{"id":1423,"date":"2013-10-24T11:51:36","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T01:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2013-10-24T17:43:37","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T07:43:37","slug":"4g-prepaid-so-hot-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/features\/4g-prepaid-so-hot-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"4G Prepaid: So Hot Right Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"borderless-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1434\" alt=\"Prepaid: So Hot Right Now\" src=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133758\/prepaid-hero.jpg\" width=\"1077\" height=\"490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133758\/prepaid-hero.jpg 1077w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133758\/prepaid-hero-300x136.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133758\/prepaid-hero-1024x466.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133758\/prepaid-hero-770x350.jpg 770w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133758\/prepaid-hero-380x173.jpg 380w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133758\/prepaid-hero-800x364.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1077px) 100vw, 1077px\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a question I field quite often; what mobile plan am I on this time around? Well, the truth is that since the release of revamped plans heading into the launch of the iPhone 5c\/5s, and our subsequent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/2013\/09\/new-iphone-contract-or-outright\/\">analysis of the numbers<\/a>, plans just aren&#8217;t as attractive as they once were.<\/p>\n<p>I found this year\u2014for the first time ever\u2014buying my phone outright and using prepaid was the better deal. Here&#8217;s why.<\/p>\n<h1 id=\"telstra\">Telstra<\/h1>\n<p>Telstra currently offer a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.telstra.com.au\/mobile-phones\/prepaid-mobiles\/offers-rates\/cap-encore\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cap Encore<\/a>\u00a0prepaid option on 4G, at a variety of recharge levels. Let me take the $40 recharge level as an example:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1427\" alt=\"Telstra Prepaid Cap Encore\" src=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133802\/telstra-prepaid.jpg\" width=\"789\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133802\/telstra-prepaid.jpg 789w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133802\/telstra-prepaid-300x156.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133802\/telstra-prepaid-770x400.jpg 770w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133802\/telstra-prepaid-380x197.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 789px) 100vw, 789px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When you recharge at $40, you get three things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$40 &#8216;recharge credit&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>$510 calls &amp; texts<\/li>\n<li>600MB data<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What&#8217;s not well-known is that you can use that $40 &#8216;recharge credit&#8217; to buy data packs. Let&#8217;s have a look at the available <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telstra.com.au\/mobile-phones\/prepaid-mobiles\/offers-rates\/plus-packs\/\" target=\"_blank\">data pack options on Telstra<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1429\" alt=\"Telstra data packs on prepaid\" src=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133801\/telstra-data-packs.jpg\" width=\"807\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133801\/telstra-data-packs.jpg 807w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133801\/telstra-data-packs-300x81.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133801\/telstra-data-packs-770x207.jpg 770w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133801\/telstra-data-packs-380x102.jpg 380w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133801\/telstra-data-packs-800x215.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 807px) 100vw, 807px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So, with your available $40, you can buy one 1GB of data for $39, or better yet, two 700MB packs of data for $20&#215;2. Yep, you can do that.<\/p>\n<p>This gives you a total of 2GB (600MB + 2x700MB) data and $510 of calls on 4G service for $40 per month. Pretty sweet right?<\/p>\n<h1 id=\"vodafone\">Vodafone<\/h1>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to use <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vodafone.com.au\/personal\/prepaid\/home\/options\/30-cap-recharge?pid=v:pers:prepaid:main:ban:prepaid-30-cap-find-out-more\" target=\"_blank\">Vodafone&#8217;s prepaid $30 cap<\/a> as an example here:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1430\" alt=\"Vodafone Prepaid $30 cap\" src=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133800\/vodafone-prepaid.jpg\" width=\"707\" height=\"489\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133800\/vodafone-prepaid.jpg 707w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133800\/vodafone-prepaid-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133800\/vodafone-prepaid-380x263.