Moose Mobile Plan
Review and Comparison

Moose Mobile offers postpaid SIM provider based in Brisbane, established by some telco veterans with extensive phone company experience.

However, less than 2 years ago, Swoop, an Australian ISP, completed acquisition of Moose Mobile for $24 million. The sum includes $20 million in cash and $5 million in Swoop shares.

Moose entered an already incredibly competitive telco marketplace. They’re an MVNO  – a network reseller – which provides access to the Optus 4G and 5G networks. And we say the market is incredibly competitive because Optus has more MVNOs than any other major telco in Australia, and they all operate on the same network.

Moose does have some strong points of difference, however. Let’s examine what makes Moose stand out to determine who their SIM plans would benefit the most.

This Month’s Hot Offers

$20.00

^$ 10.00

/ Recharge @28 days VIEW PLAN

Domestic Voice Calls and SMS

Unlimited

Data

15GB

Contract

Recharge @28 days

Network

Optus 4G Plus

Promotion

$10 for the first recharge, $20 thereafter. T&Cs apply. Offer ends 17.12.24.

$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.

We recommend Moose Mobile to people who want more data without any extras and prefer the convenience of a postpaid plan.

• Moose only offer postpaid plans:
  The first and most obvious difference between Moose Mobile and its Optus-based network competitors is that they exclusively offer postpaid plans, month-to-month plans. Many consider postpaid plans more convenient than prepaid for a couple of reasons. First, charges are applied automatically to postpaid accounts. There’s no ‘manual’ recharging when you’ve used your data allocation. Extras like international calls work more seamlessly. As a result, Moose adds some choice to the MVNO market because most of the competition is prepaid providers. Second – you pay a bit less – see next point.
• Postpaid means you’ll pay a bit less over the course of a year:
  Postpaid plans renew on the same day each month. Most prepaid plans have 28-day recharge windows.  That means you tend to save about a month’s worth of fees per year when you go postpaid.
• Moose is a SIM-Only provider:
  Like most phone companies, Moose is a SIM-Only plan provider. We’ve covered the benefits of SIM-Only services in detail elsewhere across the site. Most Australians now select a SIM-Only plan for their phone because it’s so much cheaper than taking a contract that can ‘trap’ users for up to 36 months.
• Moose plans offer great data inclusions:
  We think Moose Mobile is up there with the best for monthly data inclusion. Data is the most important thing in a plan these days, and Moose heap it on generously in their plans.
• Most Moose plans include unlimited (domestic) calls and SMS:
  All Moose plans include Unlimited Australian Voice and SMS. Unlimited inclusions like these mean their plans are simple to compare (you’re just looking for the data allowance that suits you), and you don’t have to faff with cap pricing calculations. International SMS and MMS are not free; they are deducted from your International credit or charged at 50 cents per SMS and 75 cents per MMS in addition to your monthly access fees if you don’t have any International credits.
• Preferred ‘out of bundle’ charging:
  Many telcos now offer ‘auto top-up’ data features. Say, for instance, you have a 2GB a month plan from such a telco, and you use it up a week before your plan resets at the end of the month. Instead of charging you penalty rates for the extra data you need for the rest of the month, they add one more GB of data and charge you an additional $10. See the problem? What if you don’t want it? What if you want it, but you don’t use it all?! The telco could add this extra GB on the last day of the month and still charge you $10. The $10 per GB auto-add scheme improved what preceded it: excessive charges for pay-as-you-go excess data usage. Moose, however, have the best of both worlds. Moose charges a much lower ‘out of bundle’ rates than almost anyone else in the market. When you go over your included data allowance, you’re not charged $10 there and then – you’re charged a pay-as-you-go rate at $0.00879 per MB, which is around $9 or so if you use a GB of data. (To clarify, Data-only plans will remain at $15.36 per GB. However, month-to-month SIMs and promotional SIMs use the new rate.) So, if you only use a couple of hundred MB, you’ll be charged around $1.50 rather than an automatic $10. Again, you’re not paying for anything you don’t need.

• Moose plans are postpaid – you’ll need a debit card:
  Contrary to popular belief, postpaid plan users do not need to be over 18 years of age, but they do need to have a debit or credit card. You’ll be asked for this as part of the checkout process, and they’ll use it to run a credit check on you. It’s like a hotel asking for a credit card before you check in. With a telco, under a postpaid agreement, you could run up hundreds of dollars worth of charges and, if you were flighty, never pay them. The credit check insures the phone company (here, Moose) against that possibility.
• Moose won’t charge a service fee for credit card payments:
  Moose won’t charge you a service fee if you use a credit or debit card to pay your bill online. Keep in mind, however, that other payment methods incur extra charges.
• Refreshingly, the Moose customer support call center is based in Australia:
  To keep costs down, as everyone knows, most call centers have at least one of their components overseas. Moose’s support center is Australian-based, and customers love it from the feedback we’ve seen. Australia is a culturally diverse nation but having an Australian-based call center means people know where you’re coming from and understand all the slang we throw around without thinking about it.

There are a few things to be aware of with Moose. We see these same service aspects with almost all new telcos. Over time, competitive pressure strips them away, but you must be aware of the following:

• They charge a payment fee for bills you clear at the Post Office:
  Moose charges a $2.50 Australia Post payment handling fee. Most of the competition don’t.
• They also charge for using BPay:
  Moose will charge you a $1.00 handling fee for using BPay.
• They charge a hefty $15 for late payments:
  If you pay your bill late, Moose will charge an extra $15 fee. While late payment fees are not uncommon, Moose applies the same $15 late fee to all plans.