For the Biggest & Best Mobile Plans Choose: Skinny

Wallet … keys … phone! It’s a mental checklist most of us tick off whenever we leave our homes. Finding yourself out and about without your mobile, or a phone plan short on calls and data, is like being a modern-day Robinson Crusoe – cut adrift from instant access to family, friends and the internet.

A smartphone is central to the modern lifestyle – it’s how we keep informed, keep in touch and order so much of our lives … from our finances to our takeaway meals! If we’re not peering into a sleek glass screen, we’re smiling into a camera for a selfie!

While choosing the right phone to meet your budget and tech needs is important, so too is signing up for the right plan to deliver your data, calls and texts.

So as part of our mission to inform NZ consumers of the best mobile phone plan providers on the market, Canstar Blue canvassed the opinions of 1921 New Zealanders who have mobile phone plan, across a range of categories, to measure and track their satisfaction.

To decide which phone plan provider offers the best level of customer satisfaction, each was rated across the following categories:

• Overall Satisfaction,
• Accessibility of the Provider
• Assistance Managing Data
• Billing
• Customer Service
• Network Coverage
• Value for Money

Coming out on top is Skinny. The 4-Weekly Plan provider is the only provider in this year’s awards to earn a coveted 5-Star rating for Overall Satisfaction. And deservedly so. For across the board, Skinny excels, earning 5-Stars in all categories, except for Provider Accessibility, for which it has a 4-Star rating.

Congratulations, too, are in order for Slingshot Mobile and 2Degrees. Each has a 4-Star Overall Satisfaction rating, plus boasts multiple 5- and 4-Star awards across other ratings categories.

What Kiwis Want From their Phone Providers

Value for Money, yet again, defines customer satisfaction levels. And in this field, Skinny excels, offering great plans for low prices without any expensive frills.

However, Customer Service and Accessibility of Provider are also important. As anybody who has ever sat on hold for 45 minutes waiting to speak to their telco provider can attest! It’s telling that Network Coverage is becoming less important – probably because most populated areas of NZ now have excellent coverage.

Overall, the main drivers of satisfaction:

How We’re Using Our Phones

When it comes to mobile plans, Canstar Blue’s research shows that Skinny is a clear winner. But it also shows how our mobile use is evolving.

The majority of Kiwis now use their mobiles less like traditional phones and more like devices to communicate over the internet: 59% use apps like Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and WhatsApp to keep in touch, rather than calls and texts.

And this is reflected in our data usage, with over a third of us (35%) now on unlimited data plans.

But however you use your phone, have you checked recently if you’re getting true value for money? Telco companies change their plans regularly, and often don’t inform their customers of new, better value products.

Indeed, only 29% of us track our phone usage to make sure we’re getting the best value from our plans. And far fewer, 18%, have switched to a better provider.

So if you’ve not checked your plan for a while, why not do so now? And start by comparing your mobile phone plan with Skinny, the clear winner of Canstar Blue’s 2021 award for Satisfied Customers | Mobile Plans.