How much does it cost to use a mobile?

If you intend to use your existing home network – in other words pay for roaming charges – your own provider can advise you of per call minute, text and data rates. Typically speaking, unless you have a mega-deal set up, this is going to be the most expensive way to do things. For example, on a UK Vodafone monthly contract you will pay £6 a day with a Global Roaming opt-in to continue using your existing minutes, texts and data from home. Something which quickly adds up to very expensive if you use your phone every day.   

If you opt-in to a New Zealand network deal current rates for the major networks differ depending on whether you choose pay as you go, bundle plans or contract. Quite which is the cheapest will depend on whether you are more of a phone call person, a texter or a big data user and note all of the following are only valid for New Zealand to New Zealand numbers.

The following is just a quick comparison of the major networks cheapest options.

Pay as you go:

• Texts – Spark, 2Degrees and Skinny are all 20 cents per text, Vodafone is 1 cent per text
• Calls – Vodafone and Skinny are 20 cents for every minute, 2Degrees 44 cents per minute and Spark 49 cents per minute
• Data per 10 MB – Spark is NZ$1, Skinny and Vodafone are NZ$2 and 2Degrees NZ$5

Monthly options, plans or contracts:

There are a huge variety of possibilities for mobile phone plans and bundles so it pays to shop around to see what suits you best. The following shows the prices for each of the main network's cheapest option to give you some comparison idea.

• Spark - NZ$29 per month for 1GB, 200 minutes NZ/100 minutes international, 200 texts NZ/50 international -  pay monthly
• 2Degrees - NZ$30 for 1.5 GB, 300minutes (or unlimited to other 2Degrees mobile), unlimited texts - buy each month
• Vodafone - NZ$39.99 2.5 GB, 300 minutes, unlimited texts – open term SIM only plan
• Skinny - 60 days mobile pack for NZ$46, 3GB, 200 minutes + 200 international minutes, 200 texts - with travel SIM deal

Prices correct as of July 2018.