What are family mobile plans?
Family mobile plans, also known as ‘family data sharing plans,’ are a way for households to bundle separate mobile phone plans together on one single bill. The data inclusions from each individual plan are typically pooled together and shared between everyone on the account.
A family mobile plan is like a potluck — everyone brings something to the table to share between each other. This means that if someone in the house doesn’t tend to use much data at all, then the other family members can use more than their typical allocated data inclusions without overage charges or slower speeds.
What is the best family mobile plan?
There's no one 'best' family mobile plan that will suit all households. Multiple providers offer pooled or bundled mobile lines, but which plan is right for your family will vary.
You'll need to consider how many people in your home require a plan, how much you're willing to spend, and how much data each person needs.
What are the best providers for family mobile plans?
In the past, very few telcos offered family mobile plans, outside of Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. In recent years, a few smaller providers also started offering family data plans. Costs and inclusions will vary between each provider, so compare what each telco offers so you can decide which plan will provide the best value.
Telstra family mobile plans
If you’re a Telstra customer on either an Upfront Essential Mobile Plan or Upfront Premium Mobile Plan, you can choose to add other Telstra mobile or data plans to your account. These plans are offered on a month-to-month basis and can be paired with a new device but require you to pay upfront each month.
Once signed up to one of these two plans, you can add up to four bundle plans, which are priced cheaper than Essential or Premium plans. Telstra is one of the few telcos with bundling plans that work out cheaper than paying for separate plans.
However, Telstra’s bundle plan comes with only 25GB of data per plan you add, which is far less than either of the regular Upfront plans. For heavy data users, this may not be enough to cover your needs and the cost of the standard plans may justify having more data.
Data can be shared across both mobile and data-only plans (including mobile broadband), provided they all belong to the same account holder. You can add or remove plans any time via the My Telstra app.
Vodafone family mobile plans
Vodafone allows you to bundle your plans under a single account, which can be used to pool and share data. Customers can bundle a maximum of 10 eligible services in total, this includes mobile and data-only plans. So if you’ve got multiple devices spread across the whole family, it makes sense to pay them all off at once. You can also get a bundle discount for eligible plans, saving $5 off two plans and $15 for each additional plan.
Data sharing is limited to select plans, which means that customers on some older plans may not be eligible. Vodafone also doesn’t allow sharing between different plan types. This means that you could have two Infinite plans bundled together, with your data automatically combining into one pool to share. However, any non-unlimited data plans won’t be able to access this pool or use its data.
If you have family members on current plans with Vodafone, you’ll need to transfer ownership to a single account holder in order to bundle your services. You can transfer ownership online, over the phone, or at any Vodafone store.
Optus family mobile plans
The first provider to enable family data sharing was Optus, which it offers on all of its postpaid ‘Choice’ plans. Keep in mind that postpaid Optus plans offer unlimited, throttled 1.5Mbps data once you surpass your monthly allowance, but this feature cannot be shared.
Alternatively, you can opt for the Optus Plus Family Plan, which allows four SIMs to share 320GB of data for $165 per month, which works out to be $41.25 per month, per SIM.
For families with more than four active SIMs, you can add up to another four SIMs for $29 per month, per SIM. Doing this does not add the data from those additional SIMs to the data pool. All this does is allow the additional SIM users to access the 320GB data pool. This may not work out if some of your family members are heavy data users.
There are no extra costs for the privilege of pooling your data with other plans. You’re also not restricted to only bundling phone plans, as you’re also able to bundle mobile broadband.
ALDI Mobile family plans
Unlike most other telcos offering family mobile plan bundles, ALDI Mobile offers multiple dedicated family plans for between two and six family members.
ALDI Mobile customers have the option of three family mobile plans to choose from, varying in cost, data allowance, and the amount of users that must be signed up. Customers can have either two, four or six family members on the corresponding plans.
With unlimited standard calls and SMS to 20 select countries and local numbers included on each plan, you can set data limits for each individual user, and utilise the dashboard to recharge or keep an eye on how much data you’ve currently used in the 30-day recharge period.
Another bonus offered by ALDI Mobile is the data rollover feature. If you do not use all of your allocated data every 30-day expiry period, any unused data will be rolled over onto the following recharge period. This is a great option if your data usage tends to fluctuate.
Aussie Broadband family mobile plans
Aussie Broadband customers are able to have multiple SIMs under the one account to pool and share their data inclusions.
Aussie Broadband categorises its SIM only plans under Tier 1 and Tier 2. Tier 1 includes all 5G full speed plans, Premium and Elite, whereas Tier 2 includes 4G capped-speed plans, Saver, Value and Essential.
