clovaLife costs
How to Compare Mobile Plans Against Your Actual Usage
Your last few bills show the most data you use in a month, and that's the plan size to compare. If the deal includes a phone, its repayments are a second price, with their own terms if you leave.
By MarnixPublished Sources
A phone bill mostly runs in the background. It comes out on the same day each month, and you think about it when a renewal email offers more data or a new phone sits on a shop counter with nothing to pay upfront. Those are the moments a plan tends to get picked, often on the same instinct as last time.
Remy, who is 23 and made up, is a year into a $65-a-month deal: $40 for a plan with 40 GB of data and no minimum term, and $25 a month towards the phone over two years. Remy is wondering whether a smaller plan would do.
Start with the data you actually use
Your last few bills, or your account with your provider, show how much data, calls and texts each billing period used. Your phone's settings also count mobile data separately from Wi-Fi, which doesn't come out of the plan. Looking at six months, including a busy one, gives a fuller picture than one quiet month.
Most plans include unlimited calls and texts to Australian numbers, so data usually decides the size. If you call overseas or travel, add those to the list too, because they're part of what you're choosing.
Clova, our budgeting app, puts each purchase in a category, so the phone bill and any extra data bought in a busy month sit together when you look back over your spending.
Each dot is one month of mobile data. Made-up usage.
Remy's busiest month was the one the home internet was down, and it still used under half the plan. A plan that covers that month with some room to spare would do the same job. Data you never use isn't a saving, however good the price per gigabyte looks.
Compare prices over the same stretch of time
Plans don't all charge on the same cycle. Prepaid is paid upfront for a set period, while most postpaid plans bill at the end of the month. A recharge that lasts 28 days comes round about 13 times a year, so $25 every 28 days costs about $326 a year, against $300 for $25 a month. A yearly cost puts every option on the same footing, and lining a bill up with your paydays comes after that.
Then look past the headline price. A discount that ends after a few months, a charge for going over the data or a cost upfront all change what the year comes to. Some plans bundle an extra such as a streaming service, which only counts if you'd pay for it anyway; cancelling the subscriptions you don't use is a separate job.
Every provider has to publish a Critical Information Summary for each plan. It's a short document setting out what's included and excluded, the charges, the minimum term, roaming and how to complain, and it shows what an "unlimited" plan leaves out. For a postpaid plan, the provider generally has to give it to you before you agree, with some exceptions: buying over the phone, for instance, you can choose to go ahead and receive it within five business days. Reading it with the full contract terms before agreeing helps, since a summary can't hold everything.
Price the phone on its own
A deal with a phone in it is two purchases sharing one bill: the plan, and repayments on the phone. Remy's $65 is $40 for the plan and $25 for the phone, which over two years comes to $960 and $600. Comparing them separately shows what the phone adds each month, and what a plan on its own with the phone you already have would cost instead.
Buying a phone outright costs more at the start but makes it easier to change plans or providers later. On a plan, you pay nothing upfront but don't own the phone until it's paid off, and that part matters most when you want to leave.
Made-up deal: no minimum term on the plan, 24 monthly phone repayments.
Changing provider doesn't necessarily clear what's owed on a phone or other contract charges. Before switching, ask what you'd still owe, including early termination charges, which the summary and contract set out. For Remy, that's $300 to plan around, whichever plan comes next.
Check the network, the phone and your number
A cheaper plan only helps if it works where you are, so check the signal where you live, work and regularly visit. A provider that uses another company's network doesn't necessarily get the same coverage or speeds, so look at each provider's own coverage information.
If you're keeping your phone, ask the new provider whether it works on their network. A phone has to support calls to Triple Zero (000) to be connected, and being described as 4G doesn't settle that.
You can usually keep your number. The new provider arranges the transfer, so ask about any cost and the steps involved. Keeping the old service running until the new provider confirms the move helps protect your number.
The plan doesn't need to be the cheapest one going. One that covers your busiest month, with the phone priced on its own, leaves more of each pay for everything else. Remy can work that out this afternoon with six bills and one question to the current provider.
A note from us
A phone plan should fit the month you actually had, not the biggest number in the ad. Clova puts upcoming bills beside your pay, so a recharge due a few days before payday is something you see coming rather than find out about on the day.