Money Australia – July 2017

MY MONEYMOBILE PLANS

Needanewphone?

Y

ou don’t need to purchase from a telco or the

manufacturer to get the best deal on a premi-

um handset. In fact, a quick look around for the

latest iPhone can save you up to $100.

Even so, don’t be sucked into deals that are too

goodtobetrue.Ifthesitelooksdodgy,itprobablyis.

Ifindoubt,lookupthenameofthesiteonWhirlpool,

ProductRevieworReddittogetanideaofthe

customerexperience.Iftherearemorecomplaints

than you’d like, then it’s probably not a good idea. The

phone stops being cheap after you’ve spent more

thanyoupaidforitonshippingitback,payingfor

repairsandshippingitonceagain.Alotofthesesites

canaffordtosellcheaperproductsbecausethey

importthemfromcountriessuchasHongKong.

Always check the frequency band specifications

of the device against the Australian specifications,

which will ensure (hopefully) that it works under

3G and 4G networks.

(See “Cheap phone picks from WhistleOut”, left.)

youare–it’snotlikeitdownloadsawhole

orth of maps, it only downloads what you

need at the time.” If you’re really worried about your

navigatoreatingupyourdata,youcanalwaysdownload

certain geographical areas before you leave and use

them offline while you’re driving.

One data burner that might surprise you is online

shoppingapps–specifically,theappsthatincludevideo,

where you can view items of clothing for sale straight

fromthecatwalk.Hanlonsaysthatinaminuteofusing

theASOSappheclockedupabout5MB,whichperhour

would equate to 300MB. Not many of us are looking at

theseappsforanhoureverydaybut,ifyouwereto,

you’dbeburningthrough9GBofdatain a month.

WHICHPLANISBEST

Lowdatausersprobablydon’thavealotofmobileapps

orahighlyactivesocialmediapresence.Tobeusing

only about 1GB of data a month, you wouldn’t be checking

social media on the go very much (if you even have a

social media account), and are likely to restrict your

daily mobile use to calls and text messages using phone

credit. Most plans with about 1GB of data come with

unlimitedcallsandSMSbutthereareafewthatstill

limityoutoafewhundreddollars’worthofcredit.These

are usually the cheapest picks of the crop. If you’re not

at all worried about exceeding your limit, both for data

and credit, then go right ahead but you’re probably going

togetbettervaluefromaplanwithunlimitedcallsand

messages. (See tables, page 51.)

Tousebetween2GBand3GBamonth,amedium

datauserwouldbelikelytohaveseveralsocialmedia

accounts and apps they’re using a few times a day outside

ofwi-fi.YoumightwatchafewFacebookvideoshere

andthereoruseGoogleMapstohelpyougetaround

every so often but you probably don’t spend any more

than about an hour a day using your apps on the go.

Hanlon says high data use is all about the consumption

ofonlinevideocontent.Tobeusing5GBofdataormore

amonth,youarelikelytobespendingmorethanan

hour a day on social media and would regularly stream

video and audio content on the go.

BIGGER BUT NOT BETTER

To avoid bill shock consumers are starting to take out

larger plans as an insurance policy but in doing so are

signing up to plans that are too generous for their data

usage, according to Hanlon.

With the number of large data plans on the market

on the increase (such as Amaysim’s new 70GB mobile

plan or Optus’s ambitious 100GB mobile plan), consumers

appear to be taking the “more bang for your buck”

approach.Butthismightnotnecessarilybethesmartest

way to go. “Large data plans have almost become a

marketingtactic,”saysHanlon.“Youcanseewhy

buyingaplanwiththemostgigabytessoundslikeit’s

thebestvaluebuttherehastobeapointwhereyou

saythere’stoomuch.”

“Ifyouenduppaying$10or$20amonthmorethan

youneedtoasaninsurancepolicy,thenoverayearthat’s

a lot of money to waste on data that you don’t use.”M

“Ifyouenduppaying$10or$20amonthmorethanyou

need to, over a year that’s a lot of money to waste”

Cheap phone

picks from

WhistleOut

Model: Oppo F1s

• Capacity: 32GB


• Cameras: 13MP
  rear,16MPfront


• Cheapest
  stockists: Optus,
  $259; Target, $259;
  BigW,$259.

Model: Motorola

G5 Plus

• Capacity: 16GB
  or 32GB


• Cameras: 12MP
  rear, 5MP front


• Cheapest
  stockists (16GB):
  Good Guys, $379;
  Officeworks, $379;
  Mobile Citi (eBay
  Stores), $389.

Model: HTC

Desire 530

• Capacity: 16GB


• Cameras: 8MP
  rear, 5MP front


• Cheapest
  stockists: Kmart,
  $159; MobileCiti,
  $192.
  Data sourced by Money.

A

notherwaytosaveonapremiumphoneisto

purchase a refurbished product. Apple sells its

own refurbished iPhones, which according to Apple,

comewithanewbattery,newshellandaone-year

warranty. Current refurbished phone stock is limited

to the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, but if you’re after

thosemodelsyoucansavebetween$80and$120.

Kogan also does refurbished models of the

iPhone,plusafewotherAndroidphones.

ForalargeselectionofrefurbishedAndroid

phones and some iPhones (iPhone 4, anyone?), try

EB Games. (I was surprised too.)

Refurbished phones