Build your own plan

[AlistarS]

You're now able to build your own mobile plan as of today with the new Optus Choice plans.

You can then choose a SIM only option, or simply choose a handset that you'd like to add.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below! 

[petergdownload]

A big shake up for Optus in this area. I like the simplification of options and added transparency but ironically find the new "Build your own Plan" interface less clear than before.

For example, relative pricing on unselected options would be great (i.e. if you select 30Gb then next to 10Gb it would say (-$6) etc. As it is the 60Gb option costs the same as the 100Gb option but nothing to indicate that. Or adding unlimited international calls only cost an extra $2. The customer needs to cycle through all options to try work out the value.

The other thing that stuck me is the incorporation of 5G in the plans. Its fairly unclear how this works as its all just lumped in but may or may not apply? People with 4G phones would be wondering am I getting double data. Is it only 5G data that will be doubled? Am I paying for something I don't need?
I would have suggested splitting out another level in the Plan Builder for choosing 4G or 5G plans. That way the data inclusions and pricing could be easily worked out with a few clicks instead of deciphering a lengthy T&C.

That said the T&C seems comprehensive and up front so Optus are getting better at not "surprising" customers down the track. That said the $10/Gb top ups seem to have survived this plan review. Its very disappointing Optus still won't offer a way for customers to set the number of top ups they want as a default (be it 0, 3 or unlimited) - but that's for another day.

But that aside this is a great move by Optus and it seems the industry move towards simple, comparable plans with increased flexibility is finally here.

Peter Gillespie

[YetAnotherAcc]

This is a great example of how Optus forces people to buy unwanted products while giving the illusion of choice. For example:

1) Why do I have to buy a minimum of 30GB of data to enable international calling/text/data. Why is not not available on the 10GB plan?

2) Why do you force me to pay for Optus Sports/Apple music from to 30GB plan onwards? The cost per additional GB is $0.07 between 30GB - 60GB, yet between 10GB - 30GB its $0.30, clearly to pay for Optus sports/Apple music.

3) Why are you forcing me to pay for extra 5G data when I might not even want/use/be able to use 5G?. The cost per additional GB jumps from $0.07 to $0.20, most of that is no doubt for the data doubling, and some of that would be for extra 6 months of Apple music.

4) And where is the option to cap data usage to my plan so I am not slugged $10 per GB (or part there of).

Also, why does the per GB cost jump to $0.60 GB between 100GB - 120GB when data is the only thing that has changed?

[SergK]

Awesome guys. I thought to keep going with Optus (my contract expires in less than a month), but when suddenly I found that Huawei P30 Pro become 7$ (81$) more expensive on 36 month plan comparing to previous (74$) for 24 month plan. Same data, same phone. Why???  

[petergdownload]

I'm not sure you're adding this up correctly. When your contract ends you keep the phone and just go SIM only. A $100 Gb plan costs $55. Where are you getting the $81 price from?

Peter Gillespie

[SergK]

Ok, let's do it step by step.

Huawei P30 Pro was 74$ on 2 year plan with 30Gb data on it (59$plan + 15$ phone repayment) before "build your own plan" introduced, so literally 3 days ago.

Now it is 81$ plan for 3 years with 30Gb data (45$ plan + 36$ phone repayment).

So all together the same phone become 1056$ more expensive. 

[petergdownload]

Thanks. What was confusing is you talked about your personal situation (you presumably already have the P30 phone and so won't be paying for it again if you continued with Optus. However you're speaking more generally about the new customer experience.

And yes prices have gone up. Its hard to compare apples but not only has the monthly SIM only cost increase ~$10 a month but the major Telcos are now no longer subsidising phones at all ($15 for the phone x24 months is less than $400 for a $1400 phone). So now the only benefit of a phone/data plan from Optus is you can pay it off over 12-36 months. If you have $1400 as a lump sum you're probably better grabbing the phone on sale (or second hand) elsewhere.

Its definitely a big change in the approach and makes it a lot cleaner to compare prices as well as know what it will cost you to exit a plan (although there's a worrying footnote on "interest charges" if you leave early). It possibly reflects buyers holding onto phone longer now as a new flagship phone offers little improvement on the one they already have.

Peter Gillespie

[SergK]

Thank you for clarification, Peter.

So I'm not mistaken and my math skills still current 🙂 It has been done by purpose.

Sad story. I do have 3 mobiles and NBN with optus in family, soon will need to find another option if contracts go up in price that high. Obviously it will push users to buy phones outright getting hundreds of dollars off the contract handset price.

Anyway, thanks mate!

[petergdownload]

There is one error, in that you are comparing a 24 month plan with a 36 month one. The P30 Pro is $99 a month for 30Gb which makes it $600 more expensive than then the previous same plan and phone over the 24 months (not $1056). Still a definite bump but not as big.

Not sure if Optus included Optus Sport in the previous plan (although I think they did) 

Peter Gillespie

[petergdownload]

@AlistarS @Ray_YC ,

Just a quick query on the new plans. Looking through the CIS they read well and there's a lot of great options there - didn't realise the 12 month trade in option was still on offer. The separation of the phone payments from the plan payments should also make things a lot easier for staff and customers to understand.

The thing I was wondering about is that I've seen mention to the the phone payments as in fact a sort of "interest free loan" that the customer is paying off over their contract term. This isn't an unreasonable description but it does say that if you cancel the contract early then you must 

a) Pay of the rest of the phone immediately (fair enough)

b) Pay interest on the outstanding amount (for example a $1200 phone on a 24 month contract might require a $45 "exit fee" (assuming 5% interest rates) if cancelled after 12 months.

Can you confirm if this is the intended exit process and if so at what interest rate?

Peter Gillespie