Those cost of living pressures are hitting hard and it’s not getting easier. Interest rates are going up again, and if you’re an Optus customer keep an eye out for an email about your mobile plan going up up up.

$4 a month is the figure we’ve seen across three different plans, with all of them coming with a sweetener of extra data – but who cares – no point getting more of something you don’t need.

Customers have reported plans going from $39 per month to $43, $49 to $53 and from $59 to $63.

The $43 plan will feature 20GB of data – up from 10GB.

Updated $53 plan owners will get an extra 20GB up to 80GB on the new plan, those spending $63 will get a whopping 60GB extra taking their total to 160GB.

Sounds amazing, but that would only be the case if you were close to needing such an increase – but who is?

Optus cited inflation in their notice to customers, as Telstra did last month, Optus saying “Our ongoing investment in better and new services, the growing usage of our network, and the widespread cost of inflation also experienced by Optus, means we’ve made the difficult decision to increase the price of our mobile plans.”

It still seems amazing to me, given we just haven’t seen these kinds of increases in the past. Previously plans would come and go, and the lucky who don’t shift or get new phones or deals would stay on older plans – perhaps those days will come to an end soon.

Frankly though, all of this is a perfect chance for people to realise that you can shop around.

Important things to know:

1/ You can KEEP your EXISTING PHONE NUMBER and move it to a new Telco

2/ Switching Telcos takes 30-60 minutes in total, but about 10 mins of your time in total.

3/ You can switch telcos as often as you like!

A $10 saving per month is $120 per year! Save $20 and you’re paying off some of that lettuce too!