Alternatives to Optus – for customers fed up and wanting a change

Optus certainly isn’t winning any new customers right now, and what’s worse is they are losing plenty. I’ve been overwhelmed with the number of people asking for my advice on alternatives to Optus so here it is.

First and foremost, leaving now means you will need to hand over all that personal information to another telco, the horse has bolted and it doesn’t take back your personal information from the scammers.

That said, most are just angry at Optus’ handling of this Cyber Attack and their poor communication since it happened, and as a result want to send a very clear message to the company. Trust me, it will. They will have real-time charts that show the “churn” – that is, customers leaving them for another telco, so your message will be heard at the highest levels.

But, please, don’t just jump to an obvious alternative. Do some research and then move telcos.

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MOVING TO A NEW MOBILE TELCO:

• You can keep your number! You “own” that number, it’s linked to you by name, DOB and your current account number. You can take it wherever you want to!
• Switching takes next to no time! Allow about 30 mins to undertake the sign up process, this will involve creating a new account, verifying your identity and then selection a new number OR most likely “porting” your existing number to the new telco. Once you’ve done that, the activation is almost instant. The longest I’ve waited is an hour for my number to be working on the new telco.
• You need a SIM card. You need a new SIM card from the new telco to start this process. Some like Kogan allow you to buy an eSIM online which means you can switch right then and there. Others need to send you a new SIM card in the post.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR USAGE:

• Calls: Most people will be AOK with the “unlimited calls” option almost every telco has to offer. But if you make international calls much, then look at your previous bills and work out how many minutes of that you need, and to which countries as that could be a differentiator between telcos.
• Data: This is really all that matters. Check your last three bills, and find out how much data you USED. Not what was available, what you used. Take the highest number and ensure you get a plan with that or more on your new telco.

HOW OPTUS MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE GETTING A GREAT DEAL:

• Don’t be fooled: The cheapest Optus plan is $59 a month. See below, that’s HUGE – WAY TOO MUCH. But they give you 100GB of data. You’ll not find that for much better around the place, but that’s because Optus knows the average person uses 11GB or less, but we love the idea that we have the freedom to use the data. So don’t be fooled by their 500GB data plans, 0.1% of the population would need anywhere near that amount of data.

BETTER DEALS ARE OUT THERE:

Now you’ve got the catalyst for change, it’s easy. And I’m going to save you BIG money. Let’s say you use 20GB of data per month! (and that’s a lot!). You were on the lowest Optus Plan, $59 a month. That’s $708 per year.

Boost Mobile on the Telstra network offer a 12 month up front deal for $300 – with 260GB of data!

Saved you $408 per year!

Kogan Mobile on the TPG network offers 300GB of data on a 12 month up front deal for $162 – Saved you $546! And got you more data than you need.

And those are the expensive plans, there are cheaper ones too. Critical thing – CHECK YOUR CURRENT DATA USAGE! This will inform your next step.

BETTER DEALS ON THE OPTUS NETWORK:

For those of you who say “but Optus has the best coverage where I live or work”. Ok, I gotcha!

Optus allows a bunch of other companies to use their network, and that means giving Optus the middle finger, but just a bit less aggressively – because to be clear, Optus will still get money from you in a roundabout way.

To help choose, I’ve come up with two tables of information.

The first is sorted by Data included. This is for those who know their data usage.  It’s sorted by most data to least.  Find the data threshold you NEED (not a big number because you want to) 

The second is price.  Look at what you want to PAY and then find a telco and data plan to suit.

And note, for clarity, to show you just how expensive Optus is – there are only TWO plans here out of the almost 40 listed that are more expensive than Optus’ cheapest, two of them by $1, one of them by $11.

Here are those Optus Network based telcos sorted by highest data allowance first:

Here are almost 40 alternative plans on different telcos that use the Optus network. These are sorted by PRICE, so look for the value you wanted to spend and see how much data you can get:

12 Months Up Front on the OPTUS network

Just like Kogan and Boost, there are telcos offering 12 months up front but using the Optus network.

Amaysim offers 60 and 165GB over 12 months for $120 and $200.

Catch has between 60 and 200GB for between $120 and $200, and Coles mobile has 60GB of data for $120.

Do your research

All of the above is based purely on our own research. So look around, shop around. But remember, many comparison websites profit from you clicking links on their pages, so keep an eye out for which links are sponsored and which are organic as part of your search. EFTM does not link any telco to ensure you know we’re just sharing what we know, we’re not trying to make money off you switching telcos.