bourbon-biscuit

I'm going a bit loo-lah about it!

In NZ we used crappy UN-smart cell phones and used to use the 'Best Mate' add on and various similar add ons over the years. This allowed us to have 2/3 phones that could make a lot of calls and texts to each other for minimal cost. That's what we want. We don't want data or smart phones; we just want to be able to call and/or text each other as cheaply as possible. Need this set up for four us .... any advice?

It seems the market has changed and it's all about data and plans and ultimately the product we're being sold isn't what we actually want. Hoping for some on-the-ground knowledge to help me out!

GarryP

Err, well assuming you are looking for something in Australia, some carriers have a "free Bloggits to Bloggits calls/texts" - so you'd just pay whatever the regular recharge rate was provided you are all on the same network. However, I'd say you'd need data because the old feature phones are on their last legs and much relies on data nowadays.

Bikergirl

We purchased Virgin Sims when we arrived over 4 years ago, buy phones when we need to update but just top up either $19 or $29 per month. Gives us more than enough credit for the month, the plan we are on is the pay-rise plan but cant see that on their website, the closest now appears to be the plus plan (Virgin Mobile Australia | Compare Prepaid Plans). The pay-rise plan allows us to use the credit to call overseas which for us is excellent, especially as we get bonus credit each month we top up and we rarely use all our allowance each month.

moneypenny20

The husband has a newish un smart flip phone, gets a $50 Virgin top up a couple of times a year. Suits him fine. No idea what'll happen when this phone dies because un smart ones with decent sized keys are like rocking horse shit. I imagine he'll stop carrying a phone.

bourbon-biscuit

Yes, as I'm asking on the Australia forum and am not a newbie to BE this is a fair assumption

I disagree with you that I *need* data. I like to use the internet at home on iPad and laptop etc. I don't like to have it on me 24/7 and I think the whole mobile data thing is a big old swizz to get us to spend more money on things we think are essential but are actually not remotely so. Plus, I don't want my kids having smart phones so I can't have one myself

Thanks for the advice Bikergirl and Moneypenny I have had a recommendation elsewhere for Aldi mobile and thought I'd put it here for anyone else interested. The Pay-as-you-go credit with them lasts one year and then we but a value pack add on of $15 per month per phone and that gets us unlimited calls and texts to each other plus quite a bit of other credit. Perfect. Off to find 4 unsmart phones tomorrow - my last one went for six years without any problems; here's hoping

old.sparkles

Telstra have cheap pre-paid unsmart phones but not sure of there plans. Both young spark and myself have had Telstra but neither made enough calls / texts to use up the credit before it expired - $30 recharge lasts 60 days and on a simplicity plan, the calls / texts were not overly expensive (a 10 min phone call to UK was only $2-$3)

ETA - if you recharge before the credit expires, they roll over unused credit I think

Pollyana

Yes, unused credit rolls over on Telstra pre-paid as long as you chuck on the next lot before it runs out. No need for a smartphone if someone doesn't want one, and there are still loads of people with ordinary phones for many reasons so I can't see them dying out in the near future.

GarryP

Lots of talk about NZ ...

I was suggesting that smart+data has become the norm and is heading towards expected. Not only does that make buying non-smart phones difficult (not sure even Coles still do them, their cheapest phone seems to be a $34 smartphone) but wider scale systems are heading towards "you have a phone, well it must be smart+data then".

If you fixate on 'not smartphone' you might well make things difficult for yourself; and in the end you don't have to use those features if you don't want to.

OK, well Aldi is $15+$15*12 = $195 per year per phone
Virgin - Simple plan is $19*4 = $76 per year per phone

both offer free carrier to carrier calls. Virgin allows you to connect to a 4G network (Optus), whereas Aldi is limited to 3G (Telstra). Also you will often find that MVNO operators on Optus will work in Optus locked phones - but no guarantees.

Kiwipaul

Not quite right Aldi is $15 = $15 per year per phone.
The $15 is valid for 12 months and allows you to use data as well as calls.
Also when you buy the $5 Aldi SIM you get $5 worth of credit also valid for 12 months.
Also Aldi is on the most extensive network in Oz Telstra (but only 3G).

GarryP

OP wants free calls between the family phones, hence the need for the value pack mentioned. The cheapest pack is $15 a month - so $15+12*$15 for the year.

The reason I replied is because the 90day expiry on the prepaid Virgin Simple plan, coupled with that plan's free V2V calls makes it quite a bit cheaper overall for their use case.

bourbon-biscuit

Thanks for the advice about Virgin, GarryP - I will check them out!

Lots of talk about NZ from me cos I lived there on-off (mostly on - 8 years of on) for nine years; arrived in Oz last week