As you may have realised by now, we are truly scared of commitment here at Spending Hacker.
What may be good in your personal life can be very detrimental for you as a consumer. You must always maintain your freedom to choose and being loyal to a product or a brand is a bad idea.
Therefore, we are very much against mobile plans that come with a contract or a commitment of any kind and will always recommend a prepaid plan instead.
This is not an objection just from a philosophical viewpoint but rather has everything to do with $$!
A prepaid mobile plan will ALWAYS offer better value than its post-paid counterpart, both in calls and the amount of data included.
No matter how many plans me and the team look at and how much ‘data crunching’ we do, the month-to-month plans (which are mostly prepaid), always come on top!
In addition to better value, a prepaid plan offers you total freedom in the sense that you can give it the flick at any time if you’re not happy or find better value elsewhere.
Many consumer surveys have shown that the thing that worries customers the most about changing their mobile provider is the concern about keeping their existing number. Many people are simply afraid they will lose it if they switch.
However, this concern is unfounded as customers are always able to keep their existing number, if they so choose and this right is protected by federal legislation known as the “mobile number portability rules”.
So let’s bust this myth once and for all: you are always able to keep your existing mobile number no matter what and the process is very easy and completely free.
Ok, now that we got this out of the way, we would like to present to you today what we think is the best unlimited prepaid mobile plan currently on offer in Australia for those who also need lots of mobile data at 4G speeds.
This prepaid mobile plan offers you unlimited calls to all Australian landlines or mobiles, unlimited SMS to any number in Australia as well as in 32 other countries and a whopping 5GB of 4G data (subject to 4G coverage being available) on the relatively reliable Optus network. All for $39.90 a month!
If 5GB of 4G data is not enough to get you through the month, you can opt to pay $10 extra and get 8GB as well as 300 minutes of international calls to 32 countries.
Ok ok. We won’t keep you waiting any longer. The plan we are talking about is from Amaysim.
Amaysim has been a very long time favourite of ours here at Spending Hacker. As a matter of fact, I am a customer myself. It has also been very popular with you, our valued readers and subscribers.
For a quick overview of the origins of Amaysim and how they aim to ‘disrupt’ the mobile market in Australia (and especially the prepaid mobile market), you can check out this segment ABC news did on them when they just launched in Australia back in 2011.
As part of my role as ‘Chief Hacker’, I consider myself to be your personal “crash test dummy”. I consider it to be crucial that either myself personally or someone from the team try a particular product or service before we recommend it to you (whenever practical).
As a result, I move between the different mobile plans a lot! I port my number and test the various offerings so that I can report on them based on personal experience.
I do, however, keep coming back to Amaysim every single time!
Based on my personal experience as well as the extensive research we conduct into the various prepaid plans, no one in Australia can beat Amaysim for people who use their mobile a lot and also need a decent data allowance.
There was one thing that has always been lacking with Amaysim though: They were only offering data at 3G speeds.
Now if all you do is check your emails, Facebook status updates, check news and weather and do the occasional browsing, 3G speeds will probably work for you just fine.
However, if you like to stream music (through services such as Pandora and Spotify) and especially video (through YouTube, the various TV channels apps and now also dedicated streaming services such as Netflix) while on the go, being restricted to 3G speeds only can make for quite a frustrating experience.
Another thing that was lacking with Amaysim was that they were calculating data usage per megabyte.
Without confusing you with too much technical ‘mumbo jumbo’, I’ll just say that what this meant was that you would go through your data allowance faster and will not get its full value as your data usage, as calculated by the telco, would have been higher than what it really was.
Well, I am happy to say that Amaysim have now fixed both of these issues!
All their plans now include data at 4G speeds (using the same network as they’ve always used - Optus) and the data usage is calculated per kilobyte which means you are able to enjoy its full value.
If you want to get an idea of the speeds you can expect to get with Amaysim’s 4G service on the Optus network, you can check this 9 minute clip of a guy who did some speed tests using various servers and networks in the Sydney CBD area.
As you can see, his results are mostly very respectable with the only exception being the Telstra server.
With Amaysim’s current price structure, it will be very challenging for any competitor running on either the Vodafone or Optus networks to compete with them! They also seem to be constantly ‘tweaking’ their offering in-line with changes made by their competitors to ensure they stay ahead.
Basically, Amaysim are more than happy to compete primarily on price and seem to be consistently winning that ‘battle’.
