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VPNs for ad-blocking Furthermore, Felix Mobile is now the reigning champ for those with an appetite for unlimited data. Meanwhile, Kogan has won back the best long-expiry Prepaid plan slot from Lebara and ALDI Mobile has flatlined Telstra when it comes to the best 5G-enabled prepaid mobile plan. There’s no contract, and the bill comes upfront, so you don’t have to worry about bill shock or excess data usage. You also get extra flexibility when it comes to choosing your next handset. Rather than be forced to pick something from your provider’s stocklist, a prepaid plan can be paired with an iPhone 14, Google Pixel 7 or any other handset you fancy. As always, all of our returning picks for the best prepaid mobile plans have been vetted to ensure they’re the best value at the start of the month. Prices start at around $10 and stretch up to hundreds of dollars for long-expiry Prepaid plans. If you want to save money and don’t mind a few less gigabytes of data each month, we recommending going with last month’s winner: the TPG 45GB Mobile Plan. It has identical first-year dollar-to-data value albeit at a cheaper monthly price. Admittedly, that cheaper price comes with less data. Here’s our prepaid mobile plans comparison, with a daily updating list of popular Prepaid mobile plans with at least 60GB of data. The name basically says everything you need to know in the plan name, except for the $15 recharge fee you pay every 30 days. In addition, new Catch Connect customers will get that first month at a discounted rate that brings the price down from $15 to $12. That’s a good price to pay for 18GB of data on the Optus network, though you shouldn’t expect any perks with this plan. For example, access to the Optus 5G network isn’t included with this particular MVNO. Below is a daily updated list of popular Prepaid mobile plans that don’t cost more than $20 per recharge. Telcos like Amaysim treat a month as 28 days, while others like Aldi Mobile offer 30-day recharge periods. From here, there’s a massive jump to six months, like those Prepaid mobile plans offered by Amaysim, Boost Mobile and Woolworths Mobile. For even longer recharge periods, there’s a split between the 365-day options offered by Woolworths Mobile and Optus or the one-year offerings from telcos like Amaysim. If you’re interested in reading about more Prepaid mobile plans that expire after 90, 180 or even 365 days, see our guide to the best Prepaid long-expiry plans. Although the dollars-to-data ratio here is definitely the biggest draw-card, it’s not the only one. This winning plan also comes with some great international talk and text inclusions. For comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular long-expiry Prepaid mobile plans. For the purposes of this list, we’re going to go with the first option and specifically the Catch Connect 30 Day 4GB Prepaid plan. The latter might get you more bang for your buck for the short term, but you’ll eventually have to change providers or get stuck paying a higher rate. In contrast, the Catch Connet 30 Day 4G Prepaid Plan is good all year round. It’s a little lighter on the data allowance than some of the promo-priced options but it comes with all the same coverage you’d expect from any provider on the Optus network. For comparison, check out the list of popular Prepaid plans below that come with at least 1GB of data and don’t cost more than $15 per recharge. According to the ACCC’s Communications market report 2020–2021, Aussie prepaid users only go through 6.3GB of data on average per month, which is around 9GB of data these days (according to the ACCC’s 20%-increase-every-six-months logic). Contrast this with the 30GB median data allowance for prepaid plans. While we use a mix of price and data to refine our category picks, generally speaking, a 10GB plan should be enough for the average prepaid user, and we’d recommend sticking to 30GB and above for those with bigger-data monthly needs. While both Optus and Vodafone have significantly grown their respective network footprints when it comes to 5G, Telstra still leads with over 80% of Australia’s population. For that reason and especially if your biggest or only concern is being covered by Australia’s 5G networks, we’re sticking with ALDI on this one as it lets you reap the benefits of that network at a lower price than the one that Telstra commands. For comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular Prepaid plans with 5G and at least 30GB of data. This prepaid month-to-month plan will last you a full month (as opposed to 28 or 30 days) and comes with unlimited data (speed capped to 20Mbps). You also get a bunch of nifty perks including WiFi calling, unlimited SMS and calls within Australia, eSIM and automatic renewal. Felix will even plant a tree for each month you stick with them and throw in the first month for free. At the time of writing, the other prepaid provider that those looking for unlimited data might want to consider is Vodafone. As with its postpaid mobile plans, Vodafone’s prepaid SIM-only plans come with both a standard data allowance and a speed-limited pool of ‘infinite data’ that kicks in if you exceed that limit. If