Optus has revamped its pay-as-you-use and monthly prepaid plans. Here’s our assessment of what’s on offer.
Optus has long had an unusual daily prepaid offering where you only pay for plans when you use them — if you go a day without making any calls, sending any texts or using any data, you don’t pay anything at all. Most recently branded as $2 Days, there are now two variants on this scheme. Both adopt Optus’ current preferred approach of automatically bumping you up to a new data tier if you exceed the limit — which is good if you regularly exceed your limit, but expensive if you don’t.
- My Prepaid Daily Plus is essentially still the $2 Days deal — on any day where you use your phone, you can make unlimited calls and send unlimited texts to Australian numbers, along with 500MB of data. The main change is that if you exceed that 500MB, you’re automatically charged another $2 and given another 524MB of data (maxing you out at 1GB a day).
- My Prepaid Daily is a cheaper deal: for $1 a day, you get unlimited texts, up to 30 minutes a day and a somewhat derisory 40MB of data. If you use up the data, you’re automatically charged another 50 cents for another 50MB of data, up to a maximum of $5. That $5 gets you 430MB of data a day, which is dramatically more expensive than the $2 plan. We’re not fans of this.
Both plans have a six-month expiry on credit (the minimum recharge is $10).
For someone who really didn’t use their phone much and didn’t care about data, the $1 a day might be an OK minimal use plan. However, on a modern smartphone it doesn’t take long to power through 40MB, so we’re reluctant to suggest that one for most people, especially given the high excess data rates. (The plan does charge per kilobyte, so it could be worse, but it’s still messy.)
We’ve often seen the $2 a day plan cited as a cheap way of accessing 4G data. Over a month, $60 will get you 15GB of data, while $120 will now score you 30GB. That’s relatively cheap by 4G data standards, though very expensive compared to current ADSL plans.
If you’d prefer a monthly prepaid plan, there are three choices. All offer unlimited text. $30 a month gives you 1GB of data and up to 350 minutes of calls. $45 gives you 2GB of data and unlimited calls; $60 gives you 5GB and unlimited calls.
Each of those plans also allows you to add on another 500MB of data for $5, and includes some credit for international and premium calls.
On face value, the prepaid daily deals are generally better. For instance, $30 a month on prepaid gets you 1GB of data and 350 minutes of calls; $30 on the $1 a day My Prepaid Daily gets you 1.2GB of data and 900 minutes of calls. The main difference is that you’re restricted to a daily limit on the latter plan — with the monthly plan, you can spread your calls and data usage over different periods (helpful if you tether on a trip).
The $45 plan is the one Optus is likely to promote most heavily. It’s not a terrible deal, but we’d suggest that the $40 plan from Amaysim — with 4GB of 3G data, rather than 2GB of 4G — still has the edge. The $60 plan actually has considerably less data than paying $2 a day (5GB rather than 15GB), though again you’re stuck with a daily restriction on the latter.
Overall, these plans don’t change Optus’ positioning in the market — cheaper than Telstra, but less generous than Vodafone. As ever, coverage where you live and work might end up determining your final choice.
The new Optus plans go on sale from next Monday (11 August).
Comments
5 responses to “Optus’ New Prepaid Plans: The Pros And The Cons”
$2 a day for 500mb of data per day + unlimited calls and SMS is definitely nothing to be sneezed at. Even their post-paid plans aren’t all that bad.
Telstra on the other hand, still charge you upwards of $80 per month and that’s not unlimited calls and only 1.5GB per month of data… but then again their reception is much better.
So, what does it come down to? Quantity vs. Quality or Quality vs. Quantity?
A $50 Telstra Pre-paid recharge gets you $50 credit + $950 cap credit + 800MB data. You can then spend $49 of the $50 credit on a 3GB Plus Pack, giving you a total of 3.8GB of 4G data per month. $950 per month cap credit is enough for calls and SMS for most people.
I personally think that the Telstra recharge of $50 is better value than the above $60 Optus plan ($2 days). Better reception, and if you choose to go for a lower value or no Plus Pack, you can spend the credit on purchases in the Google Play Store, an All Access music subscription etc.
This offer is not available anymore to new customers, it has been grandfathered and replaced with the prepaid freedom offer, plus packs are not available for purchase on this new offer.
Not any more, telstra prepaid have dropped the ENCORE and you can’t add plus packs to the FREEDOM offer… that blows big time and as it was it was hard to justify TPP
For people for live and work and travel in Optus coverage areas they work perfect.
The real question is why do people still pay for Tel$tra when there is perfectly good competition to use?
If you value competition to drive down prices you have a responsibility to use it or lose it!
Thanks, but I’ll be sticking with my unmetered all-you-can-drink $3 Data Days plan from several years ago. 🙂
Is that 4g data or 3g?
Funny, I’m on Optus pre-paid (3G) and pay $26 for 6gb data per month..
If that’s a grandfathered plan, hang onto it — doesn’t seem to exist anymore!
I want a Sim card for my Yoga2 tablet just to have it as an emergency! With your $2 per day plan , do I only pay if I only use it once or twice a month. That would cost me $4. Also can I top it up any time I need during the 6 months?
I was on this plan Barb. Then they put it up to $5 per day without my knowledge… so just be careful