Communication is important when you move to Australia. You need to know you can easily keep in touch with friends and family when you arrive. Plus you need a way to stay up to date with job applications, rental properties and schools, too. Getting an Australia sim card should be one of your very first tasks when you arrive in Australia.

This post is sponsored by amaysim

Prepaid sim Australia: options to get started with your mobile phone quickly

The absolute easiest and cheapest way to start with mobile phones in Australia is to get a sim-only mobile plan.

Pay as you go sims or prepaid sims are great options if you’re moving to Australia or you’re looking for a tourist sim in Australia.

You’ll have lot of admin tasks to tackle when you first arrive (setting up Medicare, switching your driving license over, collecting your bank cards…), so sorting out a long term mobile phone contract is something that can wait until you have more time. For now, you just want to get your mobile phone up and running quickly with an Australian sim card.

Sim only mobile plans like those from amaysim are available with no lock-in contracts so you aren’t tying yourself down before you’re in a position to have the time to do your research to find the best mobile deal for your needs.

Essentials for setting up your Australia sim card

Before you move to Australia, make sure your phone is unlocked. To find out how to do this, you can call your mobile provider (before your contract ends). You’ll also find guidance if you Google ‘How to unlock a phone on Vodaphone/O2/insert your phone provider’).

If your phone isn’t unlocked, you won’t be able to use a new Australia sim card in it, so make sure this is done before you move to Australia.

Choosing an Australia sim card or pay as you go sim in Australia

There are lots of things to consider when you’re looking for a data sim card in Australia or you’re trying to compare the best mobile data plans in Australia.
Here are the main things to think about to help you find the best sim plans for your needs:

How much data do you need from your sim plan?

Think about what you’re going to be using your Australia sim card for. Will you have WiFi at your temporary rental/hotel? If not then you’ll need more data as you’ll be online a lot during your first few weeks while looking for homes, schools and jobs. If you have WiFi at your new base, then you probably won’t need as much.

How often do you think you’ll be calling people locally within Australia, and will you be using it to make international calls? There are options like Facetime and Skype for free international calls but it’s also handy to be able to use your mobile to call family to let them know how you’re getting on.

Consider which countries you’ll want to call and make sure these are covered by the international call package that is included in your sim plan. Australia sim card plans often include international calls to standard numbers but different levels of plan include different countries, so be sure to double-check.

Do you send a lot of texts?

If you like to send lots of texts, look for a sim in Australia that offers unlimited texts.

How easy is it to cancel the prepaid mobile contract?

If you’ve just arrived in Australia or you’re a tourist in Australia, you should look for a sim plan that is easy to set up and easy to cancel. You don’t want to take on a long term phone contract – the best sim plans in Australia for new arrivals are ones you can start to use immediately and cancel when you need to so you’re not locked into anything long term. Although, if you’ve organised a cheap prepaid sim plan, then you’ll probably want to keep it going for convenience.

How can you stay up to date with your phone and data usage?

Make sure you are able to keep up to date with your mobile phone usage so if you need to buy more data you can.

Is identification required to set up a plan?

With prepaid mobile sim card plans, you don’t need lots of identification. This is great as when you move to Australia, or if you’re travelling in Australia, you won’t yet have any bills with your address on them.

To set up your prepaid sim, you can use your international passport with a valid visa as identification if you haven’t yet organised your Medicare card, Australian driving license or Australian debit card. You will need an Australian address, but you can use your Air BnB/temporary rental for this.

This is a big reason to take out a prepaid sim only deal when you arrive as it will take you time to settle down and have the identification evidence you need to take on a longer contract.

A lady holding an Australia sim card

How much does the best sim plan in Australia cost and which is the best plan?

If you’re looking for the cheapest prepaid sim card Australia has to offer but you don’t have the time to do your own research into the best sim plans, then you can look online to see which providers are highly commended by consumer sites such as Canstar Blue. They’ve done the legwork for you already, so you don’t have to spend hours hunting for the best sim plans in Australia.

Find the best sim plans Australia

amaysim offers a range of sim-only mobile plans in Australia. Prices start at $10/ 28 days for 2GG data with unlimited talk and text to standard Australian numbers and go up to $50/28 days for 60GB data with unlimited talk and text to standard Australian numbers and standard international numbers (to 10 countries) plus 300 minutes for standard calls to 22 countries. Find out about the different Australia sim plans from amaysim here.

In 2019, Canstar Blue declared amaysim the best-rated provider for prepaid phone plans. It’s a trusted brand that came highly recommended to us when we arrived in Australia from a range of sources including our bank.

How to get your amaysim Australia sim card

If you’ve decided to take out an amaysim mobile plan, there are a couple of ways you can get your hands on sim cards in Australia when travelling or moving here.
You can get your amaysim sim card delivered for free, but this can take 2 – 7 days which is likely to be too long when you’ve just landed in Australia and you need a mobile phone right away.

The easiest way to set up your prepaid sim card in Australia is to buy it from a store so you can begin using it straight away. The cost to buy your sim is $2. You can also purchase a $10, $30, $40 or $50 starter pack sim if you prefer (when you activate your sim card, you select your chosen plan that corresponds to that price point).

You can pick up an amaysim card from 12,000 retails stores including Coles, Woolworths, 7-Eleven, Big W and Australia Post so it’s really easy to get your hands on one as soon as you land. There will be a store somewhere in or near your arrival airport (you can search for stores here to plan your arrival). Then you simply activate your sim card online and you can begin using it.

How do Australia sim card data plans work?

It’s simple – you pre-pay for your plan for the month ahead. If you like you can add a payment method that means it recharges automatically when the next payment period comes around or you can choose to manually pay when the time comes. This makes it so easy to keep on top of how much data and call usage you’re getting through and make adjustments the next month.
As and when you’re ready to take on a mobile contract – if you decide to do so – you just don’t renew it (or cancel the payments if you’ve set up automatic payments) and that’s that.

You can transfer your amaysim number to another provider if and when the time comes.

Best sim card plans Australia has to offer

If you’re looking for the best value prepaid sim card in Australia, check out amaysim’s mobile sim card plans here. They’re really versatile and have a plan to suit all budgets, data and call requirements. Check out amaysim’s sim only mobile plans in Australia.

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Thanks to amaysim for sponsoring this post

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