Vodafone is the latest Aussie telco to announce an increase to the cost of its mobile plans, with the provider saying the majority of its postpaid customers will be hit with a price increase of AU$5 a month from April 1, 2023.
TPG Telecom, which owns Vodafone Australia, said the price hike is due to inflationary pressures and to help support its own rising operation costs.
“This is the first time Vodafone has increased pricing for its existing postpaid mobile customers in at least 10 years and is not a decision we have taken lightly,” a TPG Telecom spokesperson said.
Vodafone revamped its mobile plans back in January, and the telco says the cost of its current offering won’t be changing – meaning if you recently signed up to one of Vodafone’s three current mobile plans, your monthly cost remains the same.
Instead, most existing customers who are on a postpaid plan that was available before January 24, 2023 will be hit with a monthly price increase of AU$5.
The telco says it’s already begun reaching out to affected customers, getting in contact via email, or by mail if the email sent bounces back.
Along with the price hike, most of Vodafone’s customers affected by the change will also receive more data each month. Below you can see Vodafone’s current offering:
Should you stay or switch?
Vodafone is the last telco among the big three to move on increasing the cost of its mobile plans in the last 12 months.
Telstra was the first to make changes, upping the price of all its mobile plans by up to AU$4 extra a month back in June 2022, citing rising inflation. Optus soon followed, also increasing its mobile plan prices for select customers by AU$4 a month in July 2022.
Vodafone’s mobile plans are typically the cheapest options among the big three, but it’s difficult to say where the value for money of its older plans will sit after the price hike.
If you receive a notification from Vodafone that the cost of your plan is increasing, it’s worth looking at your current data usage and seeing if you can move down to a cheaper plan with less gigabytes.
A report published by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) back in December 2021 found that the average mobile user in Australia only uses 11.8GB of data a month, so there’s a chance you could be paying for much more data than you need.
If you check your usage and find you’re paying too much for unused data, you could move down to a cheaper Vodafone plan. If you’ve paid off the cost of your current device, you could also consider switching to a cheaper SIM-only plan.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Vodafone is contacting its affected customers via text message, phone call or email. Vodafone has confirmed it is communicating with affected customers via email, and by mail if the email bounces back.
