If you find your data usage varies drastically from month-to-month, finding a phone plan with data rollover or data banking could be a smart option. On most phone plans, you’ll have a set number of days to use your plan’s included value before it expires or resets, with that leftover data simply disappearing.
This is why data banking, or data rollover, is great news if you’re an inconsistent data user. However, not many telcos offer this, so finding a provider with data rollover plans might be a bit tricky. At Canstar Blue, we’ve had a look at the Aussie telcos offering data banking to help you find the best phone plan for your needs.
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Prepaid offers you might like
The following table shows a selection of sponsored SIM Only plans on Canstar Blue’s database with links to referral partners.
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1 Month Contract (1 month min. cost $17.50) SIM Only Prepaid
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50GB Data/month |
$17.50 Cost/month |
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1 Month Contract (1 month min. cost $17.50) SIM Only Prepaid
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50GB Data/month |
$17.50 Cost/month |
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1 Month Contract (1 month min. cost $20) SIM Only Prepaid
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UnlimitedGB Data/month |
$20.00 Cost/month |
Go to site |
What is data banking (or data rollover)?
Data banking, which is also referred to as data rollover, is a service which allows you to keep the unused data from the previous month (or billing cycle) by rolling it over into your data allowance for the following billing cycle. This means if you have 10GB of data each month, and in one month you only use 6GB, the remaining 4GB will then be added on to the next month, giving you a total of 14GB of data to use. You’ll then need to use up your usual monthly data inclusion before your plan taps into your data bank.
If your data use is fairly consistent, and you generally don’t go over your data allowance, data banking might not make much of a difference to you. However, if your data use changes drastically with each billing cycle, having access to a data bank could protect you from excess data charges, or from having to frequently recharge a prepaid plan.
Only a handful of providers offer data banking, or rollover but not on all plans, so it may be hard to find the right plan with data rollover to suit your needs. Some telcos allow for data to roll over for an unlimited time or up to a certain amount of data in your data ‘bank’, while others might only give you the rolled-over data from the previous billing period.
Data rollover is understandably useful, as it can give you significantly more value for money. While there are two main plan types — prepaid and postpaid — most telcos will offer this option on prepaid plans only, with the requirement that you recharge before your plan expires in order to maintain your data bank.
Phone plans with data banking
Want to compare data rollover plans? The below tables feature a range of plans from providers that offer data banking.
Postpaid plans with data banking
Here is a selection of postpaid plans that feature data rollover/data banking from Canstar Blue’s database with a minimum of 10GB data, listed in order of standard cost, lowest to highest, then alphabetically. Use our comparison tool to see a wider range of plans from other providers. This table includes products with links to referral partners.
Prepaid plans with data banking
Here is a selection of data banking plans from prepaid providers as published on Canstar Blue’s database with a minimum of 10GB data, listed in order of standard cost, lowest to highest, then alphabetically. Use our comparison tool to see a wider range of plans from other providers. This table includes products with links to referral partners.
Which telcos offer data rollover plans or data banking plans?
Data rollover isn’t the most common feature from the telcos, so if data banking is high on your list of ‘must haves’ in a phone plan, your options are somewhat limited. If you’re after a postpaid phone plan with data rollover, you’ll find your choices limited even further, as its a more common service on prepaid plans.
The following telcos include data rollover/banking in some form:
- ALDI Mobile (select prepaid plans)
- Amaysim (prepaid plans)
- Belong Mobile (postpaid plans)
- Boost Mobile (select prepaid plans)
- Coles Mobile (prepaid and postpaid)
- Everyday Mobile from Woolworths (prepaid and postpaid plans)
- Dodo (select postpaid plans)
- Lebara (select prepaid plans)
- Mate (postpaid plans)
- Optus (prepaid plans only)
- Tangerine (postpaid plans)
- Telstra (prepaid plans only)
- Vodafone (prepaid plans only)
Everyday Mobile phone plans with data rollover
The real stand out from all the telcos offering data rollover has to be Everyday Mobile, formerly Woolworths Mobile. While many telcos offer only one type of phone plan — whether it’s prepaid or postpaid — Everyday Mobile offers both prepaid and postpaid plans. The best news is that all of these plans include data banking.
