Telstra prepaid mobile plans give you access to Telstra's 4GX network with the ability to control your spending as you see fit.
Telstra's prepaid plan offering is listed below, with further analysis - be sure to filter the results to suit your data, call/text & budget requirements with the "Filter Results" button.
Meet the team
Alex Kidman is a multi-award-winning consumer technology journalist and the Tech & Telco Editor at finder.com.au. He's been writing about consumer technology topics for more than two decades.
Telstra prepaid plan comparison
Telstra prepaid overview
Just as it does with its contract plans, Telstra’s prepaid mobile services operate on its Australia-wide 4G network. There’s no difference in terms of data speed or call quality for prepaid customers. Telstra’s network has the widest coverage of any provider in Australia, covering both metropolitan and regional areas of Australia.
Telstra’s prepaid plans do vary in terms of how long your prepaid credit lasts. Telstra’s Freedom Plus plans have a 28 day expiry, while its Simplicity Plans have 30 day expiry periods. The expiry on its Long Life plans varies depending on the amount of your recharge, with terms between 60 and 365 days.
Pros
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Can't overspend
The key appeal for any prepaid plan is that you can’t spend any more by accident than you’ve already given upfront.
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Telstra Air access
At least until 27 March 2018, all of Telstra’s prepaid plans qualify for access to Telstra’s national Wi-Fi network.
Cons
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Premium pricing
Just as it does with its contract plans, Telstra’s prepaid offerings generally charge more for calls and data than its competitors; this is especially true for the Simplicity and Long Life Plans.
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Inconsistent expiry
Generally, Telstra’s best value prepaid plan is its Freedom Plus plan, but that expires after only 28 days. Equally, you can only get 365 day expiry on Long Life plans at the top recharge tier.
Telstra prepaid pricing
Telstra’s prepaid plans operate by paying a set upfront fee for access over either 28, 30 or the variable periods with Long Life recharges. The cheapest recharges start at $20 on the Simplicity and Long Life packages, while Freedom Plus offers $30 recharge tiers, generally going upwards from there.
Unlike most contract plans, and many of its competitors, Telstra doesn’t offer all that many "unlimited" calling options on its plans, instead giving you a value that’s either directly related to your recharge amount, or derived from it. Calls are then charged at 89c/minute (Freedom Plus), 78c/minute (Long Life) or 15c/minute (Simplicity). Some upper tiers of the Freedom Plus plans do offer unlimited calls, as well as data inclusions, but other plans offer either low data caps or charge a flat fee per MB of usage (Simplicity/Long Life).
What extras does Telstra Mobile offer?
Like most prepaid plans, Telstra’s prepaid offerings aren’t particularly endowed with lots of additional features; if you want extra goodies you’ve generally got to sign up for a contract plan.
If you also use Telstra for your broadband or home phone services, it may be worth checking if you can get a bundled discount for having your mobile number with it as well. These kinds of discounts are more commonly applied with contract phones, but it cannot hurt to check as you may be able to save a little that way.
Telstra also provides access to its public Wi-Fi network, Telstra Air to prepaid customers across all plan types. Telstra Air is built into most public payphones -you can tell by the giveaway pink "Telstra Air" tops - Telstra stores and any Telstra customer willing to become part of the Telstra Air network from their home broadband connection. You do have to log into Telstra Air to take advantage of it, however.Back to top
How to recharge Telstra prepaid
If you’re using a Telstra prepaid service, you have a number of different ways to recharge your credit once it has expired. For some plans there may be a benefit to recharging before you hit your expiry period as some credit inclusions may roll over into your new expiry period.
Telstra prepaid recharge options
- Online at m.telstra.com:Using your prepaid phone, you can visit Telstra’s web portal at any time with no data cost. From there, you can access your credit balance and recharge via credit/debit card, Visa Checkout, PayPal or CreditMe2U services.
- Online from your desktop: The same interface that you can use at Telstra’s mobile portal is also open to you from your computer’s web browser, although because it won’t be able to detect your mobile automatically, you will have to register for a Telstra ID, or link your Facebook ID with your Telstra account.
- Via Telstra’s 24/7 app: Login to the official app with your Telstra ID or have it detect your SIM automatically. The Telstra 24/7 app is available free of charge for iOS (you can download it here), Android (download here), Windows Phone 8 (download here) or BlackBerry 10 handsets (download here)
- Via Credit Card/PayPal: Telstra supports payments via Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club, American Express or PayPal to recharge mobile services if that’s your payment gateway of choice, but you will have to go through Telstra’ prepaid payment gateway to avail yourself of the service. You can recharge your own mobile service, or the service of any other Telstra prepaid mobile this way.
