Importance of checking balance
Your Optus plan likely comes with several inclusions. For SIM only plans, Optus offer inclusions like national call and texts, data, international calls, and so on. However, some inclusions are usually limited depending on the price you choose, especially data. And if you exhaust your inclusions, you could incur overage charges unless you purchase extra.
In order to avoid incurring additional charges, it’s important to manage your Optus plan. The best way to do this is to keep track of your Optus balance. For every limited inclusion that Optus provide you in a plan, you can find out just how much you have used as well as what’s you have left.
Thankfully, checking your balance is a simple process for Optus customers. The telco provide several ways to do so, and we’ll walk you through all of them in this post. Read on to find out how to check your Optus balance.
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Manage data usage to keep your balance in check
While your Optus plan likely has several inclusions, your data allowance is usually the most important especially on a SIM plan. That’s because data allowances are typically limited to a certain amount of gigabytes, so you really have to keep track of how much you use in order to avoid overage charges.
It is especially important to monitor your data usage if you’re on a prepaid SIM plan or prepaid broadband plan to avoid running out of data abruptly. Of course, one of the best ways to do that is to check your Optus balance frequently to avoid any surprises.
But first, we’ll share some tips to help you manage your data usage on a smartphone:
- Set a data limit
Your smartphone provides you with a data monitoring function. This feature allows you set a limit on the amount of mobile data you can use within a particular time frame. When you hit that threshold, your smartphone will alert you. This comes in handy if you want to know just how much data you typically need so that you can purchase a plan with the right amount for you. To take advantage of this feature on an Android phone, go to Settings > Connections > Data usage > Billing cycle and data warning. The process might differ depending on your phone manufacturer, but not by much. - Use Wifi
Yes, you have mobile data on your Optus SIM plan, but you don’t have to rely solely on that data. If you have access to a WiFi network, then connect to it whwnever it is available. If you have an Optus home broadband plan, then you don’t need to use your Optus SIM plan while you’re at home, especially when you’re streaming or downloading heavy files. This could help you reduce and manage your mobile data usage significantly. - Turn off background data usage for hungry apps
Many apps on your smartphone remain running even when you close them. This means that such apps could continue to use your mobile data even when you think they’ve been closed. To avoid this on an Android phone, go to Settings > Connections > Data Usage > Mobile Data Usage > toggle off Allow background data usage on any app you wish. Again, these steps may differ across phone manufacturers.
4 ways to check your Optus balance
Even after taking steps to manage your data usage, it is wise to continue checking your Optus balance to keep track of your usage and determine how well you are managing your data.
Here are the four ways to check your Optus balance:
- My Optus app
If you’re on an Optus SIM plan, you can use the My Optus app to check your balance for all inclusions, as well as an analysis of your data usage. Download the My Optus self service app from your Playstore (Android users) or App Store (iPhone users). Open the app and tap on the Service tab to check your Optus balance for all inclusions in your SIM plan. - Online self service
You can also check your Optus balance online by using their online self service. This really comes in handy of you don’t have access to your phone, so you can use a computer or another device that can browse the web. Head over to the Optus site and log in with your details. You will have to register for an online self-service account if you don’t have one already. - SMS
You can also check your Optus balance via SMS using your mobile phone. Just text “MENU” to 9999 from your Optus mobile number and follow the prompts to select the data usage option. An SMS displaying your data balance will be sent to your phone. - Optus customer service
If all else fails, you can always contact Optus’ customer service over the phone. Just dial 133 937 to speak to a support staff and get all the details about your Optus balance.
Conclusion
Once upon a time, the most common question customers asked when calling a phone company’s customer service team used to be “What is my remaining balance?” When I worked for phone companies in the dim and distant past, we used $5 as a rough estimate of how much each call to the call centre costs.
That $5 covered the overheads of the call centre, the wages of the staff paid to answer and resolve queries, the computer systems and licenses involved, and so on. Imagine, then, the total cost of tens of thousands of calls each day just to check Optus balance.
Now, however, to divert these calls and avoid the costs associated with them, there are several options for establishing how much prepaid balance you have available to you. By far the easiest is to check the home screen of your phone company’s app. You’ll find information about how much inclusions you have left. That way, you’ll know if you can download that YouTube video you want to see, or whether you need to recharge before you do.