Sure, your mum might not be able to text without 28-point font, and your dad might write texts like they’re an old timey letter, and your younger sibling might be glued to their phone 24/7. We can’t help you with those struggles. What we can help you with is cutting down the whole family’s monthly spend by recommending the best family phone plans. That will have to do for now.
Family phone plans are a great deal for large households. They let you bundle everyone into a single plan, which usually works out cheaper for everyone and condenses everything into one convenient bill.
Optus, Telstra and Vodafone all have their own family phone plans, as does a fourth rather surprising provider. Family phone plans often come with additional perks like data gifting or pooling, too, and larger data allowances.
The Best Optus Family Phone Plans
Optus’ 4 SIM family plan costs $165 per month, which averages out to just $41.25 each. No worries if you have a larger family — up to four additional SIMs can be added for an extra $29 per month.
Everyone on the plan gets 320GB to share, and parents get access to a suite of tools to help them manage their kids’ screen time. Optus Pause lets parents temporarily disconnect the internet access of other phones on the family plan, which is great for family mealtimes and other important moments, while the McAfee Safe Family app lets you manage your kids’ phones from your own device.
The alternative is a regular phone plan with data sharing. That way everyone in the family can be on a cheap phone plan like this one, but still share from a big pool of data.
The Best Telstra Family Phone Plans
Family mobile plans work a little differently with Telstra. First, one person needs to be on an Upfront Essential ($68 for 180GB) or Premium ($89 for 300GB) plan. Then you can bundle the rest of the family onto the same plan, but at discounted prices.
The Best Vodafone Family Phone Plans
The more people you have on your Vodafone family plan, the more you all save. With two bundled plans you’ll save 5% a month, three bundled plans will save 10%, four plans will save 15% and five bundled plans will save 20% per month. That means everyone in the family can have the plan that works best for them, and still save money by adding it to the bundle. Each person on the family plan will also get access to a pool of data, increasing the total amount of inclusions available.
The Best Aldi Family Phone Plans
Aldi Mobile offers a dedicated range of SIM-only family phone plans that increase in price and data allowance based on the number of bundled services. The $45 plan, for instance, is for two people and includes 44GB of shared data, while the $80 plan is for four people and gets them 88GB. Large families will want the $110 Aldi family phone plan, which includes 132GB for up to 6 people. Everyone on the plan gets unlimited call and text in Australia, and unlimited international call and text to 20 countries.
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