The best 365-day long-expiry prepaid plans in Australia

There was a time when the phrases long-expiry and great value would never be uttered in the same sentence. Typically, long-expiry plans would feature the minimum inclusions and were used more for receiving calls than making them (or parking a phone number), whereas prepaid plans with 30-day recharge cycles included more overall value.

Long-expiry options have traditionally been a popular mobile plan choice for seniors who need an active mobile service without the headache of recharging every month.

When the weight of smartphone usage began to shift from calls and text to data usage, and background data became a consideration, many who had been comfortably plodding along on $150 to $200 per year began burning through that amount in a matter of days. But these days, you can hook yourself up with a long-expiry prepaid plan with plenty of data to keep you afloat in a sea of software updates and cute cat videos. Let’s take a look at the best long-expiry prepaid plans available in Australia.

If you’re after a long-life prepaid plan with a 365-day expiry duration, then Kogan Mobile currently offers the best choice for top data-per-dollar value. Kogan's Small Flex Plan gets you unlimited calls and text and 80GB of data (plus bonus data, for a limited time) to use over 365 days for the upfront cost of $140 (discounted from $179.90, for a limited time.

It's more than likely there will be a new promotion by the time your next recharge rolls around, otherwise switching providers is easy if you find you're no longer getting the same value.

The other small caveat is that Kogan runs on the Vodafone 4G network, which is the smallest of the three major mobile networks in Australia. Just make sure you've got ample Vodafone coverage before signing up.

If you don’t want to commit to the full 12 months, Lebara's Small 180-day plan is the best value choice with a decent 80GB of data for $120. Once again, this one shakes out at roughly 13GB per month and costs roughly $20 per month. The plan includes unlimited standard national calls and text, as well as unlimited calls and text to 21 selected countries and another 50 minutes to Zone 1 countries. Like the Kogan plan above, Lebara operates on the Vodafone 4G mobile network so be sure to check your coverage before signing up.

Here's a wider selection of 180-day long-expiry plans for comparisons.

If you're looking for a long-term mobile broadband solution, no provider is offering a better deal than ALDI Mobile at the moment. The Telstra-powered MVNO has three 365-day data-only SIM options at $95 for 30GB, $240 for 185GB and $365 for 365GB. As with most long-expiry plans, you obviously get a lot more value the more you spend per recharge but ALDI's $365 plan makes things even simpler. It's a dollar a day for 1GB of data per day over the year. Of course, you can use more than 1GB per day, you'll just burn through your 365GB faster.

ALDI Mobile's 365-day data plans can be used in a tablet or in a compatible USB modem or pocket WiFi device.

We've gone with Woolworths Mobile for our pick of the best long-expiry prepaid plans on the Telstra network for a few reasons. Firstly, it offers decent data-per-dollar value at $150 for 100GB every 365 days (plus unlimited standard national calls). The other reason we've rolled with Woolworths is its included grocery shopping discounts that you can claim every other month. If you spend $500 in one shop at Woolworths, you'll get 10% off, potentially saving yourself $50 per month. It's a great perk for big families where a $500 shop will be enough to get you through the weekend. Woolworths Mobile also offers early bird deals on Samsung Galaxy devices, which makes it one of our top picks for the best postpaid MVNOs on the Telstra network.

Here are a few more popular 365-day long-expiry prepaid options on the Telstra network.

Want to see how our best picks compare to the rest? Here are a few more choices to measure up against.

Optus offers a huge variety of long-expiry prepaid options but the majority of them don’t actually include any data and instead charge per MB used (which is deducted from your recharge amount). This is an archaic pricing model but Optus does have options for long-expiry prepaid with included data. Here’s what’s on offer:

Like Optus, Vodafone still offers a selection of long-expiry prepaid plans that charge by the MB. However, when it comes to long-expiry prepaid, Pay As You Go is your only option with Vodafone. There are no long-expiry prepaid plans with Vodafone if you want data inclusions with your recharge. Here are the Pay As You Go plans offered by Vodafone.

As we mentioned up top, Telstra has some seriously good value prepaid plans that include an allotted amount of data to burn through. But if you or a family member have incredibly low smartphone usage habits, Telstra also offers similar Pay As You Go options to Optus and Vodafone. Here is Telstra’s current lineup of long-expiry prepaid plans: