New Ultimate Combo Launched

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SirHumphreyAppleby

2849 posts

Uber Geek

#1247052 26-Feb-2015 13:23

surfisup1000:
Wade: This is a pretty bold move that surely will make more than a few Spark customers sit up and listen...

Tough call for the consumer though 2D <>Skinny, i think 2D's offering is still more advantageous, either way VF and Spark must be the only losers here!!

Anyone have a drawback to this new skinny plan yet?

Finger is on the trigger.

I actually don't think this the a great deal everyone else seems to think it is. I was really expecting these features at $40.

People coming from 2degrees should also consider the fact that Skinny doesn't offer call forwarding (2degrees offers call forwarding to NZ numbers on prepay, and at this price point, that's worth paying $3 more for... not so on my $16 plan though).

Shock

534 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1247347 26-Feb-2015 21:04

I spend exactly $46 a month now ($26 combo + gig top up) so this is great as I now get unlimited NZ & AU calls!

Connecting to UFB? Go with Bigpipe and use this link for free credit!

LivingSkinny

513 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Skinny

#1247729 27-Feb-2015 12:41

surfisup1000: In what ways might this plan be inferior to to the $49 telecom/spark plan?

Is the network restricted in anyway compared with being on telecom/spark?

Normally with 'great deal' announcements like this there has been some kind of drawback, like no 4g for example.

We use the Spark network, including 4G. There are no restrictions.

LivingSkinny

513 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Skinny

#1247738 27-Feb-2015 12:43

Wade: This is a pretty bold move that surely will make more than a few Spark customers sit up and listen...

Tough call for the consumer though 2D <>Skinny, i think 2D's offering is still more advantageous, either way VF and Spark must be the only losers here!!

Keen to know why you think 2D's offering is still more advantageous.

LivingSkinny

513 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Skinny

#1247788 27-Feb-2015 13:09

NonprayingMantis:
surfisup1000:
Wade: This is a pretty bold move that surely will make more than a few Spark customers sit up and listen...

Tough call for the consumer though 2D <>Skinny, i think 2D's offering is still more advantageous, either way VF and Spark must be the only losers here!!

Anyone have a drawback to this new skinny plan yet?

Finger is on the trigger.

the upsides of switching are pretty obvious (more data, unlimited mins etc)

But here are the things that you may, or may not, consider drawbacks switching from to Skinny from the current $49 Spark plan:

Skinny plan is prepaid (some people prefer the convenience of getting monthly bills, not having to top up, etc)
Skinny plan doesn't include 30GB of free WiFi date per month
Skinny plan doesn't include the spark 'thanks' program. (value of that is variable, but consider that recently for fixed customers the 'thanks' program gave them 12 months free Lightbox, worth around $180)
With Skinny you can't buy a phone on interest free deferred payment.
The $49 spark plan also comes with a phone subsidy (albeit you have to take a contract)
Spark plan has the ability to do data roaming to Australia and other countries

Skinny plan is prepaid (some people prefer the convenience of getting monthly bills, not having to top up, etc)

You can setup an auto topup on your credit card to trigger either at a specific time or when your balance gets to a specific level. That way you can set and forget don't need to worry about being prepaid.

With Skinny you can't buy a phone on interest free deferred payment.

If you have an account of any description with Spark (anything but prepaid that is), then you can buy a brand new phone and put it on deferred payments over (I think) up to 24 months, rather than paying up front. A customer with a fixed account, or access to a postpaid mobile account (say Mum and Dads) could be on Skinny and still have the latest iPhone via Spark being paid off over 24 months

The $49 spark plan also comes with a phone subsidy (albeit you have to take a contract)

Whilst the Spark Open Term plans enable you to add a phone interest free, you would have to sign up to the 24 month term plans to get a subsidy

Spark plan has the ability to do data roaming to Australia and other countries

We have just kicked off a project internally to launch data roaming, so that will be available later this year.

Wade

2225 posts

Uber Geek

#1247820 27-Feb-2015 14:07

LivingSkinny:
Wade: This is a pretty bold move that surely will make more than a few Spark customers sit up and listen...

Tough call for the consumer though 2D <>Skinny, i think 2D's offering is still more advantageous, either way VF and Spark must be the only losers here!!

Keen to know why you think 2D's offering is still more advantageous.

The biggies for me are;

1. Postpay vs. prepay - Not a major but prepay is just a pita by comparison, ever changing renewal dates too with 30 day billing

2. Share data across multiple sims - As a family we have a number of devices, none of which get used enough to justify their own plan, if my daughters prepay phone runs out of data I share mine with her until her pack renews

3, Family Share - This starts to make it economic to piece together a family package that beats the usual combination of individual post/prepaid plans

LivingSkinny

513 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Skinny

#1247868 27-Feb-2015 15:35

Wade:
LivingSkinny:
Wade: This is a pretty bold move that surely will make more than a few Spark customers sit up and listen...

Tough call for the consumer though 2D <>Skinny, i think 2D's offering is still more advantageous, either way VF and Spark must be the only losers here!!

Keen to know why you think 2D's offering is still more advantageous.

The biggies for me are;

1. Postpay vs. prepay - Not a major but prepay is just a pita by comparison, ever changing renewal dates too with 30 day billing

2. Share data across multiple sims - As a family we have a number of devices, none of which get used enough to justify their own plan, if my daughters prepay phone runs out of data I share mine with her until her pack renews

3, Family Share - This starts to make it economic to piece together a family package that beats the usual combination of individual post/prepaid plans

Thanks. It is always useful to know what people want to see so that we can feed it into our product development.

For number 1, by setting up an automatic payment on your Credit Card you can set and forget by just topping up automatically whenever your balance drops below a certain level or at a regular time. Probably simpler than setting up an automatic payment for your monthly bill, and no chance of getting bill shock at the end of the month.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

jmosen

551 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1247979 27-Feb-2015 17:46

I'm watching what Skinny's doing with a lot of interest, and I've been really impressed with the way Skinny is responding directly to feedback in the threads on this forum.
I just ported three of my kids to Skinny because the $9 combo suits the way they use their phones. They get unlimited texts which is what they care about, plus a bit of data and some minutes for a dollar per child less than I was paying 2Degrees for unlimited texts.
Being able to manage all of their accounts from one log-in is brilliant. As a parent this saves me time.
I'm not happy with the pace of the 2Degrees 4G roll-out. I have an iPhone 6 Plus, and all the accumulated data is less attractive if 4G isn't there when and where I need it.
But I have an iPad and a portable hotspot device. Not being able to share my carry-over data between those devices is what's holding me back. I don't use them enough for them to have their own plans, but I want them to be able to tap into my pool of data when I want to use them. This is a feature of 2D I like a lot.
Oh, and as a blind person, I'm not impressed that the credit card form is inaccessible. I wrote to Skinny about that and didn't even receive a reply.

Jonathan

Geese

1028 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1284533 15-Apr-2015 10:25

LivingSkinny:
E3xtc: Nice....thinking of becoming skinny....this might have just swayed me! :)

Voicemail is also included free of any additional charge

Please note though, that if you sign up for the 30 days, then say after 2 days you cancel the plan so it doesn't auto renew, while the unused data remains, along with unlimited calling and texts until the 30 days are up - the free voicemail immediately stops when the plan is cancelled, and you will be charged for all voicemail calls separately.

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