Circles.Life Plan
Review and Comparison

Circles.Life launched in Australia in 2019 and has earned multiple awards for its value for money, customer service and ethical stances.

It delivers some of the cheapest data deals you’ll find and throws in enormous amounts of bonus data and discounts on top. These extras often last up to a year, which saves you time comparing plans every month for a another deal.

Let’s look at what you’ll get with a Circles.Life phone plan.

Circles.Life has some of the best data plans we’ve seen. You can get plans as low as 6BG up to 100GB per month, but that’s not including the extras on top. Circles.Life consistently releases bonus data packages as large as 440GB to use over 12 months.

There are no lock-in contracts and you can upgrade or downgrade your plan via the app whenever you like. Just note you can only change your plan once per calendar month.

When you sign up as a new customer for an eligible Circles.Life plan, you have the option to request a refund of the base plan within the first 30 days if you’re unhappy with the plan or service.

There is also a Best Value Promise, which means if you find a plan with a better price/data ratio, you could receive a price or data match, or $25 credit.

Circles.Life uses the Optus network, which provides coverage to 98.5% of the population. At this stage you can only access 4G in Australia.

One point of difference that comes up continually in Circles.Life reviews is its customer service. Even though you can’t contact a service centre on the phone, you can chat with support via the app within 30 seconds (which is arguably a better option than waiting on hold).

You can also leave a voicemail on the toll free number or send an email to customer support.

One of Circles.Life’s outstanding features is its customer-friendly app, which is hailed as one of the most intuitive telco apps out there. You can switch on international minutes and extra data, track your usage and manage your bills, as well as change your plan up or down if you need to.

The app is also where you’ll find your unique refer-a-friend code that earns you monthly credit and bonus data, and where you can start a live chat with customer support.

• VoLTE/VoWIFI.
  Circles.Life offers VoLTE, which allows you to make voice calls using the LTE/4G mobile network. It also includes VoWIFI, which uses WiFi to make calls when the network signal isn’t strong enough. These are features not available with all telcos, but you’ll need a compatible device.
• Referral discounts.
  If you refer a friend to Circles.Life you’ll both get $5 bill credit and a 5GB bonus data add-on each month for 6 months when your friend activates their SIM card.
• Bonus data and discounts.
  Circles.Life is one to keep an eye on because it continually releases almost-unbeatable extras and discounts that make its price-to-data ratio one of the best on the market. 
• Ethical beliefs.
  In 2022 when cost-of-living pressures were pushing the cost of phone plans up, Circles.Life froze its prices. It has also launched its ‘equitable plan’ initiative that offers a discount to women equal to the gender pay gap.

❌ No international minutes included.
You can add a CirclesRoam Day Pass using your app that gives you 1GB of data per day for $15 for 20 eligible countries.

You can also use the PAYG International Roaming service that allows you to make calls, send texts and use data services while overseas. However, that’s an expensive service and there are better roaming options out there.

For instance, if you have a plan with a decent amount of data, you can use apps like WeChat, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger to call anywhere overseas without needing to pay for any additional minutes.

❌ Plans are set to auto-renew.
You’ll need to switch auto-renew off in the app if there’s a chance you want to cancel.

❌ No 5G access in Australia.
5G has been available in Singapore for some time so it’s expected to roll out here in the future. Circles.Life does access the entire Optus network, which means you’ll get the same coverage as if you signed up directly with Optus.

❌ Limits on guarantees.
If you’ve used more than 5GB of data you won’t be eligible for the 30-day satisfaction guarantee.