I am careful now about mobile phone pre paid i tried aldi mobile and woolworths both were prepaid both disasters in my opinion. I will stay with who i was with originally.I n my judgement dont go with a 3rd party operator and there are so many different companies offering deals but dont seem to be what they are intended to be.Its silly how both of these providers use main carriers and that is if you can even connect if the sim fits in the phone.
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@passerbye123 Could you elaborate on the issues?
I went with Telstra pre-paid mobile with my own phone because it was cheaper than their contract. I didn’t have a choice with carrier because Telstra are the only provider in my area and there’s no signal at my home. So I am a very low user. I have friends with other carriers or third parties who get a better deal; unlimited calls etc. to the point they disconnected their land line and rely solely on the mobile. So what issues have you experienced?
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telstra is better i find 3rd parry providers are worse all i can say
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Telstra pre-paid here too - best coverage in the outback (I believe some ‘resellers’ don’t get access to the full footprint). I have no landline - VoIP on an as use plan with a few DID’s scattered around the country - mobile does 95% of the work …
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Here here for Telstra regional coverage. I’ve been with Optus and Telstra (resellers) and it can make a huge difference to coverage, in the same places on the same phone.
I’m currently on prepaid with Boost (a Telstra reseller) and get a couple of black spots going to work - versus half the trip on Optus ( think up the Hunter Valley to Newcastle ).
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Having said that in the past I’ve been on Aldi mobile, Kogan mobile and I think someone else, all when they were reselling Telstra, and had to abandon each of them when Telstra burned them and they had to switch to Optus or Vodafone.
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And yeah I abandoned my landline a decade ago, when spam calls took over as the most frequent call type for me. It’s much easier to regulate spam calls on the mobile.
Of course I still pay for the number until the NBN connects, simply as there are no naked ADSL offerings for here.
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Telstra on the left - Aldi’s Telstra on the right … as an example. Probably doesn’t impact a lot of people, but it’s important to some of us - these regions are of interest to me …
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It is worth reiterating a point I learnt on the .community - as @draughtrider showed, there is a difference between the Telstra network and the Telstra Wholesale network used to service the legions of resellers; same with Optus and probably Vodaphone It would made no sense for a company owning infrastructure to let others use it on the cheap and undercut one’s own services and pricing for same.
That being written, a ‘lifetime’ of milking customers is finally coming home to roost because of shifts in the industry, population, and needs.
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Made good experience with pre paid. I am a little user. No companies offers me a plan for approx. $10/month, what I pay with prepaid. And if I go overseas,with a plan I still paying for it, not prepaid which last 365days. Only trouble I had, short after paying again for Aldi, I changed the phone. Aldi’s SIM did not fit the new phone. I had to change the supplier. Never got a refund from Aldi. Reception depends as well strongly on the phone itself, according to my experience.
I don’t have experience with Aldi mobile, but every company I have done business with had multiple SIM sizes, and usually a SIM that could be ‘punched out’ to suit. While it makes little sense some of them still sell multiple sizes of their SIMs that don’t have the ‘3 size punchout’ format.
If a SIM has to be replaced (damage or a different size for a new phone) the number can be easily and quickly reassigned to the new SIM.
Is Aldi different?
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With the Aldi SIM if you buy a new SIM which can be pushed out for Standard, Micro or Nano SIM, you then go into your Aldi account and set the new SIM number (not phone number) for your phone. This deactivates the old SIM and the new SIM works as your old number, the added benefit is the $5 you paid for the new SIM gets added to your balance. DO NOT activate the SIM first before this or a new number will be allocated to the new SIM.
If you do the change-over by phone you may lose the $5 but I do the change-over online.
To do this:
login to your account
click the “Manage Account”
from the list click “SIM Replacement”
If you have multiple phone numbers a box will drop down asking you to chose the phone number you want to change the SIM for. Chose the correct number.
if you have chosen or don’t have more than 1 number put the new SIM number from the card into the provided box.
click “Replace SIM”
You have successfully replaced the SIM
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I am currently with Woolworths and have been for nearly 2 years.
I have no complaints - i recall the biggest issue was collecting the phone from a store a bit further away.
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well the sim they delivered worked in the nokia mobile but i cant use that. it never worked in my apple phone which use.i found it so annoying that was a bad experience as far as i can say i had only purchased the stupid sim card.
I’m sorry that you have had bad experiences with third party providers. I have been very happy with Aldimobile. I changed to them (& Kogan - but that’s another story) in March 2013 & have been with them ever since with no problems at all. And saved a small fortune compared to my old Telstra post paid plan! My wife & I have used the sim cards in various mobile phones as well as mobile broadband dongles.
Even though Aldi uses the Telstra (wholesale) network, some phones bought through Telstra had to be unlocked to work with the Aldi card. That may have been the problem.
And as Draughtrider pointed out Aldi doesn’t have quite the same coverage as Telstra. But it is fairly close. I have worked in the QLD outback & travelled quite extensively and have been happy enough with the mobile reception. Usually if we can’t get reception, nobody else on any other network can either.
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I have a Amysim Nano sim in my Nokia 950. great value for $10 for 28 days Unlimited Calls, Texts/MMS to any phone, mobile or landline in Aus also includes 13. 18. numbers and 1GB data. Great value for $10. I have been with them for about 5 years no problems. I have had no issues with coverage In Brisbane or Gold Coast, Northern NSW. And you can buy or order whatever size of Sim card your device requires.
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I live in a regional area so Telstra is my only option. I’ve been With Telstra for a long time and several years ago I went with Woolworths for a better deal. When my contract finished I looked around and found ALDImobile to be the best deal and I switched. All Telstra carriers and never had any issues with either party.
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I’m with Aldi. So far no problems. Tried iiNet who are with Optus. I am in an area covered bi Optus 4G according to their map. No reception in our part of the Bellarine. Certainly better value for money than Telstra. I’m paying 30% of the cost for more calls and more data. I also stuck with Telstra while we lived in the bush.
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After many years with Telstra, I transferred from Telstra prepaid to Aldi prepaid and have had no problems. I also changed phones and was easily able to change to a different size SIM card and keep my number.
I was aware Aldi had more limited coverage than the full Telstra network but so far no problems when travelling in regional areas - and certainly has better coverage than the Optus network used by my husband.
Aldi started to provide International roaming about a year ago and I have used it when travelling overseas I use it sparingly and turned off data to keep costs down but there are advantages in remaining contactable on the same number. I had fewer problems with Aldi’s International roaming than Telstra’s which had frequent connection problems.
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… or buy a SIM punch - a few dollars on Ebay. I’ve had one for a few years and used it many times with no issues. Much better than a Stanley knife, which I’ve also used 
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