Newsletter Issue – 57
JB Hifi have launched their own prepaid mobile offer, which should prove to be successful given their brand popularity, not to mention the fact that it is actually a pretty competitive offer.
PrepaidPlans Newsletter
In other news this issue, Telstra have made some important changes to their prepaid mobile rates, they impact on both current plans, and expired plans that many of their customers are likely to be using.
Optus have also announced a move to charging prepaid mobile broadband users by the MB rather than per 10MB. We take a look at what everybody else is also doing when it comes to data increments.
Finally, we congratulate the lucky winner of our latest giveaway.
JB HIFI GOES PREPAID
JB Hifi have teamed up with Telstra to launch their own prepaid mobile offer. Earlier this month, JB Hifi launched the JB Hifi Prepaid Mobile Offer for retail and online customers.
The recharge offer is available via the Telstra network and seems to be built upon the Telstra low cost Simplicity plan.
All of the support and purchasing online works directly via the Telstra website. There are four recharge offers starting at $20, which gives you 50MB, $20 credit and call rates of 12c/min, no flagfall and 12c Txt. Expiry is 30 days.
The next recharge option is $30, with 100MB data, $30 credit and 60 days expiry. Next is $50 with 200MB data, $50 call credit and 90 days. Finally we have $100 with 500MB data, $100 credit and 180 days to use it.
The offer is pretty competitive and given the low cost branding that JB Hifi already has, I would expect that it will do well. They certainly have the client base and foot traffic for it.
JB Hifi is not a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), they have simply created an offer with Telstra that they can promote. Expect to see more of this from JB Hifi if it does well. You can check out all of the details here.
TELSTRA PREPAID GIVEAWAY – $30 CREDIT + BONUSES
Congratulations to Rod for winning the $30 Telstra Prepaid sim starter kit. Check out his great entry:
“I have never won a contest or race in my life. My day is always composed of troubles and strife. A prepaid micro sim would put a smile on my face. It would fill up all my day, as I surf the net and at last win a race.”
Your sim kit will be in the mail shortly.
Well done Rod!
IMPORTANT CHANGES TO TELSTRA PREPAID PRICING
Telstra is making changes to many of their prepaid mobile plans. Well the changes apply to two of their existing plans as well as many of their old plans that many customers are still using.
Here is a summary of the changes. They take effect from 17 April 2012.
Telstra Long Life – this plan is actually getting an upgrade which is good. Now when you recharge $40 or more, in addition to getting 6 months credit expiry, you can also get Bonus Talk to standard Telstra numbers. So at $40 you receive 50 mins talk (charged per min), at $50 you receive 100 mins talk (6 months expiry), at $70 it is also 100 mins (12 months expiry) and at $100 you receive 200 mins (12 months expiry).
That is the good news. Now for the price hikes.
Simplicity – From 17 April message bank retrieval rates are changing to 78c/60 seconds (or part) with a 39c connection fee.
For customers on all other offers (except for the above and Telstra Pre-Paid Cap Encore™, Telstra Pre-Paid Simplicity™, Talk & Text+, Text & Data, Pre-Paid Cap+, Weekend+ and JB Hifi Pre-Paid Mobile offer) Telstra is making the following changes to some of your standard rates.
- Connection fee – going up from 35c to 39c
- Call rates – going up from 40c per 30 secs to 78c per min
- SMS rates – going up from 25c to 29c
OPTUS CHANGES MOBILE BROADBAND DATA CHARGES
Whilst Optus offers competitive data allowances with its prepaid mobile broadband plans, one thing that has always let them down is that data is charged in increments of 10MB, whilst the rest of the market charges in per 1MB or even per 1 KB. What this means is that your data allowance is spent a lot quicker when you are with Optus.
From 1 April, Optus will now be charging in per 1 MB increments bringing them inline with most other providers. The table below displays the key prepaid starter kits on offer at the moment, their cost and how data increments are charged:
- Optus: $69 for USB, 3GB lasts 25 days (1MB increments)
- Telstra: $79 for USB, 3GB lasts 30 days (1MB increments)
- Virgin: $49 for USB, 4GB lasts 30 days (1KB increments)
- Vodafone: $49 for USB, 3GB for 30 days (1MB increments)
- Crazy Johns: $49 for USB, 4GB for 30 days (1MB increments)
- Boost Mobile: $29 for USB, 2GB for 30 days (10MB increments)
- Dodo: $49 for USB, 5GB for 30 days (1MB increments)
Compare the best of prepaid mobile broadband offers here.
PHONE CARDS FOR INTERNATIONAL CALLS
If don’t have a prepaid mobile plan which offers you great international call rates and are looking for a phone card which you can use from your mobile, home phone or even a public phone, then check out the range we offer at prepaid plans. We have searched for some of the best phone cards on the market so that you get the best rates and the longest period to use it all up. Find great rates for calling any of the following countries:
- Calling India
- Calling China
- Calling New Zealand
- Calling UK
- Calling Hong Kong
Check them all out here.
POLL: HAVE YOU EVER EXPERIENCED BILL SHOCK?
Was it due to roaming charges when traveling overseas, data usage on your smart phone, making overseas calls from Australia, generally making too many calls or some other reason. Would love to hear your feedback. Vote online or leave a message on our Facebook page.
