One dollar a day sounds so much cheaper than $30 a month, which could be why Optus has just re-jigged their prepaid offering to offer “Dollar Days”, with mobile services ranging from $1 to $3 a day.
It works like this: When you recharge your prepaid account with a set amount of cash, you’re given the option of choosing what value you want to use each day – $1, $2 or $3. Depending on which you choose, you get a different level of inclusions.
$1 a day includes unlimited calls, SMS and MMS messages to Optus mobiles, unlimited standard calls to Australian fixed line numbers and unlimited access to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, eBay, LinkedIn and Foursquare.
$2 a day includes all the above plus unlimited calls, SMS and MMS messages to all Australian mobile numbers.
$3 a day includes all the above plus “unlimited” mobile data, plus free weekends when you pay $3 a day every day, from Monday to Friday.
If you decide on the $1 a day plan, and then want to make a call to a mobile on another network, you can, but you’re charged an extra $1 for that day. If you want to send a text to that same person, it’s another $1. If you browse the web a bit, it’s another $1, meaning you could end up paying $4 on a day. But if you don’t make a call or send a text on a given day, you’re not actually charged for that day.
You can change which pre-set daily value you want to pay once a month online or by calling Optus prepaid support. And as with other Optus prepaid options, any unused credit rolls over to the next month if you recharge before your credit expires.
It’s an interesting approach and will be interesting to see how it’ll go. The $3 a day option works out at about $60 a month, which is pretty expensive for a prepaid option when you can get a free phone by signing on for an equivalent postpaid plan.
[Optus]