choosing the right mobile plan

Choosing the right mobile plan

In these uncertain times, people are taking the time to check every part of their lives in order to see where some money can be saved. One of the best places where you can save your money is on your mobile phone bill. As more people are being made to stay at home, people are either spending more money than ever on their phones in order to fight the boredom of quarantine, or people are looking to spend less on their mobile phone in order to save some money elsewhere.

If you’re looking to make the most of your mobile, or if you’re looking to save some money, it’s important that you choose the right mobile plan. Although there are many service providers that allow you to change mobile plans at will or change them from month to month, there are many other service providers that aren’t as lenient, which means that you may be locked into a plan that doesn’t suit your lifestyle. With that being said, there are many things to look for in each plan before you can determine which mobile plan is right for you. In this article, we’ll go over what you need to look for in a mobile plan to determine whether it’s the right one for you or not.

Postpaid or prepaid plans

One of the first things that you need to determine is whether you want a postpaid or a prepaid plan. Deciding this will determine when you pay for your phone bill, making it an extremely important thing to take into consideration. A postpaid plan is a plan where you will have a predetermined amount of data that you can use, which you’ll be able to pay for when you receive your phone bill. Going over this data limit will usually result in additional charges being placed on your bill. These types of plans are perfect for people who work on the go, who know that they need to use a lot of data, and don’t mind paying for additional charges should they go over their data limit.

Another feature that is synonymous with postpaid plans is contracts. Contracts are able to provide you with a range of benefits that can allow you to get more out of your mobile plan. Oftentimes, contracts will allow you to choose from a number of handsets, from a range of cheaper handsets that allow you to add more data onto your contract to the latest handsets on the market, providing you with access to the latest technology. Aside from choosing the size of the data plan you want, being able to choose a handset allows you to further customise your mobile plan in order to suit your lifestyle.

Another benefit that comes from a postpaid plan is that it’s often cheaper than a prepaid plan. The reason for this is that all the services that you’d use, such as talking, texting and mobile data are often all bundled into your contract, which means that you’re not paying for individual services. And with many service providers providing unlimited calling and texting within their postpaid plans, you’re able to get more out your mobile phone than you could if you were on a prepaid plan, which is especially useful during these uncertain times.

The other type of plan that you can have is the prepaid plan. prepaid plans are plans that allow you to pay for mobile data before you use it, making it similar to purchasing credit for your phone. As a result, prepaid plans are perfect for those who don’t need to rely on mobile data often, such as those who work from home or those who work in an area with a stable and accessible internet connection.

Although prepaid plans don’t offer the benefits of contracts like postpaid contracts do, it’s this absence of contracts that bring a lot of value to a prepaid plan. For starters, not being locked into a contract can provide you with a lot of flexibility. As you pay for the service before you can utilise it, you can determine how much data that you need in order to suit your lifestyle.

Not having a contract also allows you to opt out of your plan whenever you want, allowing you even more flexibility with your phone plan. Want to change to a postpaid plan? There’s no contract to stop you from changing to one. Or do you want to add some extras onto your current plan? All you need to do is enquire with your service provider. As well as this, not having a contract means that you won’t suffer from any excess charges. All you have to do is recharge your phone when your data runs out.

Before you pick a plan, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of prepaid and postpaid plans and put them up against your lifestyle. At MATE, we’ve got a range of postpaid plans to choose from, ranging from $25 per month for 15GB of 4G data, all the way up to $55 per month for a massive 150GB of 5G data.

Plus, we now offer eSIM on all mobile plans!

An eSIM is a digital SIM that allows you to activate a mobile plan from your service provider without having to use a physical SIM card. This means you can activate much quicker, without waiting for your SIM to arrive in the mail.

So, if you’re looking for a mobile plan that’ll suit your lifestyle, check out our mobile plan page or give our friendly, all-Aussie customer service team a call on 13 14 13 today.

Location and coverage

Another thing that you need to take into consideration before picking the right mobile plan for you is the coverage that your service provider has. Your provider’s coverage is how far your provider’s technology can reach. If you’re based in a capital city, you shouldn’t have to worry about this too much. However, if you’re in rural Australia, or if you’re based in a regional city, you will need to make sure that your preferred provider has coverage over your area, otherwise you may have issues using mobile data or making calls.

As well as seeing if your service provider can cover your area, you’ll need to ask yourself questions regarding the quality of that coverage. Some of the questions which you might need to ask are questions relating to your coverage’s performance in a building, how your coverage holds up in bad weather and how can you expect download speed to hold up in areas that you frequent, such as at home or around the office.

