Urgent help needed with mobile in Australia

grace2much

Hi all, I need some urgent help before my 71 yr old friend flies off to Australia for 6 weeks holiday on Friday.

She needs to be able to call back home (the UK) from Australia as cheaply as possible as she has building working going on in her absent in the UK and she needs to make regular checks.

So calls within Australia is less important the issue is mainly Australia to UK calls.

She has a paygo 02 network phone. What's her best and simple option.

We appreciate your help.............

evenasus

Will she be staying with friends/relatives?
Will she be wanting to speak to the actual builders or a friend/relative?

grace2much

evenasus wrote: »

Will she be staying with friends/relatives?
Will she be wanting to speak to the actual builders or a friend/relative?

She will be staying with relatives part of the time but doing a fair bit of travelling as well. She is the independent type and would rather have a way where she can pay for her own calls and not use her relatives home landlines even with a pre-paid card or something similar.

And she will need to call both the builder on his mobile and friends on their landline/mobile

sits

If her phone is unlocked, or get it unlocked, pick up a Lebara SIM when she gets to Australia and stick $10 on it for the standard PAYG plan. Cheap to call the UK, and can phone locally for hotels etc without costing the earth, you also get some daily internet included.

Can't post links, but google "lebara au"

grace2much

sits wrote: »

If her phone is unlocked, or get it unlocked, pick up a Lebara SIM when she gets to Australia and stick $10 on it for the standard PAYG plan. Cheap to call the UK, and can phone locally for hotels etc without costing the earth, you also get some daily internet included.

Can't post links, but google "lebara au"

Great and thanks. I had a look on their site and this is just what she needs. Just need to get O2 to unlock her phone in a hurry

diamonds

$90 for unlimited - AU mobile & standard landline calls, unlimited text for 60 days and $90 "flexible credit" to spend on Voicemail, International roaming with Vodafone Traveller, 1223-Directory Assistance, 123-Ask Us Anything, '13', '15' and '18' numbers aswell.

$0.40 connection & $1.60 per min to UK mobile or landline. believe comes out of $90 flexible credit, it used to anyway

http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/prepaid/home/options/all-time

Can also add untimed $1 calls to UK landlines from $10

http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/prepaid/home/options/international

UK landline $0.30 (capped at $1)UK mobile $0.20

You can also add them $1 Uk landline rates to the basic Voda prepaid plans

365 day recharge http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/prepaid/home/options/365

60 day recharge http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/prepaid/home/options/txt-talk

You can pick up a Voda prepaid sim for $1 in supermarkets, newsagents etc..these are marketed as RED sims in voda AU infinite wisdom ?? (And where Voda UK got their new marketing for the RED/plan sims lol)

diamonds

Optus ( old Cable & Wireless AU, now owned by Singapore Telecom)

$50 buys a better deal for 50 days, click "$2 days" here for info

https://www.optus.com.au/shop/prepaidmobile/prepaidoffers

Similar to Voda 30 day international recharges here from $10-$30 but no $1 unlimited UK landline but landline & mobile calls are the same price (easier to understand for someone older perhaps ?) https://www.optus.com.au/shop/mobilephones/internationalvaluepacks

Optus sims seem more ready available most places.

diamonds

Calls have connection fees in AU so its almost better to go for the "all in" unlimited minute/text deals on prepay, loads of short calls eat credit like hell as does the per 30 second billing, per half a minute rates in AU can be very expensive. A call of 31 seconds plus connection fee rapes your recharge (topup) balance, and it only gets worse per 30 second block billing as the networks penalise very low/rare users with much higher rates.

Lastly no matter how good it looks NEVER buy a prepaid (or contract) CAP plan ($49 gets $500 credit), its all marketing bull & costs a fortune per minute/text on these CAP plans.

If your in the "bush" sometimes only Telstra (old Telecom AU before privatised) mobile will give coverage but you pay HIGH for Telstra.

http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/prepaid-mobiles/prepaid-offers/#tab-beyond-talk

International calls to UK (per min) landline is 42cents, mobile 87c, connection fee 40 cents.


Recommend Optus $50 for 50 days unlimited AU calling & 2 x $30 international packs which will give 400 minutes to UK mobiles/landlines for each pack. Can be purchased sooner than 30 days expiry if UK mins run out = $110.

Unless high UK landline & limited UK mobile calls then its Vodafone for the $1 UK landline calls at $90 & 2 x £30 international packs = $150 = $40 more than Optus for 60 days.


Oh & remind her its summer time in AU now ! Xmas/New Year can be VERY hot...go prepared for hot and ALSO take 1 set winter clothes/jacket & thermal nightie as night/suburbs can drop to freezing points depending where you are located (its a vast place lol). Queensland/NT has tropical rain in summer so a waterproof jacket is essiential !