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Telstra is Australia's largest mobile provider, so naturally, it has a decent range of prepaid plans on offer for customers. Whether you're looking for lots of data that will take ages to expire or you need decent coverage around the country, there's a prepaid SIM to suit.
Grab a Pre-Paid Complete plan if you're looking for normal prepaid or Long Life Plus if you're not much of a data user and want your credit to last for ages. Expiry periods for Pre-Paid Complete depend on price – more expensive plans will last longer.
The best Telstra prepaid plan depends on what you're looking for. Telstra's prepaid options come in two forms: Pre-Paid Complete and Long Life Plus.
The two plan types suit different kinds of users. Pre-Paid Mobile plans are normal prepaid deals where you pay for all your inclusions upfront, and are better for regular, day-to-day customers. Pre-Paid Mobile Casual plans involve buying a certain amount of inclusions upfront for longer expiry periods, with set amounts of data, texts, and calls. These are better for people who don't use their phones much.
Wondering what $30 on a Telstra prepaid plan can get you? Well, this is what's on offer as far as Pre-Paid Mobile goes:
The 28 day expiry plans also offer continuous data rollover, where unused data persists month to month when you recharge before expiry.
Long expiry plans usually offer you better value since you're paying for your total usage for the period upfront. Here's how Telstra's long expiry options compare to their monthly versions in terms of savings over a year:
| Plan | Expiry period | GB available over a year | How does it compare? |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30 Pre-Paid Mobile | 28 days | 180GB/12 months (30GB for 3 recharges, 10GB for the rest) | Over 365 days, you'll be spending $360 for 180GB. In subsequent years, the value drops substantially (since there's no bonus data). |
| $150 Pre-Paid Mobile | 180 days | 145GB/12 months | Over 365 days, you'll be spending $300 for 145GB – saving $60. Each 1GB of data is actually more expensive, however ($2.1/GB vs. $2.0/GB for the monthly). The value drops with future recharges. |
| $300 Pre-Paid Mobile | 365 days | 200GB/12 months | Over 365 days, you'll spend $300 for 200GB – saving $60. This is all around better value than the monthly plan, though you don't get bonus data on future recharges. |
From this breakdown, we can see the 12-month plan is the best value out of all since its 180-day plan oddly comes with a slightly higher data-to-price ratio.
You can either purchase 300MB for $30 with a 6 month expiry period, or get a blank $2 SIM and recharge with any of these:
Pre-Paid Mobile Casual plans will suit users who need almost no data at all. You're paying around $100 per 1GB of data, which would be dreadful on any other plan. Pick up a Pre-Paid Mobile Casual plan if you only intend to use your phone occasionally over the next six months to a year.
To see how much value is in Telstra's $30 prepaid SIM, we've lined it up against Optus and Boost Mobile (one of Telstra's MVNOs that uses its full network coverage).
| Telstra | Optus | Boost Mobile | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan name | Pre-Paid Mobile $30 | Prepaid Epic Data $30 | Prepaid $30 |
| Plan cost | $30 | $30 | $30 |
| Data allowance | 10GB (+20GB on first 3 recharges) | 10GB (+25GB on first 3 recharges) | 20GB (+15GB on first 3 recharges) |
| Included extras | Data bank, international inclusions | Data rollover, bonus streaming data | Data rollover, international inclusions, data-free Apple Music streaming |
All three of these plans offer lots of data for the first three recharges and then sharply fall off. When comparing the base data from the fourth recharge onwards, you can see that Telstra comes last, 12GB behind Boost Mobile.
In terms of features, Telstra is on par with the other providers. Price-wise, Telstra will almost always be more expensive, charging more to cover costs like network maintenance and construction.
Telstra's prepaid plans are better suited towards regular mobile users with modest data needs, or those who need a lot of data but only for a few months. Since all three plans provide data rollover, you could bank up the bonus data if you're a low-data user and rely upon it for a longer time.
To see how Telstra's plans do against other prepaid options, you can compare them against all other options on the market using the Mobile Plan Finder™.
Telstra is the largest provider in Australia, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best. Let's take a look at how it compares to the other two networks in terms of the features available on its prepaid SIMs:
| Feature | Telstra | Optus | Vodafone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic prepaid recharge | |||
| Auto data top-ups | |||
| Entertainment extras (e.g. access to sports, music streaming, etc) | |||
| Data-free media streaming | |||
| Roll-over data | |||
| International calls/texts included | |||
| International roaming | |||
| Rewards program |
Telstra has the most extra features compared to any other provider, but these features are only useful if you're going to take advantage of them. If you're paying extra for features like music streaming or international inclusions but not using them, you could be better off choosing a different provider with cheaper plans.
As an overview, here are the ups and downs of Telstra's prepaid plans:
Telstra's roaming comes in the form of "Plus Packs" that you can add on to your prepaid SIM, though roaming is active by default in eligible countries. For the most up-to-date list of these eligible countries, have a look at Telstra's website. The following packs are available:
Any data you use past the limit is charged at a huge $3 per MB. As with most providers, we recommend you pick up a travel or local SIM instead of activating roaming, since roaming costs balloon quickly.
Telstra offers a small collection of prepaid mobile devices that you can buy outright, either online or at a Telstra store. Don't expect any of the hottest new handsets to be on offer. Most of them are Telstra's own branded phones and tend more towards the basic side of things.
These handsets are locked to the Telstra network and will only function with a Telstra SIM.
You can unlock your Telstra prepaid phone by paying an unlocking fee, depending on how long you've had it:
You'll need your phone's IMEI number to unlock your phone – instructions on how to find this number and how to unlock your phone from a network are here. Unlocking your phone will let you use it with a SIM card from another provider, meaning you don't have to buy a whole new handset to switch mobile plans.
No matter how you choose to recharge, Telstra allows the following payment methods:
Choose your payment method, and pick one of these options for recharging.
You can check your balance via many of the same methods you use to recharge it, including the following:
If you fail to recharge your prepaid SIM before the expiry date, you'll lose service and won't be able to make calls, send texts or use mobile data. You will still be able to receive calls for 20 days and emergency calls for 90 days.
Failing to recharge will also empty out any data you've stored in your data bank.
A Telstra prepaid mobile broadband plan functions in much the same way as a regular prepaid phone plan, with one important difference: you will only get data, not calls or texts. You can buy a standalone SIM that can be inserted into any SIM-enabled device or modem, or sign up for a contract and get a modem with your plan.
For more information on Telstra's prepaid mobile broadband plans, see here.
The only exception to this rule is Telstra's long expiry plans since they last for up to 365 days. You're free to leave these plans at any time, but you'll be losing a big chunk of money if you don't see it out till its expiry end date.
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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 inquiry.
Although I cannot recommend a specific mobile phone plan because your circumstances, budget, and needs may vary quite markedly, you may check out the mobile plans for seniors featured on our website. Aside from that, you can also read our tips on selecting the right mobile plan for you or your wife through that page. Finally, please read through the same page as mobile plans are categorized based on usage, budget, and other things that would matter when selecting a mobile plan.
I hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Jason