Hmm, the 4 weeks vs monthly thing is bit sneaky. Makes you think you're getting a better deal when in actual fact you are topping up and renewing an extra time each year. Across a year I'm pretty sure I'd spend at least the same, or probably more than one extra renewal by buying more data a few times so still think this would work out better for me. Doesn't make sense why it's not monthly like every other plan though.
There are already other prepaid plans out there that are weekly or four weekly. In the long term I expect more plans to be a multiple of weeks which has the added benefit of making comparisons easier between plans with different numbers of weeks. That's why I don't think of it as "a bit sneaky" but rather a necessary change for the industry so that it is easier for us users.
So let me get this straight. I'm currently on the Prepay Carryover 19 plan. If I change to My Flex I can reduce the number of minutes and txts I get (because I very rarely use them) and increase the data. BUT my plan will change from a 30 day plan to a 28 day plan, and I'll lose the 906 carried over minutes and 1.77GB carried over data that I've managed to amass. I think I'll just stay on my current plan.
Just reading the 'Important Things to Know' fine print on the MyFlex plans:
Included minutes are to standard landline and mobile numbers in NZ and Australia. Calls made using any of the following services will be charged at standard rates, and deducted from your Prepay balance: international numbers, special or premium numbers (e.g. 0900), voice services (e.g. 018, voicemail), data calls and usage, video calling and roaming services.
Does anyone know what this means exactly? The way I read it initially makes it seem like if you made a voice call with something like Whatsapp this would somehow be detected and you would be charged casual data rates for it!?
What I really what is pay & go casual rates for txt & voice + a data plan. If I had a dual sim phone I'd take a pay & go main number + a 2D zone data pack, with at most 250 txt a month and an average of zero calls this would get me 2GB a month & 250txt for ~$18 a month - with the flexibility to not be screwed over if I made extra txts/calls.
Also a 28 day cycle means 13 periods in 12 months, which means shifting change over dates - not into that.
I had been considering a flex plan and 750mb makes more sense now, but I _really_ don't want shifting dates :/.
It is sneaky...VF are reknown for trying it on with customers across all services.
I guess they could have made it item one instead of item four of the fifteen "Important things to know"
Vodafone don't even claim it is a monthly plan. By comparison, Skinny monthly plans aren't for a month. They use 30 days which, from your point of view, would be better. But there's still five or six days missing every 12 months and the payment day within each month will change every couple of months.
Another advantage for me of 28 day plans is that I will always be paying in the same day of the week in the same week of our fortnightly pay cycle. That's something I prefer to have for any periodic payments. It makes budgetting so much easier.
[Edit] Even if converted each plan to cost per day, a monthly plan doesn't even have a whole number for days, i.e 365/12=30.4 days per month. So I'm much happier computationally.
The flex plans is quite attractive for those who use a min amount of calls and text with 1.25GB of data. Compared to 2D's monthly plan ($29.95), My Flex is $20. Spark offers music with it but it cost $39.95 for their montly plan and maybe similar with Vodafone's monthly plan also. But one does lose the $10 that they get discounted towards the home internet plan.
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