on service - for instance overseas roaming appears not to be available on the Vodafone $29 cap, and isn't available at all on 3 pre-paid.

I still haven't decided what I am going to do, but I think the Vodafone SMS plan will suit me best, but I can't get a straight answer from them about whether International Roaming is available on it...


S
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Old May 4th 2008, 10:05 am
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by Swerv-o
I still haven't decided what I am going to do, but I think the Vodafone SMS plan will suit me best, but I can't get a straight answer from them about whether International Roaming is available on it...

Pre-Pay roaming is available on Vodafone (regardless of plan or cap) - You have to call up to activate it. There is just a restrictions on the number of countries that do it compared to post-pay due to have to have live billing (which is a critical aspect of pre-pay!)
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Old May 4th 2008, 9:39 pm
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

We are on the 3 cap plan. I pay $49 per month and that gives me $300 of calls (including $120 that can be used on international calls) and 200mins free calls 3 to 3. We find the customer service with 3 bad but the cap plan suits us. Also, when my hubby is in the UK on business I can ring him (as long as he is on the 3 network there) and it does not cost him to receive the call and I can use my free minutes.
It works for us.
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Old May 4th 2008, 9:43 pm
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

If you only spend $20 a month a $49 dollar cap plan seems inappropriate. I'm on a $20 casual plan with telstra which includes $20 of calls and is under no contract so I can leave/change anytime.
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Old May 4th 2008, 10:30 pm
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by mand8002
We are on the 3 cap plan. I pay $49 per month and that gives me $300 of calls (including $120 that can be used on international calls) and 200mins free calls 3 to 3. We find the customer service with 3 bad but the cap plan suits us. Also, when my hubby is in the UK on business I can ring him (as long as he is on the 3 network there) and it does not cost him to receive the call and I can use my free minutes.
It works for us.
I'm on the same plan, I think it's really good. The $120 for international calls is very useful for times when you need to call the UK but are away from home. Works out at about 3.5 hrs of calls I think.

I'd also agree though that the customer service is pretty lousy...I just hate having to call them up! :curse:
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Old May 5th 2008, 1:11 am
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Default Re: Which Mobile Phone Contract

Originally Posted by harrip
If you only spend $20 a month a $49 dollar cap plan seems inappropriate. I'm on a $20 casual plan with telstra which includes $20 of calls and is under no contract so I can leave/change anytime.
You can get a cap for $29 with a minimum spend of $20 so if you only spend $20 then that is all you pay, but within the $29 cap you get $129 of calls and free minutes to other 3 phones and you can also use the cap for ringing international.
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