The only providers who might still be able to face-off Amaysim are the ones running on the Telstra network which offers superior coverage in many areas, and especially in regional Australia.
If you are concerned that Amaysim might be of the ‘cheap and nasty’ kind, don’t worry!
Not only are they not nasty but they have actually won multiple awards over the years for having the best customer service and the most satisfied customers.
This was further highlighted in a recent consumer survey conducted by Choice in which Amaysim was crowned as the mobile operator with the most satisfied customers in Australia!
Their customer service and technical support teams are 100% Australian based (no overseas call centres at all with this mob) which is pretty rare for telcos these days and this no doubt contributes (at least in part) to the high rate of satisfied customers they have which definitely blows out of the water any of their competitors (especially in the prepaid space).
Channel 9’s A Current Affair program has done a comparison of the data offerings across the three mobile networks operating in Australia (being Telstra, Optus and Vodafone) and Amaysim’s plans (through the Optus Network) have clearly come on top for those who are looking at spending under $50 a month and don’t want to be locked-in with any provider.
Leading consumer technology and lifestyle blog lifehacker (no relation to us but I’m a fan) have also compared Amaysim’s new plans against the competition and their verdict is quite clear as well: Amaysim wins!
Even Amaysim themselves have done their own comparison against their competition. Not surprisingly, Amaysim’s own comparison shows them as winners every time (you wouldn’t expect it to be shown on their website if they weren’t, right? 😉 ) but you can just ignore their conclusion and instead look at the raw factual data in the line-by-line comparison and draw your own conclusions.
If you do that, you will see for yourself that Amaysim’s offering is very hard to beat at present.
So what do you think so far? Sounds good?
Wait, it gets better. MUCH Better!
If you act by 29/02/2016, you can score your first two months on the Unlimited 5GB for 60% off!
This means that you will pay only $15.96 for the first month on this plan and then be charged that same amount for the second month before returning to the normal price in the third month.
Another way to look at it is that you are effectively paying less for the first two months ($31.90) than what you’d pay for a single month normally ($39.90).
In order to get this, you’ll need to apply the coupon code SAVE60 when buying online directly from Amaysim’s website. This offer is not available if you buy your SIM anywhere else.
All of Amaysim’s ‘Unlimited’ plans come with unlimited calls (including unlimited use of voicemail) and SMS to any Australian number as well as any mobile in 32 other selected countries!
The only difference between the various unlimited plans is the amount of included data.
The Unlimited 5GB Plus & 8GB plans also come with 300 included minutes of international calls to 32 countries per month for no extra charge.
The included countries for unlimited free text and the 300 minutes of calls mentioned above, as of the day of this post are: Austria, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India , Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA and Vietnam.
After your first two months are up (for which you’ve paid the ‘princely’ sum of $15.96 p/m or $31.90 in total if you took advantage of the current promotion), you are free to downgrade to either the Unlimited 2GB or Unlimited 1GB plans to save a bit of money in case you don’t need that much included data.
This is also a great opportunity to simply give their service a try and see for yourself if you like their coverage and data speeds. If you are not happy for whatever reason, just give them the flick after the first two months, port out your number and go elsewhere.
With this promotional pricing, the first two months on Amaysim’s 5GB plan actually ends up being half of the normal price and on par with the promotional price of what until very recently used to be the cheapest prepaid plan in Australia with unlimited calls and text.
This one is from Lebara which normally costs $29.90 p/m and comes with 2.5GB of data on the Vodafone network (which has the most limited coverage) and currently only runs at 3G speeds.
So for the first two months, you are getting a bigger mobile data allowance and at 4G speeds. Plus, it is over a network which is more reliable in most cases.
Spend Less and Get More!
Not bad ey?
Remember that this deal is only available directly through Amaysim’s own website.
Just click on the banner below or here if you can’t see it for whatever reason.
If you don’t need an unlimited plan, Amaysim’s Pay-As-You-Go plan offers decent value and like the unlimited plans, data is now provided at 4G speeds (subject to coverage obviously) and its usage is now calculated on a per kilobyte basis.
Another good thing about Amaysim’s Pay-As-You-Go plan is the relatively long expiry period of the credit you put on it.
Normally the credit lasts for 90 days but if you buy your recharge vouchers at Woolworths, BigW or Caltex Woolworths service stations, you get an extra 30 days of expiry which means your credit will last for a total of 120 days (or around 4 months).