Customers can pool their data as long as the other SIM plans fall under the same tier. For example, if one person in the family is on a Premium plan and another is on the Value plan, they will not be able to access the data from the Premium plan and vice versa.
Yomojo family mobile plans
Similarly to how Vodafone prices its family mobile plans, Yomojo offers bigger discounts for the more services you bundle. Yomojo customers can have up to six mobile plans pooled together.
The discounts that Yomojo offers on their family bundles are:
- 5% discount for two bundled services
- 7.5% discount for three bundled services
- 10% for four bundled services
- 12.5% for five bundled services
- 15% for six bundled mobile plans.
Yomojo doesn’t pool the data from each service together like other providers offering family mobile plans. Instead, it allows customers to tailor their plans for each individual user by selecting different options for each person on the account.
How do family mobile phone plans work?
With family data sharing, you can combine all the mobile plans registered to your home on the same bill and make the most of everyone’s total data. This is ideal for families whose data usage needs change frequently, or for parents who want to give their kids access to greater download quotas.
Data sharing can be a great solution for families with concerns over their mobile plans and data usage, but cooperation and communication is essential.
Overall, some ground rules will need to be laid out and set to make sure every member on the plan is happy with their data inclusions. All families have different data needs, with some people in the house using more than others, so it’s important to discuss everyone's needs before locking in a family plan.
Pros and cons of family mobile phone plans
Pros
- Payment is easy with just one single bill
- Simple way to manage phone plans for the whole family
- High data usage family members aren’t as restricted and low usage family member’s data not going to waste
Cons
- Requires more monitoring and discussion about data usage
- Less options to choose from than individual mobile phone plans
- Might not offer the best value for money compared to other plans
How do I choose a family mobile phone plan?
Choosing your family mobile phone plan will depend on how big your family is, your data usage needs and your budget. Each provider will offer slightly different perks at different price points, so it is important to understand what your household needs before deciding which type of mobile phone plan to sign up to. Here are a few things to consider when researching:
- Price: While often a family mobile plan doesn’t guarantee discounts or a lower bill, it is important to determine what your family can afford to spend on mobile plans and how it will fit into your budget. Is the convenience of having one single bill worth it if the plan you choose isn’t cheaper than your existing mobile set up?
- Data usage: Each person in your household will likely have varying data usage needs. You may use a lot more data than your younger children, but a teenager may use more data than you. Data pooling can be a great way to ensure your higher data using family members are covered, but confirm that the plan you choose will have enough data without needing to pay overage fees.
- Add-ons and extras: Check to see if any plans come with any extra benefits like subscriptions, rewards programs or international roaming. Or if you don’t need any extras, if there are cheaper options available without the bells and whistles.
Providers with data gifting
While some providers may not offer family mobile phone plans, there are quite a few that offer data gifting. This is where you can send or gift some of your excess data to another customer who is with the same provider. Here is a list of providers who offer data gifting.
- Belong: Belong customers can gift data in 1GB installments up to five times per month. In order to gift data, you must have at least 1.3GB of data left on your account. Data cannot be gifted from purchased data add-on packs or bonus campaigns data.
- Tangerine: Customers with Tangerine are able to gift up to 50% of their standard monthly data allowance per billing period to other Tangerine customers. Tangerine also sets a minimum data gifting amount of 1GB. Data cannot be gifted from purchased data add-on packs or bonus campaigns data.
- More: More customers can gift up to 50% of their standard monthly data per billing period to other More customers, starting at a minimum of 1GB per transaction. Data cannot be gifted from purchased data add-on packs or bonus campaigns data.
- Everyday Mobile: Customers with Everyday Mobile (formerly Woolworths Mobile) can gift up to 50% of their included data per billing period to other Everyday Mobile customers. Data cannot be gifted from purchased data add-on packs or bonus campaigns data.
Are family mobile plans worth it?
The big three telcos are all competing in terms of data sharing and value, but don’t discount the smaller providers offering these types of plans as well. As it stands, there is no obvious cost benefit to stitching plans together to share the data around.
However, you might find the ease and convenience of having one single bill outweighs there being no clear price benefit, especially if you wouldn’t be paying more than you were for separate plans.
Currently, the main incentive for family mobile plans is the convenience, as well as potentially using previously unused data to ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck.
Whether family plans will suit your household will come down to your individual needs and how your household uses data. If you have a data-heavy household, you may find that you’d prefer to hoard your gigabytes to ensure you get the most value out of it. But if you aren’t using much of your data, sharing the love around with those under the same roof can ensure they aren’t paying additional data fees.
