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From contract-free handsets to prepaid flexibility, Vodafone has something for every Australian mobile phone user.
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Is Vodafone right for me?
- What does Vodafone offer? Vodafone has plenty to offer in the mobile space, with prepaid, postpaid and handset plans available. These can be bundled with Vodafone's NBN and mobile broadband plans for extra savings.
- Product highlights: Get unlimited "Streaming speed" data on Plus plans, bonus data on fixed-term contracts and extended 35-day prepaid expiry periods.
- Watch out for: The "unlimited" data on Vodafone's Plus plans is limited to 1.5Mbps, which is considerably slower than typical 4G speeds. This can be sufficient for basic browsing, but watching videos and downloading files will likely take much longer than normal.
Vodafone phone plans
Vodafone's phone plans explained
Vodafone takes a slightly different approach to mobile phone plans than other telcos. It treats handset repayments and plan repayments separately, allowing you to switch between plans for your current handset every month without penalty. There's no minimum term for the plans, either, so you could cancel after just one month if you wanted to. The catch there is you'd have to pay out the remaining handset costs in one lump sum rather than over the course of 12, 24 or 36 months.
All Vodafone's Red phone plans come with unlimited standard talk and text. Data caps range from 2GB up to 80GB, but Vodafone often runs promotions offering bonus data for the life of your plan.
Vodafone phone plans
Learn more about how Vodafone's phone plans work in our guide.
Vodafone prepaid plans
Vodafone's prepaid plans explained
Vodafone's core prepaid offerings are its Combo Plus plans, each of which packs unlimited standard talk and text along with a fair chunk of data. While the cheapest Combo Plus plan runs on a 28-day expiry, the higher-tier options feature extended 35-day expiries and come with an allotment of international minutes for calling friends and family overseas.
Folks who prefer paying as they go will want to consider Vodafone's aptly-titled Pay and Go plans. These benefit from 6-month and 12-month expiry periods, with all usage charged against your prepaid balance.
Vodafone prepaid plans
See what Vodafone's prepaid plans have to offer in our guide.
Vodafone postpaid mobile plans
Vodafone's postpaid plans explained
For the most part, Vodafone's SIM-only postpaid plans follow the same basic structure as its Red phone plans. Unlimited talk and text is bundled in at all price points, and the 12-month postpaid plans feature the same data caps and international call inclusions as Vodafone's Red and Red Plus phone plans. Only the month-to-month postpaid plans differ significantly, with lower data caps and fewer international minutes in exchange for the freedom of a no-lock-in contract.
Vodafone postpaid plans
Get the rundown on Vodafone's postpaid SIM-only plans in our guide.
How does Vodafone compare?
- Plus phone and SIM-only plans let you continue browsing after exhausting your monthly data cap at no extra cost
- Bonus data offers are quite generous
- Plenty of international minutes for calling overseas
Vodafone's positioning in the local market has long been one of offering superior value at a given price point compared to the big players in the telco space.
Typically you'll find larger data allowances at a given price point on a Vodafone plan, although that is somewhat tempered by a slightly smaller coverage map than the Telstra or Optus networks. That's only likely to be a concern for more regional or rural users, with Vodafone investing heavily in its network in metropolitan and larger regional centres in recent years.
Why should you consider Vodafone?
Vodafone's reputation is one of selling high-value plans on its own network, so if you're a particularly heavy data user, its top-tier plans can often represent great value. Like most providers, its postpaid plans charge a flat $10 per GB of excess usage, helping to keep your costs under control.
In terms of extra features, one key aspect of Vodafone's numerous plans is the ability to earn bonus Qantas Points as part of your ongoing mobile spend. If you're a frequent flyer, that can be a great additional value. Many plans also give you Qantas Points as a bonus simply for signing up.
Vodafone Australia is part of the global Vodafone group and that gives the carrier certain unique advantages for travellers. While competitors Telstra and Optus sell roaming packages as add-ons to your existing plan, Vodafone postpaid customers can take advantage of Vodafone's Red roaming deal, which charges you a flat $5 per day of usage to access whatever inclusions you've got on your existing plan. For longer-term usage that might not be the most cost-effective way to roam, but for shorter visits, it's an extremely simple and competitive offer.
While the structure of its contract plans with bundled handsets removes most of the subsidy you might expect on higher-tier plans, from time to time Vodafone does offer loyalty discounts at certain plan tiers for selected handsets.
If you're unsure about the Vodafone network, Vodafone also offers the Vodafone Network Satisfaction Guarantee on its plans, with 30 days to trial out the service. If you're not happy with what you're getting, return any device and all you'll pay is any excess charges incurred within the first 30 days.
Vodafone prepaid recharge options
There's a wide variety of ways to recharge your Vodafone prepaid mobile phone service depending on your personal preference. As with many prepaid plans, it's worth reading the terms and conditions to determine if there are advantages to recharging earlier than your expiry period in order to take advantage of any rollover bonuses, which may vary by plan.
- Recharge online. Vodafone has a dedicated web portal for managing prepaid recharges for your own phone or any Vodafone prepaid phone number. Payments are accepted through Visa, Mastercard, American Express or PayPal.
- Via MyVodafone app. Vodafone provides a dedicated smartphone app for managing your prepaid use, including recharges. It's available for free for iOS (download here), Android (download here) or Windows Phone devices (download here)
- Recharge via SMS. You can recharge your Vodafone prepaid service via text message, sending a specific keyword to enable an automatic recharge as long as you've already assigned a credit card to your account.
- Via voucher. Recharge vouchers for Vodafone prepaid services are available from a wide variety of mass market retailers as well as at any Vodafone store. Vouchers do have specific expiry dates, so it's important to apply them at the right time otherwise you may find they have expired. You can redeem vouchers through Vodafone's web portal or the MyVodafone app.
Vodafone mobile deals
Deals last updated on 2019-08-21 at 12:03:35
Prepaid deals
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Vodafone Combo Plus Starter Pack 20GB $40 35 days | Unlimited standard calls | Go to site |
How to contact Vodafone
| Support platform | |
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| Phone | 1300 100 515 |
| Calling hours | Mon - Fri: 8.00am to 12:00am Sat - Sun: 9.00am to 12.00am |
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Ask an Expert
In the prepaid plans, it is written that there are certain selected countries you can call or text to outside Australia for 1000 or 90 minutes. How can I find what those selected countries are and what are the 1000 or 90 minutes per month?
Hi Dylan,
Thank you for your enquiry.
You can find the fine print or specific details of most mobile phone plans by checking out their Critical Information Summary (CIS). Please check out the CIS of a specific mobile phone plan, from the mobile network’s homepage, to know the selected countries that are included in 1000 standard minutes of a specific mobile plan.
I hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Jason
what international calls does vodafone give and to which countries?
Hi Rukshana,
Thanks for your inquiry. Please note that we are not affiliated with any company we feature on our site and so we can only offer a general advice.
There is a variety of mobile plans that Vodafone is offering. The list of countries that is included in making international calls depends on the plan that you will get.
We suggest going to Vodafone official website to view the list of countries that is included in each plan.
Hope this helps. Have a nice day!
Cheers,
Rench