- Via voucher: You can opt to purchase recharge vouchers at most supermarkets and other mass-market retailers, which you then apply to your mobile service through the Telstra 24/7 App or mobile web portal.
- By phone: If you’d rather use your phone to recharge, you can access recharge services by dialling 125 888 from your handset.
- Via automatic recharge: If you simply don't want to forget to recharge, you can set your account to automatically recharge on expiry through Telstra's 24/7 app or web portal. Bear in mind if you do opt for this feature, it will keep going even if you're not using the service any more until you explicitly tell it not to.
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I get the $30 recharge it lasts about 28 days or so. I just want 2 get a $20 recharge will it last about 14 days.
Hi borger11981@gmail.com,
Thanks for reaching out! To $20 recharge will last depending on your usage. For additional information, standard national calls is 3 cents/minute, no free text messages, and no data included. Keep a close watch on your consumption to make sure it will last you at least 14 days.
Hope this helps!
Best,
Nikki
How long is one’s mobile service connected to the Telstra network if one has omitted to recharge timeously on the Telstra 4G Prepaid Long Life Plus $30?
Thanking You Kindly
Walleon
Hi Walleon,
Thank you for reaching out to finder.
Generally, Telstra SIM cards will expire if it is not recharged. Six (6) months after your credit has expired, if you have not recharged in this period the SIM will expire and be cancelled. This timeframe goes the same with a Telstra 4G Prepaid Long Life Plus $30.
If your SIM gets expired, you need to purchase a new SIM and get a new service/number. The page above will show you available plans that you can take advantage.
Hope this helps. Please feel free to contact us back should you require further assistance.
Kind Regards,
Mai
I have a Telstra mobile and if I buy a $30 recharge, is it still Good for 6 months and not lose my credit?
Hi Ken,
Yes, if it’s Telstra Long-Life $30 offer you’re referring to. A recharge of either $30, $40 or $50 has an expiry of 6 months. Please be guided of the call and text rates for this pre-paid plan as listed above.
Cheers,
Liezl
does all standard calls include mobile and home phones and is it to telstra only
Hello Gaile,
Thank you for your inquiry.
Yes, it includes mobiles and home phone calls in all providers.
You may refer to the Critical Information Summary of the Telstra Pre-Paid Mobile Offers for further details.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Jonathan
I have a prepaid service on the Telstra Pre-Paid Plus offer.
I used to be able to recharge my telstra service, and use my credit on the Google Play Store by selecting bill my telstra service.
Obviously, this was a useful feature of the telstra prepaid plan, but now, after I recharge, the credit still applies to my data/voice/messages, but it seems it is no longer possible to use the credit as I did before.
What happened? was it removed? Is there a recourse available for telstra removing a major benefit of the offer?
Hello Jon!
Thank you for contacting finder.com.au is a financial comparison website and general information service designed to help consumers make better decisions. Please note that we do not represent TELSTRA or any company we feature on our pages.
In regards to your comment on our page about Telstra Pre-Paid Plus payment via Google Play Store, the Prepaid offer where you can Purchase from Google play was the Freedom plus offer, and since you have the Prepaid plus offer on your mobile before, Pre-Paid Plus $30+ recharges do not come with recharge credit but include Plus Credit ($5, $10 and $15 with $30, $40 and $50 recharges respectively). Plus Credit can be used on international calls and text, roaming and Premium SMS. Plus Credit excludes calls, text and MMS to Australian numbers, diversions, MessageBank retrieval, internet browsing within Australia and Google Play Content purchases.
Now, since the Plus credits excludes Google play Purchases for you to be able to Purchase on Google Play store, You need to use your credit card when processing your payment.
I hope I was able to address your concern today.
Regards,
Chester
Hi Chester,
Thank you for your reply, although you pretty much said exactly what is on the telstra webpage.
The thing is, I was able to use my credit to purchase items on the Google store, but for the last two recharges, I cannot. I have been on prepaid plus for 3 months.
I suppose another way to ask my question is when did freedom plus become unavailable, and when did prepaid plus become the default?
Kind regards,
Jon
Hello Jon!
Thanks for your response.
The Freedom Plus offer was disconnected on August 22, and that is also the date the Prepaid Plus was launched to the market.
I hope that helps.
Regards,
Chester
My wife is a pensioner and wishes to have a mobile phone in case of emergency when in the car. Average use over past months is two local calls a month. What would you recommend?
Hi John,
Thank you for your enquiry.
Although I cannot recommend a specific mobile phone plan because your circumstances, budget and needs may vary quite markedly, but you may check out this link for some options and tips on which mobile plans would possibly fit your or your wife’s needs. The selections on that link is categorized based on usage, budget and other things that would matter when selecting a mobile plan.
I hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Jason