Best Family Mobile Plans and Shared Data Plans

When you sign a mobile contract with your carrier, you get a set of inclusions that usually covers standard national mobile calling, texts and an allowance of internet data. Some plans also include international calling or other extra features. With these mobile contracts you are the sole owner of the plan, and only you can access your inclusions.

On the other hand, a family mobile plan lets you pool the features included in your phone plan, and allows every member to access them depending on their needs. Family plans are becoming standard on all big carriers. Many mobile carriers facilitate the convenience of sharing your inclusions across multiple SIMs on the same network. For calling and texts, shared plans don’t make a significant difference, as many of the plans that are applicable to this kind of sharing come with unlimited calls and texts as a standard inclusion.

However, data is normally a different matter. If you’re often left with unused data in your mobile plan while other members in your family constantly run out of data (running up large excess data bills in the process), being able to share your unused data makes sense.

Australian government statistics suggest that 97% of families with kids under the age of 15 were using the internet in 2017, mostly on streaming shows, playing online video games and browsing for homework help.

Do you :

• Have kids begging you for a phone as well as concerns about letting them loose on the mobile internet unsupervised?
• Have a growing number of SIMs on a growing list of phone plans scattered around your family?
• Overspend on some phone plans and waste inclusions on others?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you might well be able to benefit from a phone plan especially designed for families.

Below, we’ve taken a look at what family plans are, how they work, their pros and cons, and we’ve examined the alternatives.

70% of individual Australians use 3 or more devices to access the internet. Estimates for the number of tablets, phones, and laptops held by a single family in Australia vary between 17 and 27. The continued increase in the number of ways to access the internet represents an opportunity for phone companies. Whichever of them can provide the data and data management tools required by ordinary people to live their connected digital lives will make the most money. It’s not hard, then, to see why Family Plans are the newest addition to the range of products being marketed.

There are 4 types of family plan available. We will summarize them here and then explain each in the text below.

• 1. Volume discounts:
  Plans which give you a discount the more you spend and the more SIMs you take.
• 2. Family Phone Management Software:
  Software providing access to a service which helps you manage your child’s phone, including things like the ability to black list some websites so they can’t be seen by young eyes.
• 3. Data Sharing Plans:
  The big phone companies offer their customers the ability to have a family ‘account’ with multiple services attached to it as well as the ability to share mobile data between them.
• 4. Pocket-money plans:
  Phone plans costing $10 or less per month, which can be used as a beginner’s plan for a child who has just been given a phone.

Best SIM Only Plans

$35.00

^$ 12.00

/ Recharge @28 days VIEW PLAN

Domestic Voice Calls and SMS

Unlimited

Data

55GB

Contract

Recharge @28 days

Network

Optus 4G+5G

Promotion

Black Friday Deal: $12 for the first recharge, then $35. Ends 04.12.24. New services only. T&Cs apply

$25.00

^$ 12.50

/ Month to Month VIEW PLAN

Domestic Voice Calls and SMS

Unlimited

Data

25GB

Contract

Month to Month

Network

Vodafone 4G+5G

Promotion

$12.50 for the first 6 months, then $25.

$40.00

^$ 20.00

/ Month to Month VIEW PLAN

Domestic Voice Calls and SMS

Unlimited

Data

Unlimited

Contract

Month to Month

Network

Vodafone 4G+5G

Promotion

Get 50% off your first 3 months. New customers only. T&Cs apply.

$28.00

^$ 21.00

/ Month to Month VIEW PLAN

Domestic Voice Calls and SMS

Unlimited

Data

30GB

Contract

Month to Month

Network

Optus 4G+5G

Promotion

25% off! $21 for the first 3 months, then $28 thereafter. Order by 26.11.24.

• Many options make it more likely you’ll get your needs met:
  The move from single SIM in mum and dad’s phones to multi-SIM, multi-screen lives has caught many people by surprise. Many may be surprised that these sorts of usage behaviors warrant the attention and value adds they are getting. For instance, they might not have known about the discount for taking multiple SIMs or the free software which is available in some phone plans to make your child’s mobile internet connection safer. In aggregate, however, the needs of Australian families for plans with these features has led to a lot of choice in the area.
• They all provide you with just one bill:
  Having a single company whose bills you have to manage makes things much simpler. Administration of the account is easier and you are likely to have more leverage with the provider if you ever have a complaint.
• Multi-play discounts & single connection options:
  Some telcos offer further discounts on their mobile services if you tie their purchase in with your fixed line ( broadband or phone ) service. On the other hand, if you have just given a child their first phone and want to help them learn how to manage the cost of it, prepaid plans costing around $10 per month are now available ( and are shown on this page in the table above ). These plans give users a connection and the basic phone plan inclusions – voice, SMS, and data allocations of typically 2GB per month or less.
• More transparency:
  The reporting tools which are available from the phone companies to help you understand the data usage of all the SIMs on your account are extremely strong these days.
• Less waste:
  Instead of multiple family members using only a proportion of their allocation, through better management and information, plus pooling of low and high users, it’s possible to use your allocation more efficiently.

• Huge data on shared data plans:
  The data allowances the phone companies are including in their shared data plans are probably more data than you need. The data allocation in these plans is large to the point of silly. This is far more data than people are currently using.
• Better deals on single SIMs:
  Make sure you compare the data inclusions you’ll get at these prices with the cost of a single SIM to do the same job. Smaller phone companies may provide a better deal than even these structured family offerings. Kid’s plans are a good example – not every phone company which provides $10 plans targets them directly at children. It’s really marketing, not a phone plan, when these companies provide Kid Phone Management Software as part of the monthly fee you pay them.
• Shared Data plans are postpaid only:
  At the moment, neither of the Family plans from Optus or Vodafone allow the addition of prepaid plans.
• Existing customers have to move to the new plan:
  Nothing happens automatically, you have to call Vodafone or Optus and get yourself moved to the family plan.