that arrangement works for you, be sure to check out the round-up of Vodafone’s prepaid plans below. International inclusions aside, this particular Lebara plan also comes with 80GB of data to use every 30 days. Sign up and activate by 28 February 2023 to score 30GB of bonus data for the first three months, which can be stored in a 200GB data bank if you don’t get through it. Prepaid mobile plans may not be as perk-packed as SIM Only alternatives, but there are still a handful of telcos that offer unlimited international calls. For a better sense of how this compares to some of the other popular Prepaid plans from the mobile providers in our database that offer unlimited calls on plans with at least 10GB of data, check out the widget below. That $25 recharge price happens every 30 days for 22GB of data, though you also score 25GB of bonus data on the first six recharges (just get in by 28 February 2023). You can roll over data continually from one recharge to the next, plus this Aldi Mobile Prepaid plan comes with great international call inclusions. For a sense of how this plan compares to some of the other options available from Optus, check out the widget below. In addition, new customers get $10 monthly pricing for the first six months. There’s little wondering why this one has proven to be the people’s choice when it comes to prepaid plans on the Vodafone network. Prepaid plans are the best indicator of ongoing value, especially when compared to starter packs. Subscriptions, on the other hand, are a convenient auto-recharging option that can offer SIM Only-like value. Then, try to pick a plan duration that works for you. If you need data in a pinch, you can opt for plans with fewer than 28 days. Most Prepaid plans in our comparison engine, though, hang around that monthly point: either 28 days, 30 days or an actual month. Monthly plans are the easiest way to determine ongoing costs, and you’ll want to factor in an extra recharge per year for an ongoing 28-day Prepaid plan. Cost and data are the main indicators of value, but also keep an eye out on the network that a provider offers. The Telstra network is the largest, followed closely by the Telstra wholesale network and then Optus, with Vodafone not far behind. Quality coverage should result in a better Prepaid experience, from call reliability to download and upload speeds. Note that the areas where you use your phone for work and play may have better mobile reception from one of the smaller networks. Finally, it’s worth factoring in any extras such as international calls. However, perks like this aren’t essential if you don’t intend on using them. They’re nice to have, but rarely as important as making sure you have a prepaid plan that meets your needs and doesn’t blow your budget. When determining first-year value in our comparisons, we count 30-day recharges 12 times and 28-day plans 13 times. Then, we compare ongoing recharge pricing with included data. We make sure to treat short-lived bonus data as a perk rather than an indicator of long-term value (though data rollover can potentially change this). To stop costs from blowing out, we cap the spend of our best value ($50), best cheap ($20), best big-data ($50) and best cheapest ($15) category contenders at specific max prices to find a balance between cost and data. For the long-expiry category, we evaluate all of the plans in our comparison engine that have a duration of 180 days up to a year. With this category and others, we also consider the network that the plan is offered on in the context of its pricing. Finally, for the international-calls category, we choose the plan that offers the greatest number of countries, albeit at a reasonable price. Other telcos will ask you to switch rate plans via an automated service over the phone, and some let you do it all from their app. Switching Prepaid mobile plans and telcos is nowhere near as stressful as switching Postpaid plans, partly because Prepaid plans have no contract. Unlocking your Prepaid handset will come with a small fee, which may vary depending on the make and model of your phone and the date of purchase. Postpaid plans are usually associated with contract terms and included handsets (though there are some decent month-to-month SIM Only plans available these days) whereas Prepaid mobile plans are low-commitment plans that give you more control over your spending, and they have no contract. Prepaid mobile plans simply restrict your network access when you’ve burned through your data, whereas excess usage on a Postpaid plan may result in additional charges on your bill at the end of the month (unless telcos use shaping).
TPGOptusAmaysimCatch ConnectFelixKoganLebaraColes MobileALDI MobileLycaMobileWoolworths MobileVodafoneTelstraBoost MobileExetelYomojoGomo
Many of Australia’s mobile providers tend to throw in a SIM with any given prepaid mobile plan at no additional cost when you sign on for a plan. However, some providers (like ALDI Mobile) charge a nominal $5 upfront fee to set up an account with them. Depending on the savings offered by the prepaid plan provider you happen to be weighing up, that tradeoff may or may not be worth it so do your research before you get out your wallet.