Keep in mind that there are some areas where your coverage will be less than what you expect, such as in underground carparks, in certain buildings, or in areas surrounded by lots of mountains or hills. At MATE, our mobile plans use the Telstra Wholesale Mobile Network (learn more here). The service provides 4G coverage reaching at least 98.7% of the Australian population and at least 75% with 5G.

If you’re looking to utilise a great mobile network, check out the range of mobile plans that we have available. If you’d like to learn more about the range of mobile plans that we have on offer, check out our phone plans page or give our customer service team a call on 13 14 13 today.

Mobile phone usage

Another important aspect to take into consideration when choosing the mobile plan that best suits your lifestyle is determining how much data you’ll be using every month. If you often go with prepaid plans, determining how much data you’ll use is easy. All you’ll need to do is pay for the amount of data that you think you’ll use and then add more data to your plan if it runs out.

However, if you’re on a postpaid plan or if you’re planning to go onto a postpaid plan, there are a few things that you’ll need to consider before signing up. Firstly, you’ll need to see how much data you’ll actually use over the course of a month. Some service providers have data plans available that only offer 15GB of data a month, but will also have plans that exceed well over 100GB of data a month, so you’ll need to make sure that you select a data plan that suits your lifestyle.

Are you someone who works from home or someone who’s always near a stable and accessible internet connection? A plan that offers a small amount of data will allow you to get what you need from your mobile phone whilst still letting you save a lot of money. Or are you on the move a lot and need a lot of data in order to keep in the loop whilst at work? Maybe a mobile plan with a lot of data will best suit you.

No matter the type of data plan you need, you can rely on the team at mate to have a data plan that’ll suit you. Not looking for a lot of data on your phone? Go with our $25 a month plan, which provides you with 15GB of data, as well as unlimited talking and texting within Australia. Or are looking for a plan with a lot of data in order to suit an active lifestyle? The team at MATE have you covered with our $55 plan, which offers you a massive 150GB of 5G data, as well as unlimited talking and texting to all local numbers. If you’d like to learn more about the phone plans that we’ve got on offer, check out our phone plans page or give our friendly customer service team a call on 13 14 13 today.

International talk + text

Looking to stay in contact with everyone over the isolation period? What about keeping in touch with friends and family overseas? One of the main issues which plague many people is that their service provider allows for unlimited local calls and texting, but not international calls and texting, which can force people with friends or family overseas to find other ways to keep in contact, such as using messenger apps or staying in touch on social media.

However, there are some service providers that offer unlimited data to certain countries, so you can keep the conversation going with friends and family overseas. At MATE, we understand that you’ll be wanting to keep in contact with everyone in order to make sure how they’re holding up during the isolation period, which is why we offer international talking and texting to fifteen countries as part of most of our plans. The countries which we offer this service to include Canada, China, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the USA and Vietnam. If you’d like to learn more about our international talking and texting, or if you’d like to learn more about our mobile plans, check our mobile plans page or give us a call today on 13 14 13 today.

What handsets are available

When choosing a mobile plan, another thing that you need to take into consideration is the range of handsets that you can receive with your mobile plan, and how much they’ll amp up the price. When setting yourself up with a new mobile plan, there are a few ways that you can go. You can either stick with your current handset and purchase a data only plan, or go with which allows you to go for more expensive data plans. Or you could purchase a more expensive handset and choose a cheaper data plan in order to balance the cost.

Before deciding what handset you want, or whether you want a handset at all, you’ll need to determine how a handset purchase will suit your lifestyle. For example, if you stay at home for the majority of the day, whether it be studying or working from home, you may be able to go for a more expensive handset, as you’ll most likely be relying on your home internet connection in order to bring the internet to your phone. If you’re the type of person who makes a lot of calls and is on the go for work, you would get a lot of benefit from bringing your own handset, as it gives you the opportunity to purchase a larger data plan.

These are just some of the things that you need to consider before picking the right mobile plan. Remember that with certain plans, you have to stay with them for a while once you’ve selected them, so it’s important to make sure that you’ve found a mobile plan that will suit your lifestyle. At MATE, we’ve got a range of mobile plans that are designed to suit a number of different lifestyles, so you know that our team has got you covered. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you, check out our range of mobile plans on our mobile plans page, or give our friendly, all-Aussie customer service team a call on 13 14 13 today.