Which phone plan to choose..Help please

• 

  scrimshaw on 05/10/2016 - 11:43

  +1

  If you are tight, maybe look into the LG G2. A little bit behind the S5 in terms of spec (Snapdragon 800 instead of 801) but it doesn't lose in terms of battery life, camera quality and I find it better than the S5 due to it's thin bezels (it's a smaller phone, but it has the same size display).

  Downside is no SD card slot and battery is not removable.

  The LG is about $200 from ebay grey import or 220 for aussie stock.

  I would then sign onto a cheaper plan without the silly 2 year lock-in or go with a cheap prepaid option.

  There are a lot of half-price Telstra and Optus Sim deals every month. Not taking advantage of these deals means you lose the opportunity to save money.

• 

  Gunther on 05/10/2016 - 11:44

  +5

  Financially locking yourself into a contract is never a good idea.

  Ozbargain way….. Buy the device outright and jump between prepaid providers to get the best deals.

  • 

    CyberMurning on 05/10/2016 - 11:56

    +1

    agree. remember contract = tied = locked = jailed.
    freedom is priceless!

• 

  idontalwaysnotlie on 05/10/2016 - 11:57

  +3

  Looking at those plans, comparing to most sim only plans that appear to be half the price.
  So you are paying about $480 just for the handset. Ebay lists a new S5 @ $250/used $150. Useful info

• 

  dasher86 on 05/10/2016 - 12:33

  +1

  I think you're all missing the point that OP cannot afford to purchase outright.

  • 

    Gunther on 05/10/2016 - 12:47

    +1

    then he definitely cannot afford to be locked into a 12month contract!

    • 

      dasher86 on 05/10/2016 - 12:53

      how so?
      OP might not necessarily have upfront cash but can afford the $40 a month going forward (might struggle).

      OP could try save $200-$250 but that would take 6 mths without a phone.

      The real question is how much is OP spending monthly now.

  • 

    Diji1 on 05/10/2016 - 14:15

    +2

    cannot afford to purchase outright.

    Bullshit. OP does not want to wait while they save money.

• 

  mezzmorized on 05/10/2016 - 14:14

  Thanks heaps guys. Appreciate all your feedback. I completely agree that buying outright is a much cheaper option with so many sim only plans that are a much better deal. Unfortunately it's just about trying to convince hubby (which has so far been unsuccessful) into forking out a few hundred. He has literally no concept when it comes to technology. He owns a Samsung C3520. And he still doesn't know how to send a text….very frustrating. So trying to get him to understand that forking out more money to begin with is actually a better option is extremely hard. As we are also on a single income living week to week, it's even harder to save. That being said, I can probably try to save for a few weeks and buy a second hand one off ebay.
  Thanks again :-)

• 

  macrocephalic on 05/10/2016 - 15:03

  +1

  Keep an eye out on the cheep chinese phone deals on here. The Redmi Note 3 is often about $200, the Oppo F1 is $287 at the moment. Both of these are as good or better than the S5.

  Are you sure that Woolworths use the Telstra network? If they do then I would say it's the best deal of the three you have posted, but buying outright and getting a cheaper plan would be better still.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 05/10/2016 - 16:23

  Sidenote, I've bought an S5 from these guys (iammobile dot com dot au) and it was significantly cheaper than buying new outright. It was Telstra branded but a clean install of the OS helped remove the Telstra branding (took a stock ROM image of the web somewhere).

  Quality used means minor scratch and nicks but nothing that would say the phone was heavily used. Battery was working fine as well. Also have 12 month warranty and are pretty responsive as well.

  They are currently listing the 16GB variant in 3 colors for about 319 AUD.

  Other than that, I'd recommend Gumtree scanning - again a risk, but if you have an experienced friend - you'd be surprised at what you can find at times.