Home › Buyer's Guides › Best SIM plans for a refurbished phone
You bought refurbished to avoid a A$65-a-month contract. Here's how to keep the saving — and how to check your handset can still make a call at all, which since 2024 is no longer a given.
All BYO — no handset, no contract. Prices in AUD and change frequently; check before signing up.
You bought a refurbished iPhone and live in a city. Yomojo on Optus — A$12.45 for 29GB, or A$1 for the first month if you port your number in. Set a reminder for month six, when it reverts to A$24.90.
You're regional or travel country roads. Boost at A$28. Full Telstra coverage matters more than the saving, and an older refurbished handset with marginal band support needs the strongest network it can get.
You want Telstra coverage without Telstra pricing. Tangerine at A$15 a month for 60GB, on Telstra wholesale with eSIM support and no lock-in. It reverts to A$30 after four months, which is still fair for the coverage.
You want to stop thinking about it. Kogan Mobile's A$149 for 365 days and 140GB. About A$12.40 a month with no revert price and no monthly admin.
You bought refurbished for a child or an older relative. Aldi at A$23 on Telstra. Simple, no app required, reliable coverage, and no contract to unwind.
| Network | Coverage | Typical price | Choose it if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telstra | Widest, especially regional and highway | Highest | You leave the metro area, or want the safest bet for an older handset |
| Optus | Strong metro, good regional centres | Middle | You're city-based and want the best value compromise |
| Vodafone / TPG | Good metro, thinner outside cities | Lowest | You're firmly urban and price is the priority |
One nuance worth knowing: most Telstra resellers get a subset of Telstra's footprint, not all of it. Boost is the exception — it's the only prepaid brand with the full Telstra retail network. If you're regional and buying refurbished, that A$5 difference against Aldi is the most useful A$5 on this page.
This is the part the mainstream comparison sites skip, and it matters far more to a refurbished buyer than a few dollars of monthly data.
Telstra shut its 3G network at the end of August 2024; Optus followed in September. Plenty of 4G handsets still routed voice over 3G while using 4G for data. Those phones can stream perfectly and cannot make a single call.
It got stricter. Under the ACMA Emergency Call Service Determination, from 28 October 2024 carriers block devices that can't place a Triple Zero call over VoLTE. Blocking is applied by IMEI TAC code, so an affected model is cut off entirely — data and SMS included, not just voice.
How to check. iPhone: Settings › Mobile Service › Mobile Data Options › Voice & Data — you want VoLTE or 5G. Android: Network & internet › SIM › look for VoLTE or HD Voice. No such setting on a phone older than roughly 2017 usually means no VoLTE.
Australian carriers lean on the 700MHz frequency, Band 28, for wide-area and in-building coverage. Handsets built for other markets frequently omit it. The phone will work in the middle of Sydney and disappoint you everywhere else — regional areas, basements, lifts, older buildings.
This is the single strongest argument for buying Australian stock from a local seller rather than the cheapest overseas listing. Our leaderboard flags which sellers supply Australian stock.
Dial *#06# to show the IMEI, then check it against the AMTA lost-and-stolen register before you buy, not after. A blocklisted handset is a paperweight on every Australian network. Our IMEI checker walks through it.
Here's the arithmetic that makes refurbished worth it. A new iPhone 17 on a typical 36-month carrier plan runs roughly A$100–120 a month once the handset is bundled in. A refurbished iPhone 15 at about A$700 plus a A$25 SIM comes to roughly A$1,600 over three years against roughly A$4,000 — and you own the phone outright and can leave any month.
Use the savings calculator for the device side, and the trade-in estimator if you still have your old handset sitting in a drawer.
Buying the phone first?
Check the seller before you check the plan. 93 Australian vendors scored.
See the leaderboard → Value your old phoneCan I keep my number?
Yes. Porting is free and usually takes minutes to a few hours. You'll need your account number or the date of birth on the old account. Don't cancel the old service first — porting closes it automatically.
Does a refurbished phone support eSIM?
Depends on the model and where it was sold. iPhone XS and later support eSIM, but US-model iPhone 14 and later are eSIM-only with no physical SIM tray — a genuine complication if your provider doesn't support eSIM. Check with the seller before buying.
Will a carrier-locked refurbished phone work on any SIM?
No. It accepts SIMs from that carrier and its resellers only. Australian carriers unlock free on request, and reputable refurbished sellers state lock status in the listing. Assume locked if it isn't stated.
Is 5G worth paying for on a refurbished phone?
Only if the handset actually supports it — iPhone 12 and later, Galaxy S20 and later. On an older refurbished phone a 5G plan buys you nothing. Check before paying the premium.
What if the phone won't connect after I've bought it?
Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply to refurbished purchases from businesses. A handset that can't connect to Australian networks isn't fit for purpose, and you can seek a repair, replacement or refund regardless of the seller's own warranty terms. See our warranty guide.
Plan prices are in Australian dollars, correct at 16 August 2026, and change frequently — several entries are introductory rates that revert. Always confirm current pricing and inclusions with the provider before signing up. RefurbVerify does not currently hold commercial arrangements with any telco listed on this page; providers are included on merit and price. We may earn a commission from some refurbished-device links elsewhere on this site; commercial relationships never affect TrustScores or rankings. Information only — not advice. See our disclaimer.
Related: What is my phone worth? · IMEI checker · Savings calculator · How to buy a refurbished iPhone