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
From Our Advertisers:
Don't leave without it!
It's completely FREE and can save you lots!
Get our comprehensively researched SAVINGS GUIDES
+ Real-time SAVING ALERTS directly to your inbox
GIVE HIGH BILLS A KNOCKOUT BLOW!
It’s a shame Australia doesn’t have Unlimited Data Plans like the US and parts of Europe. We live in a world where information should be free and open to everyone. Grow up Australia!
With this current Amaysim offer of:
“0/11/2015, you can score your first month on the Unlimited 5GB for the truly unbeatable price of $5 ”
Can I order it and hold off activating it until the 10th of December when my current pre-paid sim’s month ends - or will I have to go through the process to transfer my number across during the online purchase?
Thanks,
David.
Yes David. If you are not currently with Amaysim, you can order the SIM for your existing number. The SIM will arrive already pre-configured for your existing mobile number but the porting process will not commence until you initiate it through the Amaysim dashboard. Your first month will only start being counted once your number has been ported. You can definitely take advantage of this deal!
I have a plan using the Optus 4G network that gives me 10GB per month for $39.95:
https://www.bendigobanktelco.com.au/MainPage.aspx?service=MB
Thanks for the heads-up but I’m afraid you are not comparing like for like.
The plan you are linking to is a mobile broadband plan only (i.e. NO ability to make and receive calls and SMS).
If you are after something like that (i.e just Internet), then Virgin actually offers a better deal.
For the same price you are currently paying ($40), you can get an extra 2GB of data per month (for a total of 12GB per month) on the same network (Optus 4G).
https://www.virginmobile.com.au/Global/virgin-mobile/static/pdfs/cis-forms/cis-40-mbb-byo.pdf?v=1
I’m already on an Amaysim pre paid Sim - if I order a new one online with the save60 promotion can I activate it and keep my number or is the offer only available to new Amaysim customers, ( I couldn’t see that stated anywhere on their site).
Thanks and love your work on this site!
Thanks for the kind words David
Technically, the offer is only available to customers who are new to Amaysim but there is a simple little hack you can employ to overcome this.
All you need to do is port your number to another provider and then port back to Amaysim using the SIM you’ve purchased. If you do that, you are a ‘new’ customer again from Amaysim’s perspective.
I know it works because I have done this myself many many (many!) times 😉
What I usually do is port my number to another provider (usually Lebara in my case), stay with them for a month and then port back into Amaysim as a ‘new’ customer. For example, in 2014 alone, I was a ‘new customer’ with Amaysim six times.
I’ve never tried porting out my number and then porting it back in the next day so can’t guarantee this will work but if you’re willing to stay with the other provider for at least a few days (or longer), I’m pretty certain this hack will work and you will come back to Amaysim as a ‘new customer’.
Good luck and thanks for stopping by
Ended up going for the Optus $45 sim with 4GB data and one month free when ordered online.
Good stuff David but please keep in mind that the one free month does not apply to the first month.
If your plan was to ‘park’ your number with Optus for the month before coming back to Amaysim, this particular plan will still cost you $45 for the first and then you might as well stay for the second month to get your free month before returning to Amaysim (where you get an extra 1GB of data compared to the Optus plan).
Another thing you might want to be aware of is as Amaysim also runs on the Optus network, the porting of your number between these two providers has to be done manually (i.e. by a human) which means it takes longer (up to 3 business days to complete).
That’s why I always recommend that when porting between providers, you should first aim to port to an operator running on a different physical network such as Lebara (which runs on Vodafone) or Boost and Aldi (who both run on Telstra). This ensures that the time you can’t initiate any calls or texts (or use any data) is kept to a minimum.
For someone who takes the current promotional offer from Amaysim and is porting their number from a provider running on a network other than Optus, the process is fully automated and should take under an hour (and sometimes as little as 10 minutes. speaking from experience
).
Optus actually have some very good deals at the moment. The ones I just signed up for are now $60 but they were $50 when I signed up. They are month to month no lock in and Unlimited SMS and calls with 8GB of data each. The great thing too is the data is pooled if the phones are on the one account like ours and that means 16GB per month to share for the life of the contract at these rates. I think the $60 one is going to drop it’s data from 8 back to 6 soon so if your interested take a look. I was lucky to get in at $50. You can buy additional sims for tablets and the like at $5 once off and they too can share the data.
