How your mobile contract is nailing you

What tariff were the prepaid vs. contract call prices calculated at?
 
Jola said:
How do you use eBucks to buy airtime ? Would like to try that. With Vodacom ?
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Any carrier. I use the FNB app which has an option for this.
 
supersunbird said:
The contract calls are in minutes. The prepaid (for VC) is calculated on 79c per minute and compared to the contracts minutes, its all in the article.
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Well that's why I asked, if I look at the VC site the lowest rate is R1.20 per minute:

https://myvodacom.secure.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/shopping/plans/anytime-per-second

https://myvodacom.secure.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/shopping/plans/vodacom-4-less

https://myvodacom.secure.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/shopping/plans/daily-free-calls

If you spend a lot of time talking, a contract makes sense. I sadly do not make a lot of calls but it worked out to be about R40 more expensive going on a Smart S with an additional 1GB when I bought my S5. I figured it's the high callers that benefit a lot from the contracts.
 
Fudzy said:
Well that's why I asked, if I look at the VC site the lowest rate is R1.20 per minute:

https://myvodacom.secure.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/shopping/plans/anytime-per-second

https://myvodacom.secure.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/shopping/plans/vodacom-4-less

https://myvodacom.secure.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/shopping/plans/daily-free-calls

If you spend a lot of time talking, a contract makes sense. I sadly do not make a lot of calls but it worked out to be about R40 more expensive going on a Smart S with an additional 1GB when I bought my S5. I figured it's the high callers that benefit a lot from the contracts.
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http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...n-extended?p=14952482&highlight=#post14952482

VC don't want to advertise it I think?

I was under a similar misconception.
 
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Vodacom pre-paid subscribers on legacy price plans such as 4U, All Day per Second, All Day per Minute, Per Second Plus, Day Saver, and Vodago who change to Prepaid 79c will not be able to return to their previous price plans.
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So seeing as this was/is a promotion what will happen if they discontinue it and we can't go back to our old price plans?
 
Swa said:
Have no idea. Think the last one I switched to was standard per second which made sense with the rates they were charging at the time.
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Maybe log onto the website or use *111# and see if you can change to change it to the 79c plan.

Then you can get over 30 min for that R30

Or if you make a lot of long calls to other Vodacom people you can choose Daily Free Calls (https://myvodacom.secure.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/shopping/plans/daily-free-calls) and spend R3.60 for an hour long call.
 
whatwhat said:
The only reason to keep a sim only cheap top up contract is for roaming. Prepaid roaming still sucks in most countries, and you need to be able to get bank OTP.
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That's rubbish. I've got a prepaid sim with Vodacom and I've been all over the world with it. Never ever had a problem with international roaming. If you run out of airtime while you're overseas you just login to your internet banking and buy some more airtime. Couldn't be simpler.
 
deweyzeph said:
That's rubbish. I've got a prepaid sim with Vodacom and I've been all over the world with it. Never ever had a problem with international roaming. If you run out of airtime while you're overseas you just login to your internet banking and buy some more airtime. Couldn't be simpler.
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SMS roaming of voice roaming? MTN is very different, their prepaid offering does not work everywhere.
https://www.mtn.co.za/everyday_services/RoamingInternational/Documents/RoamingRates20150203.pdf
 
I use Vodacom prepaid voice (79c/s) with SMS-only roaming. I usually get a local data sim (dual sim phone) when overseas, and then make calls out with SkypeOut.

Works like a charm, and calls to SA very cheap.

Only once had a problem receiving SMS's, and that was in Canada last year. Contacted Vodacom support (from Canada via e-mail) and they sorted it.
 
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Louis72 said:
I cannot speak for other handsets but the calculation i did for an iPhone actually works out not bad at all.
Lets suppose im taking the iPhone 6 16Gb the cash price for me would be R9 999 from Digicape or iStore.
Thats the best cash price i can find currently so if i was able to borrow that amount of money interest free for 2 years i would need to pay a minimum of R416.65 per month to cover the cost of that R10 000 device.
Now if you look at the price on Vodacom you would see its available for R499p/m (yes i am aware its going up to R509)

If i was a Prepaid customer i would pay
Cash R10 000 (iPhone 6 16gb)
75 Minutes of talking time at 79c min=R59.25
250MB 30day Data bundle R59
(and i am aware that Smart S is 200Mb not 250mb so for this comparison i will disregard the cost of 200 SMS's on prepaid at 50c per SMS(R100)

Prepaid
Total cost for Data and voice =R118.25 p/m
Cash iPhone 6 16gb R9 999 (R416.63)

R534.88 or R12 837 over 24 months

Postpaid

"Cost" Smart S R209
"Handset" R300

R509 pm or R12 216 over 24 Months

I am confident that the networks obviously get that iPhone at a much lower price than i would ever be able to get as a non bulk customer.
And that they might even subsidise from one side to another for example when they give you a supposite break down of pricing saying the device is R300 and the Package is R209 but in actual fact more than R300 could be going at the device as the article states it does not really cost the network much to give you SMS's or voice bundles as an example but the handset does cost them money.
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Yes but one thing you forgot, 6 months down the line I will get the phone much cheaper. You in the meantime are stuck with the same phone for two years.
 
Im sure those prices include a free phone....

and this is incorrect
Note: The Vodacom contracts do not include a premium smartphone.
 
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