Discovering new parts of Australia has become a Kid Bucket List passion. When the school holiday’s hit we love jumping in the car and heading off on a road trip to places we have not explored. In this past this has proved a little expensive in terms of our cellular data costs, but I’ve found a solution!
When we first invested in iPad mini’s for our kids we bought WIFI only versions. With WIFI at home and a great data pack on my mobile phone plan I figured that we could tether it to my iPhone when we were out. Great thinking, right? Not so clever actually!
On our trip to WA the kids sat contently in the back seat of our hire car streaming a video from Perth to the Margaret River. It blew out my data and I turned off my data for the remainder of the trip. When we returned to Sydney I searched for an alternative that would save me money.
With our next trip coinciding with a need to update my iPad, I made sure to purchase one with WIFI + cellular. My next step was to find a pre-paid SIM that would allow me to purchase data upfront so there were no nasty surprises when I got home from holidays. I found it in the most unlikely of places.
On a shopping trip I spotted Woolworths Prepaid Mobiles and discovered that they also offer prepaid 3G mobile broadband packs from a mere $14.90 ($13.41 if you have an Everyday Rewards card). Their easy availability and the ability to purchase a recharge voucher in store or online made them very appealing.
One of the great things about a prepaid mobile broadband pack is that you can teach the kids how to ration their own internet use to ensure they can continue to access the web for the full month. If they go over their paid usage the natural consequence is no internet until you choose to recharge the account. I was a little lenient the first time, leaving it only a few days before I recharged but have become very strict about this since.
These days I’m a huge advocate of the prepaid data pack. For our little travelling family they have resulted in no more unexpected data bills and two kids who can manage their shared monthly content while we are travelling. Bravo!
Thanks to Woolworths for supporting this post.