Mobile plans under $10 a month exist – these are our top picks

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Mobile phone plans are, for most of us, one of those unavoidable monthly costs that we don’t really spend much time thinking about – but they are one that adds up, particularly if you’re on a plan directly from one of the big three telcos (Telstra, Optus and Vodafone).

Previously in this article, we’ve recommended 365-day SIM plans priced under $120 as the best-value options for phone plans under $10p/m – the obvious catch being that you’d have to pay for the full year up front. Unfortunately, due to plan price increases over the last 6 months or so, there are no longer any prepaid or postpaid plans that meet that “under $10 a month on average” criteria, which basically leaves you with one option – pay-as-you-go SIM plans.

Only a handful of providers offer these types of plans, including Vodafone, Aldi Mobile and Amaysim. With a PAYG plan, you pay upfront for a certain amount of credit and are charged for each individual call, text and megabyte you use. If you don’t use your phone much and just want a very cheap plan, these plans can be a great cost effective alternative. However, it is worth noting that if you do need a more reasonable amount of data (i.e. more than about 3GB per year), a cheap prepaid or postpaid mobile plan will be a much better value option. Our guide on the best mobile plans under $15 per month includes plans from just $12 per month.

If you have a strict limit of $10 per month and PAYG is your only option, then these are our top picks:

Our top PAYG pick

Amaysim | $10 for the SIM | Optus 4G Network
- Credit top-up options: Choose any amount
- Data: 5c/MB
- Calls: 12c/min
- SMS: 12c each
Amaysim’s PAYG plan costs $10 for the starter SIM, and there’s no minimum top-up amount, with all credit lasting for 365 days. On this plan, each MB costs $0.05, which means that 1GB costs $51.20. If you don’t need much data, you could buy 2GB for $102.40 and not have to top up for a full year while having about 170MB per month to use. That makes this the best PAYG plan on the Australian market from a data perspective. It also offers the cheapest rates for calls and text messages ($0.12 a minute or message) of any PAYG carrier and uses the well-regarded Optus 4G network.

Also consider

Aldi Mobile | $5 starter kit | 365 day expiry on top ups | Vodafone Network
- Credit top-up options: $15, $25, $35
- Data: 6c/MB
- Calls: 15c/min
- SMS: 15c each

Aldi Mobile’s PAYG plan costs just $5 which includes $5 of credit which lasts for 60 days, with any subsequent top ups lasting for 365 days. This plan charges $0.06 per MB which means that each GB costs $61.44. So, for under $10 per month or $120 per year, you’ll get slightly less than 2GB of data. If you need more data than this and want included calls and texts, we recommend opting for a cheap mobile plan that will ultimately cost far less per GB.

Vodafone | 3 PAYG Options from $35 for $180 days
- Credit top-up options: $12 (60 day expiry) $35 (180 day expiry), $35 & $45 (365 day expiry)
- Data: 6c/MB
- Calls: 20c/min
- SMS: 20c each

Vodafone offers three PAYG plan options - one 180 day expiry option for $35 and two 365 day expiry options for $45 and $55. With these plans, each MB costs $0.06 so each GB costs $61.44. If you want to recharge, you can choose any of the three original options or there’s an additional $12 option which lasts 60 days.

FAQs

Should I sign up for a PAYG mobile plan?

While they’re not for everyone, PAYG mobile plans can be an effective, cheap alternative for people who don’t use their phones much, and won’t use enough inclusions for a normal month-to-month prepaid or postpaid plan to be worth it. If you’re unsure if a PAYG plan is right for you, let’s quickly break down the pros and cons:

Pros

- Only pay for what you need and avoid wasted data

- Cheapest way to retain an Australian mobile number

Cons

- Calls, SMS and data are all more expensive that plans with inclusions

- If you use more than a few GB of data per year you will end up paying a lot more per GB than if you opted for a cheap prepaid or postpaid mobile plan

Check out our guide on the best mobile plans under $15 per month.

If you’re willing to spend a bit more, we also have a guide on the best mobile plans under $20 per month which include up to 25GB per month.

Amelia is an Ecommerce Editor at Getprice who specialises in hunting down great bargains and useful discount codes across a wide variety of products and retailers, curating gift guides for all occasions, and doing the maths to calculate the top-value mobile and internet plans for a variety of needs. Her goal is to help make finding the best online discounts as easy as possible. She loves writing about major deals and sales events to help you get the most bang for your buck at sales time.