Kogan Mobile Review
If you’ve heard of Kogan Mobile and wondered whether it’s any good, Canstar Blue has all you need to know about Kogan Mobile’s prepaid deals.
Kogan is a huge company over the ditch in Australia. It was founded by entrepreneur Ruslan Kogan 25 years ago, selling own-brand electrical goods. Since then it’s grown into a huge company, selling a wide range of products on its NZ and OZ websites. Along the way it bought the Dick Smith brand, and branched out into offering phone plans and insurance. Recently, here in Aotearoa, it snapped up home-grown retailer MightyApe.co.nz. However, despite its size, Kogan Mobile is still a small player here in NZ. But it’s deserving of greater attention, because if you’re after a cheap, no-frills phone deal, Kogan Mobile’s pre-paid deals are some of the cheapest around.
What phone plans does Kogan Mobile offer?
Kogan keeps it simple with just three pre-paid phone plans: Small, Medium and Large. And just two pre-paid periods: 30 Days and 365 Days.
30-Day Plans
Small
- Cost: $15
- Data Allowance: 1.5GB
- Unlimited calls & texts to NZ and OZ
Medium
- Cost: $25
- Data Allowance: 4GB
- Unlimited calls & texts to NZ and OZ
Large
- Cost: $35
- Data Allowance: 15GB
- Unlimited calls & texts to NZ and OZ
365-Day Plans
Small
- Cost: $160 ($13.34 per month)
- Data Allowance: 1.5GB per 30 days
- Unlimited calls & texts to NZ and OZ
Medium
- Cost: $250 ($20.84 per month)
- Data Allowance: 4GB per 30 days
- Unlimited calls & texts to NZ and OZ
Large
- Cost: $330 ($27.50 per month)
- Data Allowance: 15GB per 30 days
- Unlimited calls & texts to NZ and OZ
As you can see there are considerable savings to be had if you sign up for a year-long deal. However there are a couple of things to consider before signing up to Kogan’s 365-day plans:
- You’ll need to pay the entire cost up front
- If you cancel your 365-day plan at any time, you will forfeit all of your unused credit
How to switch to a Kogan pre-paid plans
To join a Kogan plan is pretty simple. You first need to get a Kogan SIM card, which you can buy through Kogan Mobile’s NZ website. The SIM costs $5 and postage is free, unless you opt for the express courier service, which is around $3 extra, depending on your location.
As an added bonus, the SIM comes preloaded with 30 days unlimited calls & texts to NZ and OZ, plus 15GB of data.
After those initial free 30 days, your plan will auto-renew by default to Kogan’s large 30-day plan. So if you want a cheaper, or 365-day plan, you’ll need to change your plan through your Kogan Mobile account within those first 30 days.
Kogan pre-paid plans: extras
As they are cheap, no-frills pre-paid plans, there aren’t many extras to Kogan’s plans. But Kogan does offer:
- International roaming packs, featuring just data, or with data, calls and texts
- Three data add-on packs: 300MB/1.25GB/3GB
- International call packs
Are Kogan’s pre-paid plans value for money?
The simple answer to this is yes. Here’s a rundown of some of the comparable deals offered by other mobile phone companies and, as you’ll see, Kogan’s data allowances are really good value for money.
Its medium pack, with 4GB for $25 per 30-day period is a particular standout, as its competitors charge around $35 for the same data allowance.
To help Kiwi consumers choose the best mobile phone providers, Canstar surveys thousands of mobile phone customers and asks them to score their providers across categories including Value for Money and Customer Service. To read the results of our full research and to find out more about NZ’s best mobile phone providers, just click on the big button below:
