Compare Vodafone mobile plans

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 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 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.

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.

• Phone plan comparison

  Vodafone removing handset "plans" in favour of what are effectively outright phone sales at 0% interest rates makes it an interesting comparison against Telstra or Optus for any given handset offered by all three carriers.

  On the surface, Vodafone may come across as lower cost because it will often list the 36-month payment term for a handset, but you've got to qualify that with the fact that you must maintain a mobile plan with Vodafone or pay the rest of the handset plan out immediately.

  As such, it's vital to look not only at the per-month cost but also the total cost of a plan over 12, 24 or 36 months. For example, here's what you'd pay for an iPhone XS 64GB on Vodafone, Telstra or Optus over 24 months:

• SIM-only plan comparison

  Vodafone's deals compare quite favourably against the big players for handsets, but it's smart to ensure that you're getting the mix of extras and coverage you need.

  In SIM-only terms, it depends on your average spend. Taking a $60 per month standard term, here's how Vodafone compares against other postpaid SIM-only providers:

• Kogan vs Vodafone

  Vodafone doesn't have a large quantity of MVNOs on its network, with the most notable onboard player being Kogan Mobile and its range of prepaid mobile plans. Here's how Kogan Mobile's plans compare against Vodafone's own offers in that space:

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

To compare offers from other Aussie telcos, head over to our round-up of the latest mobile plan deals.

How to contact Vodafone

Alex Kidman

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Alex Kidman is the tech and telco editor at Finder. He's been a technology writer with experience spanning more than 20 years, writing and editing at Gizmodo, CNET, PC Magazine, Kotaku and many more. Alex has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New England and a serious passion for retro gaming.

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