For most people, mobile phone plans are just another regular expense we tend to overlook, and often we don’t realise how much they are costing us in the long run. This is especially true if you’re with one of the three major telcos of Telstra, Optus or Vodafone, as they can often be more on the expensive side, and subject to price hikes.
However, there is good news - if you’re willing to step away from the big three, there are plenty of more affordable options out there. In fact, there are multiple mobile plans on the market that cost less than $15 per month.
The caveat here is that it’s unlikely that you’ll find a short expiry (monthly or 28 day expiry) plan that costs under $15 a month, so the best option is to go with a 365-day plan that costs under $180. While this does mean signing up for a full year and paying upfront, it’s the equivalent of a monthly plan that costs $15 or less per month.
These long-expiry plans also tend to include large amounts of data, as they need to last you a whole year. While this means you’ve got a lot of freedom around how you use that data, you will still need to be mindful of your usage over the long term. And if you use up all your data before the plan expires, you’ll have to recharge early, which may result in you paying much more than $15 a month.
It’s critical, then, to figure out how much data you generally use each month – see ‘Know your data needs’ below for more details. As with almost all phone plans, generally speaking the more you pay for a 365-day plan, the more data you’ll get.
What you won’t get with most 365-day plans under $15 a month is access to telcos' newer and speedier 5G networks – although with a limited amount of data, that may be a good thing!
Just like most month-to-month phone plans, you’ll find many telcos offering introductory discounts on 365-day SIMs, which generally means that they’ll go up in price when you reach your first renewal. As such, once those 365 days are up, you’ll probably need to switch to another carrier if you want to continue with the goal of keeping your mobile bill under an average of $15 a month.
Taking into account all the above, we’ve assessed eight providers’ 365-day SIM plans under $180 (or $15 a month when divided by 12) to select the top picks in terms of value, coverage and features. Here are our recommendations:
Best mobile plan under $15p/m overall
Best big-data mobile plan under $15p/m
Other noteworthy plans under $15
There are a few other worthwhile plans in the under-$15 per month category that may suit more specific needs. Here are two of our favourites:
- Catch Connect 280GB 365 Day Plan: This plan usually costs $240 for 365 days but it is currently discounted down to $169, or the equivalent of $14.08 per month. With 280GB of included data to use over the 12 months, you get around 23.3GB per month.
- Kogan Small 365 Day Flex Plan: This plan is usually $179.90 but is currently discounted down to $150 which equals the equivalent of $12.50 per month and the 200GB gives you approximately 16.67GB per month.
- Amaysim 200GB 365 Day Plan: This plan is usually $240 for 200GB but is currently discounted down to $175. This means that it costs the equivalent of $14.58 per month for 16.6GB per month.
How to find the best plan under $15 for your needs
If you are looking for a plan under $15 per month, there are some tips and tricks you can use to ensure you find the best one for your needs.
1. Know your data usage. The key first step to finding an appropriate mobile plan is figuring out how much data you go through per month. To do this, you can look in your phone settings or your current plan provider’s usage monitoring tools to figure out how much data you use on average. This will give you a good guide and you can start looking at plans that offer around that amount. You may even find you use less than you think!
2. Do you need 5G? At this price point, most Australian mobile plans don’t offer 5G access – in fact, we haven’t identified any plans under $15 per month that offer 5G access. However, because most plans in this price range come with smaller amounts of data, having the absolute top speeds available arguably isn’t necessary. Most cheaper 4G plans still offer at least 100Mbps downloads – or faster than many Australian’s home broadband connections.
3. Be wary of introductory discounts. Deals that offer an initial discount or extra data can be tempting, but you should always carefully check the costs after these discounts end. While all of the currently available plans that cost under $15 per month are 365 day plans where you pay up front, be aware that if the plan is discounted and you want to recharge the plan after the first year, you’ll likely have to pay the full regular price. If this is the case, it’s worth shopping around for a better deal from another provider when the time comes.
Compare more plans under $15
FAQs
Do any mobile plans under $15 include 5G?
No. Unfortunately none of the plans we’ve researched in this price range offer 5G access.
Is mobile coverage worse with cheaper providers?
Generally speaking, no – and when it is, it’s largely in very remote areas. There are only three mobile networks in Australia (owned by Telstra, Optus and Vodafone) which means that every telco, small or large, is just reselling access to one of these three networks. While the ‘wholesale’ networks that smaller carriers are given access to can offer slightly less coverage than the ‘full’ Telstra, Optus or Vodafone network, in most locations that won’t be noticeable. For example, the population coverage for Telstra’s full vs wholesale network is 99.6% vs 98.8%, with most of the difference stemming from very remote rural areas.
If you're happy to spend a bit more on your mobile plan, we also have a guide for best mobile plans under $20 per month and best mobile plans under $30 per month.