Regards,
John
Hi John,
Thanks for the heads up. The $50 p/m for life was indeed an excellent deal but as you said, this offer is now over and the price is back to $60 p/m.
This is still a decent deal but as you correctly pointed out, the 8GB of included data is also a promotional offering and will drop to 6GB.
The data sharing is a nice touch but the problem is that if one member of the household is a heavy user of data whereas others are not, the sharing feature will not work for you and you will actually end up worse off.
Let me demonstrate:
Say one of you is a heavy data user and the other is not. The heavy data user signs up for the $60 a month plan and gets 8GB monthly data allowance (which will eventually be reduced to 6GB).
The light data user signs up for the $30 p/m plan and therefore only contributes an extra 1GB of data to the pool (which will eventually be reduced to 500MB).
So, for an overall cost of $90 p/m, you get a total data allowance of 9GB.
If instead, the lighter data user chose to not take part in the pool and instead go with a Lebara prepaid plan for the same cost of $30 p/m, they will get 2GB to use for themselves and if they enable auto-recharge with Lebara, that data allowance will be increased to 4GB.
This means that for a total overall cost of $90 p/m, both of you were able to secure a total of 12GB of data.
Another important thing to consider about Optus is that due to the fact it is a post-paid plan (i.e they hold your payment details on file) you face the risk of excess usage charges if you exceed the amount of allocated data.
The way Optus calculates that is very sneaky and could come as a nasty surprise to those who are not aware of how these plans work: your usage of the included data allowance is calculated per KB but if you happen to exceed that, Optus charges per GB at a rate of $10 per GB
Michael,
Firstly I’d just like to point out that it is now back to $50 and 8GB a month. Secondly, are you sure that it reverts back to 6gb from 8gb when the promotion ends? It reads: “Extra Data Offer: Connect by 5 October 2026 to get extra data for the life of your plan.”. Doesn’t this mean you keep the extra data (8gb) for the whole time you stick on that plan?
Hi Jesse,
You are correct. The higher data allowance is provided for as long as you are on the plan and provided you sign up during the promotional period.
However, unlike Amaysim, this is post-paid plan so people need to keep in mind two things:
1. There will be a credit check involved which means that if you have defaults recorded on your credit file, Optus will probably not accept you as a customer on this plan.
2. Optus hold you payment details on file which means that you could be up for a ‘bill shock’ if you exceed your data allowance. Optus calculates any excess data usage in 1GB blocks at a rate of a whopping $10 per GB. That means that even if you exceeded your monthly allowance by a few Megabytes, Optus will round UP to the nearest GB and charge you an extra $10 that month.
Thanks for the info. Sounds good. I will give it a crack.
Hi, Thanks for the article. The only reservation is the $72 per gig when you go over the allotted data. At least with Boost they just cut you off till you buy more credit. I would definitely go to Amaysim if they had no excess usage policy at all. If they don’t update usage on the spot how will you know when you are about to go over? That is their angle I assume. Cheers. James.
Thanks for the comment James.
1. Keep in mind that this is a PREPAID plan and you do NOT have to keep your credit card details on file with Amaysim after the initial purchase of the SIM pack. This means that if you do indeed go over your data allowance, Amaysim will have no balance to take any excess charges from and they will simply suspend your data service instead.
2. If you do indeed need more data above and beyond your included allowance, you can buy an additional data pack. 1GB is $9.90, 2.5GB is $19.90 and 4GB and 10GB packs are also available for purchase. This should be enough to tide you over till your plan renews the next month (assuming you want to remain with Amaysim).
I have gone over once or twice myself in the past but have NEVER paid any excess usage charges simply because Amaysim don’t have my credit card details on file
This approach would obviously not be possible if you were on any postpaid plan where you get a bill at the end of each month and this is why we STRONGLY recommend against ever getting one.
Hi Michael.
What a dill I am. I meant Boost. I used to be with Kogan.
Cheers
Great reading as always, but I think I’ll stick to my Kogan plan, unlimited calls, 2.5 gig data and on the Telstra network, for just $40 a month.
Cheers, Paull
Thanks for the compliment Paul.
How exactly were you able to stay on a KOGAN plan? They’ve stopped operating their mobile service following a bitter dispute with Telstra which basically pulled the plug on them.
Either way, if you need more than 2GB of Data as well as unlimited calls and text and need that to be on the Telstra network, your absolute best bet is Boost provided you are happy with 3G speeds only.