You’ll be able to bank up to 500GB of data on 30-day and long-term prepaid plans, with the condition that you recharge before your prepaid plan expires and you stay on the same plan (switching plans will forfeit your data bank). Postpaid plans include up to 1,000GB of data banking, and you’ll need to be on top of your postpaid payments to keep your data bank active.
The following table includes all Everyday Mobile SIM-only postpaid plans from Canstar Blue’s database, listed in order of standard cost, lowest to highest. Use our comparison tool to see a wider range of plans from other providers. This table includes products with links to referral partners.
Amaysim plans with data banking
Amaysim offers unlimited data banking on all of its prepaid plans, which includes 28-day plans, long-term and short-term plans. Your banked data will be available to you for as long as you stay on your plan.
Boost Mobile phone plans with data rollover
Boost Mobile offers prepaid phone plans across 28-day expiry periods, as well as long-term 12-month expiry periods. The data rollover option is only available on the 28-day plans, and this rollover data is only available to use within the next recharge; you’ll also need to recharge before your plan’s expiry. The following table includes all of the 28-day Boost Mobile plans with data rollover available.
Belong Mobile phone plans with data rollover
Belong Mobile offers a simple range of four postpaid plans with unlimited data banking, so you’re able to rollover unused data into the next payment cycle. The telco also offers a rather unique way to not let the unused data go to waste, through data gifting. Essentially you can gift your unused data (in chunks of 1GB) to another active Belong Mobile customer.
With both of these options, its clear that Belong Mobile doesn’t seem to like unused data going to waste, which could be an incentive if you’re looking into SIM-only postpaid plans. The following table includes Belong Mobile plans with access to data rollover. This table includes links to a referral partner.
Vodafone phone plans with data banking
With Vodafone’s prepaid plans, you can bank up to 200GB of data, if you stay connected to a plan and recharge before the plan’s expiry. Vodafone also includes unlimited data at capped speeds, so once you use your data inclusions and banked data, you can still use mobile data but at the capped speed of 1.5Mbps.
Dodo phone plans with data banking
Dodo offers up to 500GB of data banking on the $25 and $35 postpaid phone plans. This data will be rolled over into the next month, but your data bank will expire if you switch to a non-data banking plan or fail to pay your bill in time.
Tangerine phone plans with data banking
Tangerine offers up to 500GB of data banking on all of its postpaid phone plans. Any data that you’ve banked will be forfeited if you cancel or downgrade your plan.
Telstra phone plans with data rollover
Australia’s largest telco only offers data banking on its range of prepaid plans. You’ll get up to 200GB of continuous data rollover provided you recharge your plan before expiry.
Optus phone plans with data rollover
Similar to Telstra, Optus only offers data rollover on its Optus Flex Plus prepaid plans. You can roll over up to 200GB of data if you recharge before the expiry or use auto recharge.
ALDI Mobile phone plans with data rollover
ALDI Mobile operates on the Telstra network with a range of prepaid SIM-only plans, with unlimited data rollover available on all of its prepaid mobile plans. You may also be able to keep your banked data if you switch plans, as long as the plan is within the same group (and the plan you’re switching to is a more expensive plan than the one you are currently on).
Are data banking plans right for me?
There aren’t many negatives when it comes to data banking – who doesn’t want to get the most value from their mobile phone plan? But a small word of warning: make sure you check the conditions and restrictions that apply to your particular plan. The amount of data you can roll over, and how long this data is accessible for, will vary from telco to telco. If you’re looking into a postpaid phone plan, you’ll also have a smaller group of telcos to choose from, as it’s a mostly prepaid plan feature.
While there aren’t exactly any downsides to data rollover, it might not be useful to you if:
- You often use up nearly all your data cap, so you won’t have much data to rollover in the first place
- You don’t use anywhere near your plan’s data cap, so the rolled-over data will likely remain unused next time anyway
- Often only prepaid plans feature data rollover; those wanting a postpaid plan have little choices
In the case of not using anywhere near your data cap, you may want to consider switching to a cheaper plan with less data. Data rollover best suits those with fluctuating data usage, so unless you fit into that category, it might not be your highest priority when comparing phone plans.
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