Prepay vs on account roaming - prepay gets the better deal?

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › Prepay vs on account roaming - prepay gets the better deal?

deadlyllama

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#312063 13-Mar-2024 10:07

I'm trying to sort being able to use my phone while overseas. I'm not a OneNZ customer at present, but they seem to be the only cellco who can do VoWifi overseas, AND has a reasonably priced weekly roaming option ($8/day gets old fast).

(Spark: weekly roaming, VoWifi doesn't work outside NZ. 2degrees: daily roaming only, VoWifi does work inside NZ. MVNOs: no weekly roaming.)

As far as I can tell, the $22/wk roaming pack is only available on Prepay? On account/monthly customers have to stick with $8/day?

EDIT: my basic plan is to rely on VoWifi, but if it causes me too much grief I'd like roaming to be affordable.

MaxineN

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#3205966 13-Mar-2024 10:56

That is correct.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

aaristotle

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#3205967 13-Mar-2024 10:58

This was one of the reasons I switched to One Prepay before we went to Europe / Mediterranean. Skinny also have roaming packs but a limited number of countries which didn't cover some of the places we were going.

One NZ only seems to be able to activate roaming packs via sms, not through their app or website. This caught me out the first time I used it as it is a 3 stage process; Text 'BUYWEEK', get a response asking you to confirm by sending 'YES', receive another confirmation text.

I didn't receive the final confirmation text, which I wasn't aware was part of the process (which isn't documented anywhere on their website), switched on data roaming and proceeded to chew through my $60 credit at $4/Mb in a matter of minutes before running out of credit.

Linux

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#3205977 13-Mar-2024 11:10

@deadlyllama 2degrees Wi-Fi calling does work overseas what gave you the impression it does not? 2degrees does not restrict Wi-Fi calling to NZ

Even on the 2degrees website it clearly states it works overseas and how to use it

https://www.2degrees.nz/help/mobile-help/calling-features/wifi-calling

Roaming is affordable the daily roaming charge was introduced as people went away overseas racked up huge bills even after getting roaming welcome SMS to check out pricing and ignored it!

2degrees Wi-Fi calling overseas is rock solid and had zero issues

deadlyllama

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#3205990 13-Mar-2024 12:20

Linux:

@deadlyllama 2degrees Wi-Fi calling does work overseas what gave you the impression it does not? 2degrees does not restrict Wi-Fi calling to NZ

Even on the 2degrees website it clearly states it works overseas and how to use it

https://www.2degrees.nz/help/mobile-help/calling-features/wifi-calling

Roaming is affordable the daily roaming charge was introduced as people went away overseas racked up huge bills even after getting roaming welcome SMS to check out pricing and ignored it!

2degrees Wi-Fi calling overseas is rock solid and had zero issues

The only 2degrees roaming pricing I can see is $8/day?

2degrees ticks the wifi calling box (as does OneNZ). If it turns out I need full roaming, we're away long enough that $8/day is going to be a lot. Spark/One do ~$20/week, too.

Aucklandjafa

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#3206034 13-Mar-2024 16:46

How many minutes are you using a week? Spark, on-account, is $30/14 days for 300 minutes.

jlittle

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#3206169 13-Mar-2024 21:37

Aucklandjafa: How many minutes are you using a week? Spark, on-account, is $30/14 days for 300 minutes.

Presuming you mean "call minutes", a young person might say "what are they? something for old people?".

Regards, John Little

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nztim

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#3206176 13-Mar-2024 22:14

just pay the $8 per day!

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

johno1234

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#3206188 13-Mar-2024 22:26

nztim:
just pay the $8 per day!

If it’s the whole family’s phones for a couple of weeks or more that can add up.

nztim

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#3206190 13-Mar-2024 22:36

johno1234:
nztim:

just pay the $8 per day!

If it’s the whole family’s phones for a couple of weeks or more that can add up.

We paid $480 for a month in the US (2 phones) just saved all the B/S of getting local SIM cards

Kids can use parents' hotspot and turn their phone on for 1 day in an emergency, they should not be outside of their parents' hotspot coverage anyway.

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

johno1234

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#3206204 14-Mar-2024 07:04

Each to his own. To me $480 is a lot when $100 is sufficient. I don’t expect or want my mid to late teenage kids to be hovering around me when we are exploring and found data eSIMs very easy and all we needed.

xlinknz

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#3280804 10-Sep-2024 20:25

We're off to Brisbane and Gold Coast next week for 1 week

Here in NZ we use Warehouse mobile prepay but they don't have roaming packs...

We now have eSims from spark and one.nz

Can anyone comment on ease of use of the 2 above options

one.nz are $17.25 for 1GB and Spark are $25 for 2GB (no 1GB option)

no eSim from Skinny and 2D only offer the $8 per day i.e. no pack (so $56 for a week per family member)

it appears both one.nz and spark use Vodafone for roaming in AU?

@aaristole is that setup issue for roaming with one.nz still an issue?