For $40 you get 3GB plus 1GB bonus data every Sunday and, like Amaysim, they switched to calculating usage per Kb as well.
I humbly suggest that this is superior than what you have now…;)
yep, totally agree. I am in a black spot myself so never get great coverage but the last 2 weeks with amaysim have been terrible. I tether and have struggled to even make phone calls let alone get on line. If there is an issue then amaysim should be letting us know.
Hi my family all had the unlimited plan with amaysim and I ported the last one out yesterday. Everything used to be fine, then recently we had days without signal or with full signal and no data. When we had data, it was unbearably slow. I live in metro Sydney and work in the city and it didn’t matter where I was I had issues, same with the rest of the family (4 in total) and all on different phones.
No comments on Lyca $19 unlimited calls, 5gb internet on telstra network?
Thanks for the heads up Shariq.
I am aware of the recent price change at Lyca and me and the team are looking into it.
However, I am not yet comfortable to endorse them as this pricing is a promotional offer and not their normal pricing.
Here is what they say on their website:
Promotional period: Valid from 24.01.2015. Lycamobile reserves the right to withdraw or suspend the offer or to disconnect you if we suspect that offer is being used for commercial purposes, for conferencing, or if it is not being used in a handset (in a SIM box for example), or if it is being used for tethering.
The fact they restrict tethering and also put this as a “promotional offer” makes me a bit apprehensive to formally recommend them yet.
However, rest assured that we are monitoring the situation and might revise this post in the not too distant future. I just want to make sure Lyca are not pulling a ‘bait and switch’ tactic and will increase their prices as soon as they get an influx of new sign-ups.
Thanks again for the comment and rest assured we are aware of this offer and are closely monitoring it.
Thanks for the article.
It is debatable whether or not this truly is the best value given the way data is calculated (per MB).
I moved from amaysim to Jeenee Mobile simply because of their per KB data calculation. I have 3GB per month, $650 worth of calls and unlimited text for $35/month. The only place they sting you is excessive data - no additional data can be purchased and it is expensive if you go over.
Jeenee donate cash to charities working with people with disabilities and provide handsets to them as well.
Worthy of consideration.
Oh and it’s on the 4G Optus network.
Hey Dan. Thanks for the comment.
While the charging by KB versus MB is a valid differentiation point, I personally don’t think it would matter for most people’s usage patterns but am happy to be proven wrong
.
Based on your personal experience, was the 5GB p/m you got with Amaysim insufficient for your needs due to them calculating usage by the MB instead of KB? Were you able to get more value from Jeenee because they calculate data usage by the KB? I am genuinely interested to hear your experience and I’m sure other readers will appreciate that too.
With regards to Jeenee Mobile, we have looked at them in the past and while their donations to charity are commendable, I can not in good conscious recommend a service which charges steeply for excess data as this might leave people with significant extra costs, especially given it is usually very hard (if not outright impossible) to monitor real-time data usage with these providers (from the view of their billing system, not your own tracking).
Finally, Amaysim have formally announced they will start offering 4G services on the Optus network by the end of March 2015 (with the new pricing to yet be determined)
http://www.amaysim.com.au/blog/general/amaysim-4g-update
Absolutely take your point with the calculation differentiation.
I had been with Amaysim since day dot and thought that the price rise from $39 gave me an opportunity to shop around. I found Jeenee and thought it was worth a go.
For me, I chose that more on principle than practicality. As an example, I suppose the major data “eater/stealer” would be when you only check emails or just go a smidge over a MB and then get rounded up.
I was with Amaysim when they were 4GB. I went over a few times but I just purchased data packs. I must admit that I much prefer having the option to add data.
My wife did have a bad experience where she went over by 250mb and got charged $50 for the privilege. This was caused by vigorous hot-spotting while we were away so technically not a typical single user month.
But, if you know you’ll be within the 3GB limit and not need any more than that then I think at $35 it is a good option. I’ve been with Jeenee for 6 months and have been happy.
It will all depend on Amaysim’s pricing for 4G.
Thanks for sharing your experience Dan. Much appreciated.
Since it runs on Optus no one gets any service, why would anyone want to be on it. Optus have dropped the ball since they tried to up date their towers to the 4G network.
Hi Julie,
Thanks for leaving a comment.
With regards to your statement:
“Since it runs on Optus no one gets any service”
I have to disagree.
I am with Amaysim myself and live on the Gold Coast. I get great coverage for both voice and data pretty much anywhere on the coast except maybe some parts of the hinterland or national parks.
