I usually cover these types of special offers via our fortnightly newsletter however it is on break till next week so I thought a post would get us by before then. There are a few special offers around at the moment, most of which are expiring at the end of January or February.

Virgin Bonus $1200 Credit
If you purchase $2, $5 or $29 sim pack and recharge with a $29 Your Cap before 31/1/12 you will receive $200 bonus credit each month for 6 months. Bonus recharge must be issued in total before 31/7/12.

Optus New Turbo Cap Plus – Unlimited Weekend Calls
Connect with the Optus New Turbo Cap Plus before 31/1/12 and stay connected for the entire year with minimum credit and you will receive unlimited weekend calls to Australian standard numbers. This includes national voice calls to mobiles, landlines and 1300/1800.

Amaysim – 20% off your first order
Sign up to the Amaysim Unlimited, As You Go or Mobile Broadband and activate before 31/1/12 and you will receive 20% off your first order.

Vodafone 365 Days Special Offer
Recharge with $30 on the 365 Day prepaid mobile plan by 29 February 2012 and get infinite standard national Vodafone to Vodafone calls for 365 days (standard voice calls within Australia). Must activate recharge by 29/02/2012.

Red Bull Mobile Access 7 Upgrade offer
Sign for a Red Bull Mobile Access 7 starter kit and get upgraded for free to an Access 30. Access 30 offers unlimited calls and text plus 4GB data. Credit lasts for 30 days and normally costs $39. Access 7 starter kit costs just $10.

The Vodafone prepaid range has undergone significant redevelopment over the past 6 months. Five plans are on offer which cover Data and Mobile Internet, Cheap Calls, Long Expiry, Talk Time and Flexible Credit. There is certainly something for everyone. When you look at data, both the Flexi Credit and the Txt and Data plans now offer up to 5GB of data, with the Txt and Data plan also offering free and unlimited social networking access.

So if you live in the metro areas of all major cities, these plans can give more data than what you could possibly use.

The FlexiCredit range comes with 4 credit options, $29, $49, $79 and $149. The range of amount of credit starts at $300 and reaches $2500 with the $149 option, so plenty of talk and txt time. With the recent addition of mobile data, these plans remain very competitive.

If you compare a like plan from Telstra as an example, the $49 option from Telstra (Prepaid Cap+) gives you $50 Credit + $260 Credit + 300MB, whilst Vodafone offers $650 credit to anyone, $650 credit to Vodafone and 4GB of data. Bare in mind that there is obviously a difference in reception between Vodafone and Telstra.

At the cheaper end, Vodafone also has Simplify Recharge which offers 15c calls per minute as well as 15c TXT. This prepaid offers comes with two recharge options, the $30 and the $50 each comes with flexi credit plus free calls to Vodafone mobiles. In addition to all of this, Simplify Recharge also comes with very competitive international calls.

Introducing amaysim: Australia’s New Low Cost Mobile Service Provider

Complicated plans, confusing pricing and sky high phone bills are set to become a thing of the past with the launch of amaysim. Based on a successful European business model, amaysim simplifies the mobile experience by cutting out unnecessary costs. Bringing simplicity and fairness to mobile consumers, the average Australian mobile phone user can expect to save up to half their mobile phone bill with amaysim, based on the European experience.

Promising that customers only ever pay for what they use, amaysim has no complex price plans, and no recharge fee. With simple low rates to any network at anytime and no minimum term contact or flagfall Australia wide, amaysim wants to put money back into the pockets of consumers.

Aiming to remove the confusion and dissatisfaction that currently surrounds the mobile phone industry, amaysim offers a fair and straightforward pricing structure; with standard calls costing 15c per minute Australia wide, any network, anytime. Standard SMS are charged at 12c each and data at 5c per MB.

For amaysim, low cost definitely does not mean having to compromise on service; instead they are committed to delivering the same high quality customer service, which has won them awards in Europe. amaysim customers will benefit from the high quality Australian-based service centre that operates seven days a week and accepts enquiries by email or telephone.