1. Volume Discounts : Family plans are a new way to save money on multiple SIMs

As we’ve said, the number of connected devices is already surprisingly large ( around 20 ) and is also set to grow at prodigious rates in the years ahead. The so-called Internet Of Things will be fueled by 5G network services which allow for literally millions of parallel connections to a single cell tower.

Not all of these devices will be connected to the mobile internet using a SIM – many will use WiFi connections. Many of the products added to the cellular internet will require a SIM, however. And if you’re going to have multiple SIMs on your account, then why not get a discount for having all of those SIMs with a single provider? Yomojo now offer a stepped discount, rising to 15% off the total bill if you take 6 or more SIMs with them at one time.

If you’ve got one service working and you’re satisfied with the network coverage you’re getting, adding a new SIM to the family, on the same network is an extremely low-risk thing to do. Associating multiple SIMs to a single account has other advantages too – you only have to review and think about a single bill, for example.

Last updated on August 15th, 2024

2. Family Phone Management Software

Australian children are being given mobile phones at younger and younger ages every year. Usually provided initially under the auspices of ‘safety equipment’, modern smartphones are nothing less than a constantly available portal to the internet – and all the good and bad that the digital realm contains.

Realizing the threat, software providers have developed applications which can be installed by a parent on their child’s phone. Two examples of this software are shown below. Both give parents control over what their child does online, through their mobile phone connection. At the simple end, this sort of service allows the most obvious examples of places on the internet that children shouldn’t see to be blocked with a ‘blacklist’ of websites they can’t access. Other aspects of the service include the ability to schedule a time every night when the phone shuts itself off.

3. Data Sharing Plans: Spending less by sharing more

Vodafone offers both data sharing plans and mobile sharing plans. Optus offers mobile sharing plans. However, while Optus’ Family Plan includes a lot of data – 320GB for up to four SIM cards for the family to share. Keep in mind that both telcos onle offer the data sharing facility on their postpaid range. Here are the mechanics of the family plans offered by both Vodafone and Optus.

• They have a pool of data for the family to share:
  The key attractive element of a shared plan is the shared data allowance. The best way to describe it is to think of the data allocation as a milkshake the family can share. Every family member gets a straw.
• A single bill:
  All the phones from a single household go on to one bill administered by the ‘Leader’. The Leader has their account set up first and decides to what degree anyone in a family is in charge of the setup.
• Keep adding family members:
  Whoever you choose for your family plan Leader can add The Brady Bunch as extras, if they so wish. Optus has a maximum of 4 SIMs on the account ( Optus leader + 5 ); Vodafone has a maximum of 11 ( Vodafone leader + 10 ).
• Everyone gets unlimited SMS and voice:
  Each SIM added to the family plan comes pre-enabled with unlimited national SMS and voice minutes to any network. There may be a cost of $5 per device to connect : Vodafone does not charge a fee to connect people to the service; Optus charges $5.
• Still tied in with data top ups:
  Overage is still $10 per GB for Optus, charged in 1GB increments. Vodafoone charges $5 for 1GB.
• Data workout is still included:
  Vodafone still offers their ‘data workout’ plan feature which gives every SIM on the account unlimited data for the first 2 months of the agreement.
• Some things aren’t shared:
  International minutes and access to premium services like video on demand are not shared between the SIMs on the family plan

How do ‘Data Sharing’ family plans work ?

This shared data family plan scheme should not be considered on its own. The phone companies are motivated to help you use a lot more data. They’re encouraging high-quality video downloading through their Stan, Presto, and Netflix products or affiliations.

If people are not using their data allocations, they can be more efficient by using the app from the phone company’s website to determine their own usage and make the most of what they have. If they are exceeding their usage, it’s not that expensive these days. The major phone companies that still charge for data overages have automatic charging at $10 per GB for those that do go over.

The biggest problem with shared data is a lack of personal responsibility for the use. When the average cost is less than the personal marginal cost, you end up with problems like global warming. This is known as The tragedy of the Commons. In simple terms, if you add your teenager to a shared bundle and tell him you’ll pay the bill, you’ll be paying more for data pretty quick.

You know what the alternative is to family plans because you’ve been using it / them for years. The alternative is to take out individual plans for each family member. Your options include the other family plans we’ve covered on this page, for a start:

• Prepaid for the kids :
  Prepaid plans offer complete cost predictability and are often deployed to avoid big bills for kids. The pocket money plans we’ve outlined above will help with that.
• Consider multiSIM discounts: There are other family plans which are available which will give you a hard dollar discount on your plan fees. You might not feel as smart being unable to manage the family data from an interface o your phone, but you’ll have some real money in your pocket.
• Remember, there are other dangers on the internet:
  Phone plans now exist which will cover the other real-world aspects of your child’s internet use – safeguarding them from the perils of internet surfing, to give just one important example. Telstra offer their own parental control software product which assists with this.
• Cheaper plans from alternative providers :
  You’ll see these on many of our comparison pages. Smaller phone companies like Amaysim and Boost offer better pricing and, often, access to exactly the same networks. Many of these plans are available as either prepaid or postpaid variants.