I strongly recommend that anyone contemplating to take this offer first checks the coverage in their own area. If the coverage map shows it is poor or non existent for Optus then simply don’t buy.
If it shows that it’s ok then just try it out for a month and see how you go. If you’re not happy, you can always switch to another network as it’s prepaid and there is no contract or commitment of any kind
Cheers
Hey I need a prepaid plan with the most data possible (at least 3GB) for $30 a month I also need calls and texts is this possible and who with
Hey Olivia,
How much calls and texts do you need? Do you need unlimited/large allowance or do you care mainly about the data?
I suggest you check our detailed & FREE report here:
http://spendinghacker.com.au/best-mobile-plans-in-australia/
Thanks a lot for your quick reply and warm welcome ..
I will definitely go for virgin as per your recommendation .. about Belong, I have contacted them but they cannot provide me their service in Varsity Lakes, Gold Cost where I live. can you give me your opinion regarding other contract less broadband?
Very Kind Regards
Ali Khan
There is another option in the post I was referring to in my previous comment.
That option is Dodo.
With Dodo you can get a no-contract ADSL plan for the same cost as the cheapest plan from Belong but you will actually get unlimited data.
The catch is that you will need to pay additional charges to get the service setup.
This consists of $99 setup fee payable to Dodo (can be reduced to $74 using a referral as discussed in the post) and anything between $59 and $299 (and potentially even more if the place you live never had a landline before) payable to Telstra
Further options are discussed in our free report here:
http://spendinghacker.com.au/best-broadband-plans-in-australia/
Hope that helps
Hi,
I have recently moved to Australia and living in Varsity Lakes, Gold Cost. I don’t have a home broadband and don’t know much about all of the plans and offers available out in market.
Which data sim / dongle would be best for me to as alternative of wifi broadband? so it can give me lots of data, with good connection and speed, for my tablet and laptop.
waiting for your quick reply.
Welcome to Australia Ali. I’m a gold coaster myself
With regards to your question, the absolute BEST deal currently available in Australia for mobile broadband is from Virgin:
http://virginmobile.com.au/byo-mobile-broadband-modem/
All the plans above have no contract and offer 4G speeds on the Optus network but you need to have your own unlocked USB dongle or wifi mobile broadband modem.
If you don’t have it, Virgin can supply you one for no extra charge but you will have to be locked into a 12 month contract.
If you are living at your current place long term, I would suggest you consider the no contract plans from Belong. They are very good value as they all have no contract, offer FREE broadband and landline installation and you can also buy a Broadband modem from them for $10.
We covered that in detail in this post:
http://spendinghacker.com.au/cheap-no-contract-broadband/
Thanks for stopping by and have fun on the GC
Thank you sir,
Thanks for your support. I will try lebara for a month n will stick to it if i liked its internet and network else jump back to boost.
Thanks
Pleasure mate. Have a good week
Hi,
Its a great forum. Really liked your advice. I live in city area and vodafone got good reception. Currently I am with boost but thinking to cut the cost and shift to lebara unlimited plan. I couldn’t figure out if the provided data is 3g or gprs and is it good to go with it? Can you please help me out.
Thanks
Hey Gupta. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Lebara does indeed offer 3G data on the Vodafone network so the Internet should work just fine for you. The only thing they don’t have is access to Vodafone’s new 4G network so if you use their service, you will only get 3G speeds, even if your phone does have 4G Support.
Optus 2 dollar days,unlimited calls-unlimited texts and 500 meg for $2.00 a day.
This plan suites me best as there are quite a few days where I don’t use the phone,so no charge at all for that day.
Cool Geoff. As long as there are at least 7-8 days every month during which you don’t use your phone at all (i.e. not making any calls, sending any texts or using even a single KB of mobile data), this plan would be cheaper for you.
As far as the current promotion is concerned, you will need to have at least 20 days in a month in which you don’t use your mobile at all in order to beat this price.
As far as promotional price, this is as low as I have ever seen Amaysim go.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment
Hi - Doing some research on mobile phone contracts & visited your site a few times. Just had time to read some exceptional advise - As a business owner who relies heavily on his mobile for jobs & work coming in I need to look at some new deals as I am out of contract with Vodafone (don’t laugh - had only minor issues really, okay coverage issues)
I currently have the Samsung s3 but playing up so time for a new phone I guess
I would like unlimited calls, SMS, MMS, voice mail & maybe 4+GB of data - would like to either get a Note4 or S5.
My current spend on similar plan is $80/Month
I have 2 numbers & currently have them on a single bill - Like the look of the Amaysim for the second number for my daughter to use but it is easier to have them both on one bill
Any suggestions would be appreciated
Hi Wayne and thanks for stopping by.
I would HIGHLY encourage you to NOT get on another lock-in contract and instead buy a new phone outright.
Unless you absolutely must have the latest and greatest brand name gizmo (which is guaranteed to no longer be ‘latest and greatest’ any more in 6 months time, regardless of what you buy), you will find quite a few recommendations on this site.
For example:
http://spendinghacker.com.au/cheapest-4g-smartphone/
With regards to your phone plans, we always recommend prepaid (even for business users) as it offers better value in 99% of the time than post-paid contract plans. For our current recommendations check:
http://spendinghacker.com.au/best-mobile-plans-in-australia/
Just came across your site, and wanted to say thank you for the excellent information. It’s so good to see that you actively respond to peoples questions too, nice work
Thanks Matthew for the kind words.
The interaction with our readers is actually the best part of running this site. We love it!
Hi Michael,
I’m currently looking for a pre paid option to get the best value for data. I’d prefer to be able to use my “spare” smart phone as a wifi hotspot, however I am open to purchasing a portable wifi modem thingy (obviously not the correct technical term, I’m not very tech savvy) if it is going to work out better value in the long run. It doesn’t need to have any calls or message credit as it will only be used for perusing the internet and downloading games for my 3 year olds sons’ tablet. I currently am on Vodafone with my prepaid mobile phone and get $750 call credit, unlimited texts and 2.5Gb of data for $40 a month and I struggle to use the call credit however I do need more data. Service and reception is not an issue although I do live in a semi rural area, I always get reception. So I don’t care who the provider is or about having call or message credit, but I do want lots of data as it will be my only internet access option for all devices in the house. Hope that all made some sort of sense
Hey Corinne. Thanks for leaving a comment.
Everything made perfect sense and I think I’ve got just the right solution for you. It is not prepaid which means there will be a bill every month and you will need to undergo a credit check.
However, and this is the most important bit, provided you bring your own equipment. there is NO CONTRACT.
The provider I suggest is Virgin Mobile.
I recommend you take the $40 plan which will give you a whopping 12GB of included data every month. This is currently the LOWEST cost per GB of mobile broadband data in this country!
Virgin runs on Optus and also has access to their 4G network (i.e. faster download speeds) but I assume that given you are in a “semi-rural area”, those higher speeds will not be available to you unfortunately and you will only be able to access their 3G service.
This is a data-only plan which means you don’t get any amount of included credit for calls and texts and can’t receive any phone calls either on this service. Basically, the SIM you will get will be enabled for data services ONLY.
You can totally use your “spare smartphone” as a wifi hotspot (provided it is fully unlocked or will take a Virgin SIM) or can opt to receive a mobile broadband wifi modem from Virgin.
If you decide to get a modem from them, you will not pay anything extra but will have to commit to a 12 month plan.
If you’ve been following our work for any period of time, you would be well aware what our feelings are towards contracts but I will leave the final decision to you
Thanks again for stopping by.
That’s awesome thanks. I had come across that deal but was confused with whether the smart phone qualified for the “byo” modem and thanks for clarifying that will be acceptable
I have been on pre paid for about 18 years now after only having ever entered into one contract with my very first phone purchase and it turned me off contracts for life, so we are definitely on the same page there 
Thanks again for your help and taking the time out to reply. All the best 
Pleasure. Glad I could help
Do you have any recommendations on a similar plan to Amaysim but not unlimited, cheaper, but has the data component still? So a cheaper plan, don’t mind about calls and text but must have large data?
What do you mean exactly by “large data” Angelica? Different people will have different interpretations to what is lots of data, depending on their needs.
Do you plan to use mobile broadband as an alternative to an ADSL connection and have it as your PRIMARY broadband connection?
If so, check out our report on the best internet plans which also includes the best options for mobile broadband as an alternative to ADSL or NBN.
http://spendinghacker.com.au/best-broadband-plans-in-australia/
If you already have internet at home that you are happy with and want a plan just for your mobile, let me know what is your definition for “large data” and I’ll see what I can dig up for you.