Powered by the Optus 3G network, amaysim also offers a high quality network service covering over 96% of the Australian population. amaysim sim cards are 3G compatible and work with the majority of (unlocked) mobile handsets on the market.

amaysim mobile phone service features:
• Transparency – Simple low rates for standard calls, SMS and data Australia wide, any network, anytime
• Low cost pricing – 15c per minute for calls, 12c per SMS and 5c per MB for data
• No long term commitments – No minimum contract term or price plan
• Simple price structure – No flagfall fee Australia wide (on all calls except roaming) or any other hidden costs attached
• Compatibility – 3G service compatible with the majority of unlocked mobile phones
• High quality service – Australian-based customer service centre
• Easy self admin – Account management online at www.amaysim.com.au
• Pre and Post Pay Options – Get the same low rates without minimum contract terms on either payment option. Post pay available to approved customers

Simply purchase an amaysim sim card, insert it into any mobile phone and have complete control. With no complicated plans, long term contract or minimum monthly payment fees, amaysim offers the choice of an automatic or manual pre-pay option and a post-pay billing system, giving you the freedom to customise your recharges and payments to suit you.

amaysim mobile users can be kept informed and in control through a single online portal that displays itemised billing, real time usage and recharge history. The personal, secured site also lets you change your data settings and recharge credit instantly. Moreover you can manage different SIM cards within the same login – perfect for the family.

amaysim SIM cards and recharge vouchers can be purchased online at www.amaysim.com.au or from one of more than 2,000 shops nationwide, including: 7-Eleven, Harvey Norman, Woolworths petrol, Newslink and selected BP stores.

amaysim SIM cards can also be recharged conveniently using an automatic or manual system via the website, or by purchasing recharge vouchers to the value of $10, $20, $30 and $50, at over 14,000 shops nationwide, including: 7-Eleven, Harvey Norman, Woolworths, Dick Smith, BP, Myer, Coles Express, Franklins and Caltex.

Just reading through the latest Optus magazine with a special focus on prepaid and its talks about getting started with Optus prepaid and how easy it is.

Optus seem to have a broad range of prepaid phones on sale at the moment. At the cheaper end, $49 will get you a Nokia 2220. Step up to $149 and you get the Nokia E63 and Nokia E71 for $199. Getting into smart phones and Optus offers LG Optimus for $199, the Nokia E5 for $299 and the popular Sony Ericsoon Xperia x8 for $249.

So good range of phones for under $250, owned outright (although locked via prepaid to Optus). So you will need to spend a minimum amount in order to unlock them.

So once you have selected a phone or decided that your phone is good enough for the moment, you now need to select a plan. Optus Dollar Days gets a big mention in this brochure and so its should, its quiet different to what everyone else does in the market. Optus are doing lots of advertising on this offer.

Remember Optus Dollar Days starts with $1 and get you unlimited national and mobile calls to Optus plus unlimited fixed line calls. You also get unlimited social media access to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Linked in, Foursqauare and Ebay. Have to say this unlimited use of Social Media can be a bit deceptive, because its unlimited access but its not clear whether if you use a tool to access Facebook or Twitter how it counts this usage, secondly if you click on a link and access the web via any of these services then you have gone beyond Social media and will get charged for it.

Optus also puts a focus on two other prepaid mobile plans the Turbo Cap and the Turbo Text. Turbo Cap gives you a combination of call value and data. Starting at $200 credit for the $30 recharge which also gives you 500MB in data. You also get unlimited social media with this plan.

Optus Turbo Text has a $30 and a $40 recharge voucher. $30 gives you unlimited SMS to 10 nominated friends and 100 minutes to call them. Unlimited social media and 250mb data. $40 gives you 3000 sms and 100 minutes of calls, free social media plus 500MB of data.

You can also top up your data if you need to. $10 of RevUp data gives you 1.75 GB of data. This includes bonus data of 1.4GB.

So there is plenty going at prepaid central as Optus like to call it. Lots of phones and lots of plans with lots of changes to keep you hooked on prepaid and hooked on Optus.



As of 10 November GrlMobile will be upgrading their prepaid caps with more value in calls and more value in terms of data. Great move I say coming up to Christmas. This bonus data is on the $49 and $79 caps and all plans are also getting more call value. The $19 cap is upping its calls to $100 from $60, the $29 from $150 to $200, the $49 from $350 to $400 and the $79 from $650 to $800.

