Numobile review

Good stuff

• High customer satisfaction
• Interest-free refurbished handsets

Bad stuff

• Light on features
• Not great dollars-to-data value

Numobile value for money

Okay value with refurbished phones that connect to Australia’s largest mobile network.
Numobile is a telco that brands itself around a combination of SIM Only plans and refurbished phones. You can combine a Numobile plan with one of its refurbished phones to pay off on 24-month interest-free repayment terms.

The cost of the refurbished handsets varies not just in terms of how well a particular smartphone has held its value but also in terms of the condition of the phone. “Good as nu” handsets are described as well-looked-after phones that have no visible marks with scratch-free screens. “Pretty good” handsets have minor visible marks on the smartphone body or screen. Handsets come with free shipping, 30-day returns, and a 12-month warranty.

All phones must pass a 51-point test for full functionality and are data-wiped. Numobile notes that average battery capacity of its refurbished phones is 92% but may be as low as 80%.

Plans are available in three varieties: $15 Small SIM Plan (3GB), $30 Medium SIM Plan (30GB) and the $45 Large SIM Plan (50GB). All plans come with unlimited standard national talk and text, a 200GB data bank, and operate on the Telstra 4G and 3G mobile network. You can see the cheapest Numobile plan below.

Using this $15 Small SIM Plan as an example, monthly costs are still reasonable when adding a refurbished handset. For instance, pair this plan with the still-popular iPhone 8 64GB, and the monthly cost comes to $30 for a good-condition handset. Numobile offers no-contract plans, which means you can leave at any point, you just have to pay out whatever’s remaining on the cost of the handset.

Boost Mobile also sells refurbished handsets, but there isn’t an option to pay them off interest-free in combination with a SIM Only plan.

For perspective, here’s a look at how Numobile’s $15 Small SIM Plan stacks up next to similarly priced SIM Only competitors.

There are cheaper alternatives in that list with more data, but they tend to operate on the Optus mobile network. Still, if data-per-dollar really matters to you, Numobile only scores average marks for overall pricing value.

Numobile features and perks

Light on perks but international talk and text is a neat touch.
One thing that Numobile’s cheapest plan doesn’t have that the other two do is unlimited standard text and talk to 15 countries. This is a great perk for those looking to call or message friends, family or colleagues in the following countries:

• Bangladesh
• China
• Hong Kong
• India
• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• New Zealand
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Thailand
• UK (and Channel Islands)
• United States
• Vietnam

The $30 Medium SIM Plan and $45 Large SIM Plan also come with 10GB of bonus data for every renewal between 1 December 2020 and 14 February 2021. If you don’t use that data during those renewals, it can always be carried over as part of the 200GB data bank for a data-heavy later month.

Here’s how Numobile stacks up next to other competing SIM Only plans that have at least 30GB of data and include international calls.

Numobile customer support and satisfaction

High customer satisfaction according to user-review sites.
Numobile’s support options aren’t as varied as other telcos. You can reach them on the phone for support (8am to 7pm AEDT, Monday to Friday) or via Facebook, though you may have to wait for a day to get a reply, and Twitter support appears to be non-existent. For those who prefer help via the ’net, there’s online usage monitoring, an online chat service, and online self-service. Email support is responsive within a couple of hours.

While support options aren’t as comprehensive as competitors, Numobile does have bragging rights to very impressive customer satisfaction. In our experience, telcos tend to cop a lot of stick when it comes to users scores on sites like Product Review and Trustpilot. While Numobile only had one review on Product Review at the time of writing (five stars), Trustpilot had a 4.3-star average from 266 user reviews.

These types of high ratings put Numobile in esteemed customer-satisfaction company alongside high-scoring telcos Moose Mobile, Mate, Pennytel and Tangerine.

How to sign up for Numobile

Click the ‘Go’ button next to any of the Numobile plans below that catch your eye. If you don’t need a refurbished phone, opt for the SIM versions, otherwise stick with the Mobile (Postpaid) alternatives. From there, confirm your plan selection on the Numobile website, then follow the remaining prompts after continuing to the checkout.

Numobile plans

Check out the Numobile plans below.