You could go for amaysim as you go + data plan. PAYG will cost you $10 every 3 months (minimum top up is $10, and credit lasts 90 days).
The bigger data plan costs a one off $99, lasts for 1 year, and includes 10GB.
For a data-ONLY plan no one in Australia can currently beat Virgin. $30 for 6GB of Data and $40 for 12GB.
They even offer 4G speeds in supported areas for no extra charge.
http://www.virginmobile.com.au/byo-mobile-broadband-modem
Virgin excess rate of 0.2c/kb is a little excessive to say the least - that’s $2000/Gb!
This is completely irrelevant as Virgin does NOT charge for excess data on a POSTPAID plan (with no contract). They simply give you an extra 250MB on reduced speed and then block you completely until the start of your next billing cycle
http://www.virginmobile.com.au/byo-mobile-broadband-modem
Amaysim is fine where Optus actually work but I think city slickers write these assessments. Amaysim on Optus network generally speaking is poor in rural areas. Outside a capital city customers are far better off on BOOST Mobile with unlimited calls, texts & MMS with 2gb of 3g data on the reliable Telstra 3g network. All that data is no good if it doesn’t work. Great video calling with BOOST Mobile that even ermine forgets about.
Many thanks for your comment and insight!
I agree 100% with what you said.
If you live in regional Australia in an area where Optus coverage is sketchy at best, Boost, which runs on the Telstra network, is the absolute best mobile plan for you.
Saying that, however, the vast majority of Australia’s population lives in the capital cities and major regional centres (whether that is a good thing or not is a discussion for another forum) and therefore we stand by our assertion that for the majority of Australians, Amaysim Unlimited is the BEST high usage mobile plan (and the independent research by Money Magazine suggests the same).
I will add my 2 cents on Amaysim. I’ve been with Amaysim for over one year, and I am quite happy with it. I am on prepaid Pay As You Go, and I bought the 10GB data pack (which lasts for one year, and costs $99). This way I can always be online either with my phone or on my laptop (via wifi hotspot).
Reception is good if you live in a major town. Rural areas are are not covered at all, or signal is weak, but hey, most people in rural areas only use Telstra for a reason…
Hi, could you please provide some advice for a prepaid plan for a high school student. I am not looking for unlimited as she rarely uses the phone to call. IGB data is certainly enough too at this stage. Thanks:)
Sure. I think the best thing for you will be to read our comprehensive report about prepaid mobile plans which covers the best value plans for both ‘heavy’ and occasional users. It’s totally free as well.
http://spendinghacker.com.au/best-mobile-plans-in-australia/
Hope that helps but if you have any more questions after reading it, don’t hesitate to contact us
Hi,
I have been researching amaysim after your recommendation and what I have found d is concerning. A large proportion of their customers are very unhappy with the poor reception and shocking customer service. I understand that you are only going on cost but if the organization is offering sub standard services then what is the point of a cheap plan and you advertising it.
VERY disappointing. What do you think of boost can I ask?
?
Regards
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
First of all, thanks so much for your comment! We always appreciate ANY relevant comments on our content.
With regards to to the comments themselves:
1. It is not true that here at Spending Hacker we go for the lowest price. Instead, we go for the BEST VALUE. This is sometimes the same as the lowest price but not always
2. We would NEVER recommend a service on Spending Hacker that we are not happy to use ourselves or are already actively using. I am myself on Amaysim and have had no issues with reception or poor customer support. As a matter of fact, I have nothing but praise for Amaysim’s customer support and the help they provided during a recent issue I’ve had with porting my number from another provider. Also, they are all 100% Australian-based which is pretty rare for telcos these days.
3. With regards to the quality of the calls or dropouts, you need to understand that Amaysim is what’s called a virtual operator which means they do not have their own network and instead buy access from one of Australia’s three physical mobile networks. In this case this is Optus. The reception you would get through Amaysim is the same you would get with either Optus themselves or any of their other virtual operators (e.g. Virgin Mobile).
4. Boost is a virtual operator running on the Telstra network which has better coverage in most cases. Their monthly unlimited plan costs $40 but you only get 2.5GB of 3G data which is half the allowance you get with Amaysim. Their customer support is based entirely in the Philippines. If you think that can work better for you than by all means, go for it.
5. Finally, keep in mind that we are talking about a prepaid plan here that has no contract. You can try it out risk-free for a month and if you are not happy, simply walk away.
Hope that helps and thanks again for your comments.