Telstra prepaid SIM
Telstra offer a wide range of phone plans. But if you’re looking for even more options, then their prepaid SIM only plans might be what you’re looking for.
Unlike their postpaid plans, Telstra prepaid SIM plans offer you short, normal, and long expiry options. You’ll find prepaid plans that last for just 7 days before you have to recharge, as well as others that last for 28 days, 6 months, and even a year.
But that’s not the only unique feature of a Telstra prepaid SIM. Unlike postpaid plans, prepaid plans in general can be purchased without any credit check. So if you’re not comfortable with the hassles of having a telco search through your history, then a Telstra prepaid SIM provides a straightforward option.
But while postpaid plans are paid for after you’ve used their inclusions, prepaid plans have to be paid for before you can use them. This could be seen as an advantage or disadvantage depending on how you look at it. The advantage is that you can avoid overage charges – that is, if you use up all your allowances in a prepaid plan, then they simply stop working until you purchase more. Many postpaid plans, on the other hand, would continue to work, which would result in overage charges when you receive your bill.
Because your prepaid plan stops working when you exhaust your inclusions, it is wise to keep track of them. All Telstra prepaid SIM plans include unlimited national calls and texts, so you don’t have to worry about keeping track of those. However, they come with limited data allowances which can easily run out and leave you stranded.
To avoid this, we’ll show you how to check your Telstra prepaid balance in this post, so you can manage your data usage. Read on to find out.
How to manage your data usage
All Telstra prepaid SIM plans include a limited amount of data. Out of their wide range of prepaid plans, four of them have the normal 28-day expiry and include 10GB to 40GB of data (currently 30GB to 62GB based on a promo).
If you exhaust your plan data, your Telstra SIM will no longer be able to access the Internet. That means, all your data intensive apps will stop working, including social media and streaming apps.
But if you manage your data usage, you might even have some data left over when your plan expires. And thankfully, Telstra have a continuous data rollover feature that allows you to continue using up to 200GB of unused data when you recharge on time.
To enjoy this feature, we’ll give you some tips on how to manage your data usage:
- Set a data limit
Your phone can send you an alert when you’ve used up a certain amount of data. For Android users, go to Settings > Connections > Data usage > Billing cycle and data warning. iPhones users also have this option with a similar process. - Use Wifi
You don’t have to use your Telstra prepaid SIM data all the time. If you have a broadband plan or other WiFi networks available, take advantage of them to save your mobile data. Telstra customers have free access to Telstra Air, which is a free WiFi network with over 1 million hotspots throughout Australia. Using Telstra Air wherever its available can keep your SIM data usage to a minimum. - Turn off background data usage for hungry apps
A lot of apps continue running in the background even after you close them, which means they continue using your plan data. 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. These steps vary depending on your phone manufacturer, but they are similar even for iPhone users.
Now that you’re aware of some tips to help you manage your data usage on your prepaid SIM, you should always check your balance on the Telstra network to make sure they are yielding positive results.
Ways to check prepaid balance on Telstra network
Checking your prepaid balance is one of the best ways to keep track of your plan inclusions. You can do this a number of ways, using built-in apps in your device settings or third-party apps downloaded from your Google Playstore or iOS App Store.
But the best way to keep track of your prepaid balance on the Telstra network is through Telstra themselves. That’s because they provide the most accurate balance information because your network traffic goes directly through them.
Here’s how to check your prepaid balance on the Telstra network using your smartphone or computer:
- Smartphone
Download the My Telstra App and open it > tap the Services tab > select Pre-paid > your prepaid balance is displayed under Service summary. If you want to see your usage history to get a better idea of how much data you usually use, tap your balance for more details. - Laptop / desktop
Use your Telstra ID to log in to My Telstra online > Select the prepaid service you’re interested in > View the balance and click Balance remaining for more details. If you want to check your usage history, select Usage to see your last 30-day history, or download to see your last 5-month history.
Conclusion
Telstra’s 24×7 app is the most complex and least good-looking, but actually most effective Self Service app of any Australian telco so far. Not only can you use it to check your prepaid balance (something most prepaid users do several times per month), you can also top up your balance, buy bolt-ons and even check the status and usage of other Telstra services you may have.
The question for Telstra is where to take the app from here. If they follow the lead of some of their Australian Technology counterparts, your phone (through the app) could soon be delivering notifications and proactive service information to improve the way your service works, rather than simply answering point queries like ‘How much balance do I have left?’.