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 707px) 100vw, 707px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When you recharge at $30, you get the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$450 &#8216;flexible credit&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>500MB data<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This &#8216;flexible credit&#8217; can be used for either calls, texts or data. So again, if we examine their data packs&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1431\" alt=\"Vodafone Prepaid Data Packs\" src=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133800\/vodafone-datapacks.jpg\" width=\"519\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133800\/vodafone-datapacks.jpg 519w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133800\/vodafone-datapacks-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133800\/vodafone-datapacks-380x237.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 519px) 100vw, 519px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So, with your available $450, you can buy a whole boatload of $8 data packs, right? Not so fast, bucko. If you dig into their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vodafone.com.au\/doc\/prepaid-terms-102013.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">prepaid terms &amp; conditions<\/a>, you&#8217;ll uncover the following little caveat:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1432\" alt=\"Vodafone's Terms and Conditions\" src=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133759\/vodafone-tandc.jpg\" width=\"586\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133759\/vodafone-tandc.jpg 586w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133759\/vodafone-tandc-300x152.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.reckoner.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/27133759\/vodafone-tandc-380x192.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 586px) 100vw, 586px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So, if you&#8217;re using &#8216;flexible credit&#8217; to buy data packs (as opposed to real money) you&#8217;ll be charged $16 for 350MB.<\/p>\n<p>Still, that&#8217;s not a bad deal; you could buy 10 data packs, spend $160 &#8216;flexible credit&#8217; and get a whopping 4GB data (500MB + 3.5GB) and still have $290 left over for calls and texts. All for a mere $30 a month.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update:\u00a0<\/strong>If you&#8217;re an existing Vodafone prepaid customer, you can move to their 4G service right now. If not, you&#8217;ll have to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vodafone.com.au\/doc\/131017_vodafone_lets_prepaid_customers_fly_on_4G.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">wait until around mid-November to migrate across\u00a0to 4G<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h1 id=\"optus\">Optus<\/h1>\n<p>Currently the only 4G prepaid service on Optus is their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.optus.com.au\/shop\/prepaid\/sim-card\/plans\/2-dollar-days\" target=\"_blank\">$2 days offer<\/a>, which give you unlimited calls, texts and 500MB <em>a day<\/em> for the fee of &#8211;as you may have suspected from the name&#8211;$2 per day. So you&#8217;ll be paying $60 for a month&#8217;s service, but you&#8217;d have a theoretical monthly data cap of 15GB (doled out in 500MB increments over the month). No data pack stacking in this offer, I&#8217;m afraid.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not a terrible deal, but $60 a month is certainly creeping back up into that price bracket where you&#8217;re better off on a plan with a subsidised handset.<\/p>\n<h1 id=\"whats-the-catch\">What&#8217;s the catch?<\/h1>\n<p>OK, by now you&#8217;re probably thinking this is too good to be true. Well, there&#8217;s a few things to be aware of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prepaid offers can change without notice. You can&#8217;t &#8216;lock-in&#8217; a prepaid offer in the same way you can sign up for a plan with a fixed rate for the two years.<\/li>\n<li>You need to own a handset, or buy your handset outright. If you want a new phone, that&#8217;s a lot of cash upfront.<\/li>\n<li>These three offers have automatic recharges, but don&#8217;t offer automatic data pack purchases. You&#8217;re going to have to do that manually each month. <em>(On the upside though, Telstra&#8217;s unused recharge credit rolls over, so you can bank credit, saving it for data-heavy months.)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the end, I went with Telstra&#8217;s Cap Encore at the $40 recharge level, because their 4G coverage in my area is good. I haven&#8217;t given Vodafone&#8217;s 4G coverage a chance yet though, so I might port over for a month down the track and see how it goes.<\/p>\n<p>I guess that&#8217;s the best thing about prepaid; I can always jump over to another telco if a better offer comes along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I found this year\u2014for the first time ever\u2014buying my phone outright and using prepaid was the best deal. Here&#8217;s why.\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11],"tags":[19,94,20,92,95,93,91,18],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"reckoner_social_message":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}