damos22 Posted August 29, 2014 Report Share Posted August 29, 2014 Hello! Realised I have not sort of touched upon my situation, what I am doing, I've just asked questions. So here it is! I'm coming out to Perth on Monday night, I am going to be playing Cricket mainly. My current housemate in the UK has a dual citizenship of the UK and Australia and is coming out a day after me at which point we will be looking at apartments etc hopefully somewhere either near a beach or near the WACA haha. Really looking forward to the Cricket world cup!! I will work the hours required to apply for a second year visa and hopefully stay on for two years bar a couple weddings I will be flying home for. My mobile phone question is this, what is the best way to go. My iPhone is useable but the screen is smashed. It is pretty much perfectly useable however though so I am fine to use it if a Pay as you go sim with bundles etc is the best way to go, however if a contract mobile phone is best, with the added bonus of getting a new non smashed phone, then how long do I have to be in Australia before I can apply for one? I would use it for internet things like Social Network sites and Whatsapp. The odd regular phone call and text back home and the odd Facetime video call. All help greatly appreciated, without this site I would be no where close to as well prepared as I am so thank you all! D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gar374 Posted August 29, 2014 Report Share Posted August 29, 2014 when we were over for 5 weeks last year, I got a pre paid telstra SIM for my old iphone. I think it cost 2$, and I used about $40 on it between calls, texts and data. You need to register it at an address to get it working though. That was fine for us as we were staying with my mum. I was also tethering my laptop to it. In the end I got a telstra pre paid mobile broadband dongle that we could connect 5 devices to at a time. I got it from Dick Smiths and it was about $45 with 2Gb included, again, it had to be registered at an address. I seem to recall it being more expensive to top it up with 2Gb of data than to buy a new one! As long as your phone is unlocked it will work. I've no personal experience of contract phones in Aus, but my understanding is, you need to prove you're employed. I've every intention of going pre paid when we get back there. I'll use my existing sim card in my old iphone until I can get a micro sim for the iphone 5. Good luck Gareth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest6235 Posted September 29, 2014 Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 @gar374 Getting a PAYG sim would be one of the first things we would want to do but after reading a few threads people say you need an address to get one. How would we go about getting a sim if we're only in a holiday let.?. Also people have mentioned that they paid around $30 per month for their PAYG, would you be able to use such things as browsing internet / what's app etc as part of this $30. Cheers Keefo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gar374 Posted September 29, 2014 Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 Hey Keefo, We went through about $40 on the phone - I was tethering the laptop with it though hence the amount I used. It was fully functional exactly as it was in the UK. If I remember right, you need your passport number as well. You can have a look here - yep they want ID. https://www.my.telstra.com.au/activate;jsessionid=E0DAD20B0E213ADF19FA1FB14A23F2A8?p_p_id=ppa_WAR_ppaportlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-content&p_p_col_count=1&_ppa_WAR_ppaportlet_execution=e1s1&_ppa_WAR_ppaportlet__eventId=next You need a proper number or SIM to go through to the other screens though. I got a telstra app and checking it doesn't use up you're data which I thought was good. I think we did $20 at a time. I'd just register it to the rental address. They'll know who you are due to the passport thing. I found it all quite odd, coz you can just buy stuff in the UK and have an untraceable phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 We bought Pre-pay Optus sims for ours and pay $30 a month which includes 250 minutes anywhere including international, 500mb and 250 texts I think. It's called Social something or other and stuff like Facebook is unmetered, so if you spend all day posting crap on Facebook, that's the SIM for you! Just kidding of course!! Top up is really easy and you can just top up data in the interim 30 days if you wanted, something like $20 for 2gb. They are 4G compatible and we've had no issues with signal loss to date. You do need an address though if you buy from an Optus store but you can get the sims from the supermarkets like Coles or Woolworths. Hope that helps? Stef Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zebradeb Posted October 5, 2014 Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 Hey dammo welcome and good luck with your adventure. The WACA is an awesome ground! - you can get a sim with a passport and address. You get the sim there and then so it's no problem if you have a holiday let. They just need an address and email for their records. You won't be able to get a contract phone without a employment contract - it's credit, it's not easy to get credit here without solid proof of income. So best option is to get your iPhone unlocked and then just buy a pay as you go sim. You can buy a wifi dongle for internet on pay as you go, and use wifi hotspots for FaceTime and internet stuff for free. Happy days! Good luck with it all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maryking Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 So similar to what I'm experiencing right now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.