The prepaid mobile market is getting hotter and hotter leading into Christmas 2010.

Vodafone will today release their latest prepaid mobile recharge offer – Vodafone Simplify

Great names and its quite literal when you compare it what is actually on offer. Cheap calls and straight forward credit.

$30 recharge gives you $30 credit to use on anything. Plus 50 minutes free Vodafone talk.
$50 recharge gives you $50 credit to use on anything. Plus 100 minutes free Vodafone talk.

Call rates are the best bit. 15c per minute flat plus 15c flagfall plus 15c text.

For a little bit extra the recharge plan gives you 30c calls per minute to 20 international destinations, covering UK, Ireland, France, Germany, USA, Canada, Sth Africa, India, Sri Lanka, NZ, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan.

With NEW Turbo Cap you get even more credit to use your way.

$30 = $200 Value^, unlimited mobile access to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, eBay, LinkedIn & Foursquare within Australia and 100MB data.

PLUS you get $50 MyBonus credit~ on your first Turbo Cap recharge of $30 or more when you activate your FREE SIM online by March 31st, 2011. Also, if you recharge within 30 days, your unused credit will rollover.

Crazy John’s seem to have made a major move in the low cost prepaid mobile market with the recent introduction of their Flat Chat prepaid mobile plan.

Crazy John’s is owned by the Vodafone/3 Group and it seems that this will be their key product range targeted at the low cost end of the market. The Flat Chat plan is cheap.

Call rate is 10c per minute and the flagfall is 30c. You also have access to 1c texts (up to 100 per day). So if you make a 2 minute call, you are up for just 50c. This is cheap and at the moment is sitting just behind Virgin’s Bean Counter. which has identical rates, although call rates are charged at 30 sec intervals instead of Crazy John’s 60c and Virgin’s flagfall is just 25c.

Its a great deal and the bonus of the 1c texts is really appealing for the school students who must sms each other about everything.

A $25 recharge will last for 25 days (Virgin’s lasts for 45 days), $35 for 35 days, $45 for 45 days and lasts $55 for 55 days.

Competition is good and healthy for everyone. Keep up the good work Crazy John’s, hope to see more from you soon.

Kiss Mobile look to be getting ready to launch an exciting new website and a range of new plans that will provide smart phone users with more options than ever before. My advice was to ensure they included a 500MB option in their range as I know that is what I spend on my phone each month.

KISS Mobile has been around for some time. They were one of the original sim only plans when I started the prepaidplans website and have continued to be innovative with their range of mobile data plans.

So with the launch of their new website, they are also providing all new customers with some freebies.  New Orders get free SIM card shipping & any amounts between $30 and $100 get a 20% bonus. Visit Kiss Mobile now!

Telstra has announced a reshuffle of its data packs for prepaid mobile phones and will offer more data at a lower cost.

Prepaid browse plus packs can be purchased by Telstra customers who want to access the Internet on their mobile phone. The most notable changes include the base $5 pack, which has a new data allowance of 20MB (up from 5MB), and the $39 pack (750MB) which is $20 cheaper than previously.

Telstra has also added two new data packs for $49 and $79, offering customers 2GB and 4GB of data per month respectively, while $10 (150MB) and $20 (300MB) packs now include more data, up from 100MB and 200MB respectively.

Telstra says that once the customer has used all of their data allowance, an SMS will be sent to notify them. The customer then has the option of purchasing a new pack or browsing using the Pay As You Go rate of $2 per MB.

Telstra will also reward new prepaid mobile customers who purchase and activate a Telstra $2 starter kit before 31 August. These customers will receive 1000 bonus texts every time they recharge $30 or more for the next six months.

Telstra’s 1c Text customers also receive some more good news, with Telstra doubling the included data when they recharge $30 or more. This is in addition to the bonus texts offer that Telstra announced last week, where a $30 recharge will land 1c customers 200 bonus texts.

For those customers who recharge $40 and normally would receive 20MB of included data per month, their data allowance will double to 40MB of data for use in Australia within 30 days.

For full details of both the prepaid mobile data packs and the 1c Text offers, visit Telstra’s Exchange Blog.