Paying Too Much for Mobile? NZ’s Cheapest Mobile Plans

Are you paying too much to use your mobile? A new report by the Commerce Commission reveals that a quarter of Kiwis are paying too much, and not accessing the cheapest mobile plans to match their phone usage.

The report states that: “A quarter of post-paid consumers could save an estimated average of $11.60 a month by moving to a cheaper plan that would still cover their usage.”

It also found that “7% of all residential consumers spent a relatively high amount on mobile services, given their usage, and that these consumers could potentially save an average of $48.65 a month.”

Part of the problem is that once we sign up to a phone deal, we just set and forget. If you don’t go looking for a better deal, how are you going to find one?

To help solve the problem, the Commerce Commission recommends that mobile plan providers “should provide more meaningful comparison information and guard against overspending by mobile phone consumers”.

Best Mobile Deals? Canstar Can Help!

And this is where Canstar comes in. As part of our mission to inform Kiwi consumers of the best deals on the market, we’re constantly assessing mobile phone providers and their plans.

Our annual Most Satisfied Customers | Mobile Prepaid Plans and Most Satisfied Customers | Mobile Plans awards, reward the mobile providers that offer the best products, value for money and customer service. This year Skinny took out our top award for prepaid, and 2degrees for monthly plans.

However, regardless of your choice of provider, if you are paying for an expensive plan with unlimited data, calls and text, when you only need a basic, cheaper package, you are not getting true value for your money.

But before you go hunting for a cheaper mobile plan more suited to your needs, consider the following points:

Choosing the Cheapest Mobile Plans – Things to Consider

Do you want a monthly plan, or to go prepaid?

If you are uncertain about your budget and don’t want to commit to a monthly plan, then prepaid is the way to go. This way you can just top up when you have funds available. If you’re uncertain about which is best for you, read: Prepaid or Plan? Which is better? Canstar Asks 2degrees!

How much data do you really need?

Do you really need endless dataaaaa!? Go back over some bills to get a clearer picture of your true data usage, and check out our story: How Much Data Are Your Apps Really Using? How to Reduce Your Usage. And remember that unlimited data isn’t unlimited, as speeds slow considerably once you hit your choice of cap. But if unlimited data is what you need, read: Unlimited Mobile Data Phone Plans in New Zealand.

Do you call or text Australia?

If you’ve friends or whanau in Australia, the cost of keeping in contact can soon add up. Paying a bit extra for being able to keep in touch can be well worth it if you text or call regularly.

Do you already pay for Spotify Premium?

Spotify Premium costs $11.99 per month. Spark offers the service for half-price with some of its cheaper plans, and for free with its more expensive packages. This adds considerable extra value.

Hotspotting

Hotspotting allows you to use your phone’s data allowance on other devices via WiFi. Do you use it regularly and are you prepared to pay extra for the privileged?

Adding other mobiles to your plan

If you are a family and you all have mobiles with separate plans, it could be worth paying extra for a plan that allows you to add extra phones to a single plan for reduced amounts.

Prepay Billing cycles

If you’re going prepay, billing cycles are a sneaky little detail you need to watch out for. 2degrees makes a big deal of the fact that, over a year, if you’re on its prepay, you’ll only have to buy 12 packs – this is because each lasts a calendar month.

But other providers have different billing periods:

• Spark, Skinny and Vodafone‘s prepaid packs last: 28 days
• Orcon and Kogan‘s packs: 30 days
• Warehouse Mobile: 31 days

If you do the math, you can see different levels of value: 28 (days) x 12 (months)= 336. But there are 365 days in a year, meaning on Spark, Skinny and Vodafone‘s prepaid plans, you’ll need to buy an extra pack, to cover those missing 29 days.

For Orcon and Kogan‘s packs: 30 x 12 = 360 – so you’re losing five days. But with Warehouse Mobile, 12 packs cover more than a year: 31 x 12 = 372 – that’s a full 36 days more than Spark, Skinny and Vodafone – a saving of over one month’s entire prepay package!

NZ’s Cheapest Mobile Plans Under $40

If you think you are paying too much, check out this round-up of the cheap mobile plans currently on offer for under $40 per month. (All figures correct as of 10/05/2021)

2degrees

Monthly

$40 Plan:

Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ ­– 4GB Rollover

Extras: Daily free hour of data, hotspotting

Prepaid: Calendar month

$10 Plan:

Features: 100 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 250MB Rollover

Extras: Rollover calls

$19 Plan:

Features: 200 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 1.25GB Rollover

Extras: Rollover calls, daily free hour of data

$30 Plan:

Features: 300 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 2.5GB Rollover

Extras: Rollover calls, daily free hour of data

Spark

Monthly

$39.99 Rollover Plan

Features: 300 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts in NZ ­– 3GB Rollover

Extras: Half-price Spotify Premium

Prepaid: Four-week period

$19 Plan:

Features: 200 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 1.25GB Rollover

Extras: Half-price Spotify Premium, rollover minutes

$29 Plan:

Features: 300 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 2GB Rollover

Extras: Half-price Spotify Premium, rollover minutes

Skinny:

Prepaid: Four-week period

$9 Plan:

Features: 100 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 250MB

$16 Plan:

Features: 200 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 1.25GB Rollover

Extras: Rollover minutes

$26 Plan:

Features: 300 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 2.5GB Rollover

Extras: Rollover minutes

$36 Plan:

Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ ­– Unlimited (speeds reduce after 4.5GB)

Extras: Hotspotting

NB: Skinny also offers similar weekly plans, although they work out slightly more expensive.

The Warehouse

Prepay: 31-day period

$12 Plan:

Features: 200 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 500MB Rollover

$16 Plan:

Features: 200 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 1.25GB Rollover

$38 Plan:

Features: 200 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 5GB Rollover

NB: Voice calls do not rollover on Warehouse plans.

Vodafone

Monthly

$40 Plan:

Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ ­– Unlimited (speeds reduce after 4GB)

Extras: Hotspotting, Vodafone rewards

Prepay: 28-day period

$20 Plan:

Features: 200 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 1.25GB Rollover

Extras: Hotspotting

$25 Plan:

Features: 300 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 2GB Rollover

Extras: Hotspotting

$35 Plan:

Features: 300 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 4GB Rollover

Extras: Hotspotting

Orcon

Prepay: 30-day period

$20 Plan:

Features: 200 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 1.5GB Rollover

$25 Plan:

Features: 300 Minutes Calls & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 2.5GB Rollover

$43 Plan:

Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – 6GB Rollover

Kogan

Prepay: 30-day period

$15 Plan:

Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – 1.5GB

$25 Plan:

Features:

Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – 4GB

$35 Plan:

Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – 15GB