Not content with just selling you groceries, Australia’s big supermarkets and retailers are increasingly making their presence felt in the mobile phone market. Woolworths has Everyday Mobile, Coles has Coles Mobile and ALDI has ALDI Mobile. Then there’s discount online retailer Kogan Mobile – not strictly a grocery store, but they do sell food, so let’s include them anyway. Who offers the best value plans and makes your weekly grocery shop go a little further? Read on as we review their respective offerings and to try to find you a better deal.
Everyday Mobile from Woolworths
Everyday Mobile, formerly known as Woolworths Mobile, offers a range of plans using the Telstra mobile network, which you can buy online or you can pick up a SIM in Woolies stores. All phone plans include 10% off your in-store Woolworths shop every month, when you have an Everyday Rewards account connected to your Everyday Mobile account. Plans also include the ability to gift and receive data from other Everyday Mobile customers.
Prepaid plans are available over 30-day or long expiry periods. There are three 30-day expiry plans available, all of which include unlimited standard national talk and text and data banking of up to 500GB of data. You can also choose from three long-expiry prepaid plans over 180 or 365 days, which all include up to 500GB of data banking.
Everyday Mobile also offers SIM-only postpaid plans, which all include up to 1,000GB of data banking along with unlimited standard national calls and SMS. All of Everyday Mobile’s postpaid plans include 5G network access but at the capped speed of 100Mbps or 250Mbps, depending on your plan.
The table below shows all Everyday Mobile SIM-only postpaid plans from Canstar Blue’s database, listed in order of standard cost, lowest to highest. You can compare a wider range of mobile phone plans from more providers using our mobile plan comparison tool. These are products with links to referral partners.
Coles Mobile
Coles come into battle using the Optus 4G network, with its mobile plans available for purchase at all Coles supermarkets and Coles Express sites across Australia. Coles offers a range of prepaid plans, including long-expiry plans, and postpaid SIM-only plans.
- Prepaid plans include long expiry plans
- International call inclusions and data banking available on all plans
Kogan Mobile
Kogan Mobile operates on the Vodafone 4G network – so between the four providers in this review, all three of our mobile networks in Australia are covered. If you have a particular preference, this could help to make your mind up. But if you live in a metro area with comprehensive coverage, the plan inclusions themselves may be the point of difference.
At first glance, Kogan Mobile’s suite of plans can be overwhelming. There are seven plans in total, but with different billing periods designed to get the consumer to commit to a longer period, and ultimately save money in the long run. There are three tiers on Kogan’s monthly, 12-month contract plans (Medium, Large and Extra Large) and four tiers on Kogan Mobile’s 365-day plans – Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large. All plans offer unlimited calls and texts.
ALDI Mobile
Of the three supermarket chains, ALDI offers the widest range of options via its ALDI Mobile service, offering a range of plans operating on the Telstra 4G network – just like Woolies. The plans are broken up into three categories – standard Mobile Plans, multi-user Family Plans, and Pay As You Go (PAYG) plans. It’s important to note that the PAYG plans have a 365-day expiry period, which offers great flexibility for those not needing much use out of their device. With PAYG, calls are 15c a minute, texts 15c each and data 6c per MB.
ALDI’s standard plans have a 30-day expiry period, start at $19 per recharge, and all come with unlimited calls & texts. With ALDI you can start by purchasing a SIM card in-store for $5, which comes with $5 credit. ALDI Mobile’s plans range is fairly comprehensive, so you should be able to find a plan that matches your specific needs.
Prepaid Plans you can buy in-store
If you’re after a handy prepaid plan to chuck in your trolley while you do the shopping, a number of providers also stock prepaid SIM cards in-store for purchase. The ‘Big 3’ are probably most obviously available – Telstra, Optus and Vodafone – but there are a few others that could make the cut as well. These SIM packs are most commonly found in Coles and Woolworths. Keep an eye out for providers like:
- Amaysim
- Belong (Officeworks)
- Boost
- Lebara
- Lycamobile
These providers may be worth a look into if looking for a competitive yet convenient prepaid or postpaid option, which can be chucked in your trolley next to the bread and milk.
The table below shows a selection of prepaid plans from Canstar Blue’s database for $60 or under, listed in order of standard cost, lowest to highest, then data allowance, largest to smallest. Use our mobile plan comparison tool to compare plans from a range of other phone plan providers. These are products with links to referral partners.
Who should you shop with?
It’s a hotly contested basket of brands, both on the shelves and in the mobile world. Out of the four, Kogan Mobile seems to have the most value included for each of their prices, especially on the 365-day plans, however ALDI is also offering similar value at comparable prices. As they all operate on different networks it is harder to make direct comparisons, so it might be worth picking the one you prefer. Further, is Kogan really a supermarket? You could argue no, and you’d probably be right, and the advantage for Coles, Woolworths and ALDI is you can simply pick up a SIM in-store.
While we all like to save a bit of cash, the cheapest plan isn’t always the right plan for you. While Everyday Mobile is marginally more expensive than ALDI and Kogan, it is perhaps the ‘biggest’ of these four providers and does offer the most choice with a range of SIM-only prepaid and postpaid plans.
The biggest take-home story from this report is that not choosing a plan based on your supermarket preference could save you some money. Comparing supermarket phone plans with the whole range of plans out there could in fact save you even more. Overall it’s worth comparing different plans before switching providers to find the right deal for your needs. Happy shopping!
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