Vodafone is making big, big changes to the way it operates. Two-year lock-in contracts for mobile plans are a thing of the past, and you’ll no longer be locked in to ongoing handset repayments either: you can buy a new phone outright, or pay it off over 12, 24 or 36 months.
The new Vodafone plans separate voice/text/data from mobile handset repayments, making it clearer what customers are paying and what they’re paying it for. If you buy a handset from Vodafone, you can get it outright on a SIM-only month-to-month plan or discounted 12 month plan, or pay it off monthly over 12, 24 or 36 months alongside one of the telco’s new Red plans.
The new plans range from $30 to $100, with anything from 3GB to a massive 50GB of data. All include unlimited national calls and text messages, but there are also Global plans with international call minutes and a Qantas Frequent Flyer points bonus on sign-up. If you sign up for 12 months, you’ll get double data.
If you want a phone to go with your new Vodafone plan, you’ll have to buy it outright on a month-to-month or 12-month SIM-only plan. If you sign up to a Red plan for one, two or three years you’ll be able to pay your phone’s retail price off in monthly instalments. If you want to leave Vodafone’s plans early, though, that’s fine: you just pay the remainder of the phone’s outright price and any remaining costs for the month you cancel in.
Vodafone’s also going to sell its phone accessories — like Bluetooth speakers and headphones — over the same 12, 24 and 36 month terms.
From Vodafone: “Vodafone’s new approach flies in the face of current leasing options available elsewhere, which offer people what looks like a discount but with the sting of never getting to own the device. It’s also a step-change from the carrier model of tying handset repayments for consumer-focused plans to a two-year mobile services contract, which has been around since the last century.”
Here’s Vodafone’s new plans:
Comments
5 responses to “Vodafone Overhauls Their Plans, Improves Phone Repayments”
Great news. They all should be doing this. Mobile plan pricing has been deliberately misleading for far too long. That whole ‘$500 worth of minutes for $50’ thing they used to do (still do?) was also bullshit designed to mislead people.
Agreed. Need more transparency and this is a decent step towards it. I hope the other carriers follow suit.
I just changed my plans 😐
Because I have two sims, it seems I cant change either
They’re charging $679 for an iPhone SE? That you can buy outright for $399? And that was available for free with the 24m/$40 plan last week? Dreaming!
The only problem within telecommunications currently is Telstra still hold strong when it comes to reception in the suburbs, some of my friends places (we are living in a pretty popular suburb) you can’t get reception with anyone inside their house but Telstra.. I would have thought by 2017 reception problems would be a thing of the past.. but here we are haha
Step in the right direction from Vodafone though! The other companies probably won’t follow suite as they’re cashing in on their overpriced/outdated plan scheme currently