Best phone plan with international calls

For those with friends or family overseas, a phone plan with free and unlimited international calls could ease your worries so you can talk as much as you want with loved ones without the weight of a hefty phone bill on your mind.

Optus, Telstra and Vodafone all offer a range of popular phone plans with free and unlimited international calls. However, you’ll want to compare the selected international countries that you can call for free. Otherwise, it’s also worth considering one of the MVNOs who are offering some  great deals on unlimited international calls.

Let’s get down to the details.

Best Optus phone plan with international calls

The most popular Optus plan that provides free international calls is the $49 Optus Choice Plan. Available on either a 24-month or 36-month handset repayment bundle or as a BYO phone, SIM-only plan, it offers unlimited standard international calls to 35 selected countries from Australia.

Which are the destinations on the Optus international calls country list?

For those without unlimited standard international call inclusions on your Optus plan, you can either get a $10 a month unlimited standard International Talk & Text Add-on on eligible Optus Choice Plans or opt for Pay As You Go (PAYG) Rates.

If the country you wish to call isn’t one of the 35 countries listed above, you could consider adding a International Talk & Text Add-on for $10 a month which offers calls to another 11 pre-selected countries, including Austria, Bangladesh, Chile, Croatia, Fiji, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

Optus international call rates

Customers on an Optus prepaid plan will enjoy prepaid international call rates that vary depending on your specific plan. Typically though, the call rate to most countries will range from 4 cents to 20 cents per minute. The most common call rate is 10 cents per minute for a majority of destinations. 

Otherwise, if you’re on a postpaid plan with Optus, you’ll be charged PAYG aka International ‘yes’ Call Rates. These are typically more expensive starting at 35 cents per call and will charge per minute, second or 30 seconds depending on which postpaid plan you’re on. Usually, you’re looking at charges of around $0.3 to $1 per minute for standard mobile calls, depending on the specific country.

See more popular Optus plans with unlimited international calls:

What other plans on the Optus network offer unlimited international calls?

If you’re sold on the Optus network, you could consider opting for an Optus MVNO instead. 

amaysim’s $30 UNLIMITED Plan is another extremely popular plan offering unlimited standard international calls to 10 selected countries, including China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, United Kingdom and USA.

It’s a 28-day prepaid plan, so it may be easier to control your monthly bill since you can’t accidentally run excess charges without topping up first.

More plans on the Optus network with unlimited international calls

Best Telstra plan with unlimited international calls

With Telstra’s $30 Pre-Paid Max, you’ll receive unlimited standard international calls to 20 selected countries as well as unlimited standard national calls and texts plus 10GB for $30 every 28 days.

The selected countries include: Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, UK, USA and Vietnam.

If you’re on another Telstra prepaid plan, you also have the option of adding an international calling pack for an extra $10 per month. There are also 20 countries included in the international calling pack, however, not all of them are the same as the ones available for free via the Pre-paid Max plan. 

The full list of countries included are: Canada, China, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, US Virgin Islands, USA and UK.

What other options do I have?

There are quite a few Telstra MVNOs offering decent plans with international call inclusions. One of the most popular ones is the Belong Large 40GB Plan providing free international calls to 33 selected countries, which is almost on par with the number of countries available with Optus. That’s pretty good for a MVNO.

The full list of selected countries is as follows: Austria, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, and Vietnam.

More phone plans with international calls on the Telstra network

Best Vodafone phone plan with international calls

The Vodafone $60 Red Plus Plan gives you unlimited calls to ‘Zone 1’ countries and 200 call minutes to selected Zone 2 countries.

As well as unlimited international calls to selected destinations, a big plus of the $60 Red Plus plan is it also provides ‘unlimited’ data. Once you’ve used up your data allowance of 100GB at maximum speed, you’ll still be able to browse the net with a speed cap of 1.5Mbps. 

What are my other options on the Vodafone network?

If you’re looking for a budget option on the Vodafone network, you might also want to consider Lebara Mobile. The MVNO has a wide variety of plans with unlimited international calls. The cheapest option clocks in at just $14.90 for the Extra Small Plan, offering $3 international call credit which is equivalent to up to 300 call minutes to selected countries. 

Lebara Mobile’s $29.90 Medium Plan is its second most popular plan. You’ll get unlimited international calls to 30 selected countries plus $5 call credit lasting up to 500 minutes to selected countries.

For those who seriously have family all over the world or often make international business calls on your personal mobile, you might even want to consider the Lebara $49.90 Extra Large Plan that gives you unlimited standard international calls to a whopping 56 selected countries. You’ll also enjoy $10 international call credit to other selected countries, which is approximately 1000 standard call minutes per 30 days. 

More popular phone plans with free/unlimited international calls