NZ’s Cheapest Phone Plans

Are you paying too much to use your mobile? Telcos regularly update their phone plans, offering more data, calls and text for lower prices. So if you’ve not checked your phone deal for a while, you could be paying too much.

And this is where Canstar comes in. As part of our mission to inform Kiwi consumers of the best deals on the market, we’re constantly assessing mobile phone providers and their plans.

Our annual Most Satisfied Customers | Mobile Prepaid Plans and Most Satisfied Customers | Mobile Plans Awards, reward the mobile providers that offer the best products, value for money and customer service. For our latest awards, Skinny Mobile took out top honours for Prepaid Plans, while 2degrees took out our Mobile Plans award.

However, regardless of your choice of provider, if you are paying for an expensive plan with unlimited data, calls and text, when you only need a basic, cheaper package, you are not getting true value for your money.

But before you go hunting for a cheaper mobile plan more suited to your needs, consider the following points:

Choosing the Cheapest Mobile Phone Plans – Things to Consider

Do you want a monthly plan, or to go prepaid?

If you are uncertain about your budget and don’t want to commit to a monthly plan, then prepaid is the way to go. This way you can just top up when you have funds available.

Furthermore, if you don’t use your phone much, and aren’t walking around with your data on all the time, again, a cheaper pre-paid option may be better. Even the cheapest monthly plans tend to have 4GB or more of data, which for some is already more than they need. While even the cheapest pay monthly plan is likely to cost more than most pre-paid plans.

How much data do you really need?

Do you really need endless data? Go back over some bills to get a clearer picture of your true data usage. You may find you’re not using even close to what you’re paying for. If so, consider downgrading to a cheaper plan with less data. And even if you are chewing through most of your data, you may find you can lower your data usage. For example, disabling functions or apps that are operating in the background could reduce your usage enough for you to consider lowering your data cap.

Do you call or text abroad?

While most plans include calls and texts within NZ and Australia, few include overseas numbers. So if you’ve friends or whanau across the globe, it might be worth considering switching to a plan that includes calls and texts to a wider range of countries.

Otherwise, you can always use apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to stay in touch.

Do you already pay for Spotify Premium?

Spotify Premium costs $16.99 per month. Spark offers the service for half-price with some of its cheaper plans, and for free with its most expensive option. This adds considerable extra value.

Hotspotting

Some plans offer hotspotting, which allows you to use your phone’s data allowance on other devices via wi-fi.

Adding other mobiles to your plan

Most providers allow you to add additional plans for a discounted rate. For example, as long as you pay for one full-price pay monthly plan, you might be able to add similar plans for the rest of your family, at a cheaper price.

Do note that the details of group plans vary between providers. Some provide the additional members with a different (typically less data) plan, some provide the same plan. Or, you may all share the same data.

→Related article: Cheapest Shared Data Plans in NZ

Prepay billing cycles

If you’re going prepay, billing cycles are a sneaky little detail you need to watch out for. 2degrees makes a big deal of the fact that, over a year, if you’re on its prepay, you only have to buy 12 packs – this is because each lasts a calendar month.

But other providers have different billing periods:

• Spark, Skinny, One and Warehouse Mobile’s prepaid packs: 28 days
• Orcon and Kogan’s packs: 30 days

If you do the math, you can see different levels of value: 28 (days) x 12 (months)= 336. But there are 365 days in a year, meaning on 28-day prepaid plans, you’ll need to buy an extra pack, to cover those missing 29 days.

Using Orcon and Kogan’s packs: 30 x 12 = 360 – you’ll lose five days.

NZ’s Cheapest Phone Plans: $40 and under

If you think you are paying too much, check out this round-up of the cheapest mobile plans ($40 and under). Or, if you’d rather get an overview of the best endless data plans on offer, regardless of price, you can check out our article Best Endless Data Mobile Monthly Plans here.

All figures correct as of July 2024

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2degrees

Monthly

$40 Plan:

• Features: 300 Carryover Minutes (Unlimited to 2degrees mobiles) & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ ­– 5GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data, hotspotting

Prepaid: Calendar month

$8 Plan

• Features: 100 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ and OZ – 150MB Rollover Data

$13 Plan

• Features: 100 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ and OZ – 600MB Rollover Data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data

$19 Plan

• Features: 200 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ and OZ – 1.5GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data, 7.5GB of free Rollover Data on join-up

$25 Plan:

• Features: 250 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ and OZ – 3GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data, 7.5GB of free Rollover Data on join-up

$35 Plan:

• Features: 300 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ and OZ – 4.5GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Daily free hour of data, 7.5GB of free Rollover Data on join-up

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Spark

Monthly

$15 Rollover Plan

• Features: 100 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts in NZ ­– 100MB Rollover data
• Extras: Hotspotting, unlimited minutes to Spark mobiles

$27 Rollover Plan

• Features: Unlimited Minutes & Texts in NZ ­– 750MB Rollover data
• Extras: Hotspotting

Prepaid: Four-week period

$20 Plan:

• Features: 200 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 1.25GB Rollover data
• Extras: Hotspotting, half-price Spotify Premium, Data Stack

$30 Plan:

• Features: 300 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts in NZ – 2GB Rollover + 2GB Socialiser Data
• Extras: Hotspotting, half-price Spotify Premium, Data Stack

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Skinny:

Prepaid: Four-week period

$9 Plan:

• Features: 100 Minutes & Unlimited Texts in NZ & OZ – 250MB Data
• Extras: N/A

$17 Plan:

• Features: 200 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts in NZ & OZ – 1.5GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Unlimited minutes to other Skinny mobiles

$27 Plan:

• Features: 300 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts in NZ & OZ – 3GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Unlimited minutes to other Skinny mobiles

$40 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ ­– Endless Data (speeds reduce after 8GB)
• Extras: Hotspotting

NB: Skinny also offers similar weekly plans, although they work out slightly more expensive.

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The Warehouse

Prepay: 28-day period

$9 Plan:

• Features: 100 Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ (and 13 other destinations) – 300MB rollover Data
• Extras: Voicemail, free calls to other Warehouse Mobile numbers

$15 Plan:

• Features: 200 Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ (and 13 other destinations) – 1.25GB rollover Data
• Extras: Voicemail, free calls to other Warehouse Mobile numbers

$25 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited Calls and Texts to NZ & OZ (and 13 other destinations) – 3GB rollover Data
• Extras: Voicemail, free calls to other Warehouse Mobile numbers

$35 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited Calls and Texts to NZ & OZ (and 13 other destinations) – 6GB rollover Data
• Extras: Voicemail, free calls to other Warehouse Mobile numbers

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One NZ

One NZ’s MyFlex prepay plans allow you to customise your text, minutes, and data allocation. So while the below plans are default suggestions, provided by Vodafone, they can all be customised to better suit your needs. Note that doing so may alter pricing.

For example, reducing the text allowance on the $15 plan to 100 texts, while increasing the data allowance to 1.25GB changes the price to $17.

Prepay: 28-day period

$15 Plan:

• Features: 100 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 1GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Data Up (up to 100% free data if your plan renews regularly)

$20 Plan:

• Features: 200 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 1.5GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Data Up

$30 Plan:

• Features: 300 Rollover Minutes & Unlimited Texts to NZ & OZ – 3GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Data Up

$40 Plan:

• Features: 100 Rollover Minutes & 100 Texts to NZ & OZ – 8GB Rollover Data
• Extras: Data Up

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Kogan

Prepay: 30-day period

$15 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – 1.5GB Data

$25 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – 4GB Data

$35 Plan:

• Features: Unlimited Calls & Texts to NZ & OZ – 15GB Data

NB: Kogan offers a discount if you pay for the plan upfront for a year.

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