Pennytel Mobile review

Pennytel is a great option for seniors and those on a budget, offering great coverage on the Telstra wholesale network, decent dollar-for-data value, and fantastic customer satisfaction scores. Its plans are a little lacking in terms of features, and international roaming costs a bomb, but for most people, these omissions won’t be sorely missed.

With “penny” in the name, it should come as no surprise that Pennytel is geared towards people on a budget, and in our comparison of Aussie telcos, Pennytel scored 5 out of 5 for value thanks to its low-cost plans.

While they don’t offer limited-time deals as often as other telcos, one thing Pennytel does have over the competition is seniors discounts. They’ve partnered with NSW Seniors Card to offer members 10% off any plan, and often even throw in $10 credit to use towards your SIM. Not bad at all.

Pennytel’s no-contract mobile plans range from $10.99 to $69 per month and are tailored to light data users who still want the convenience of unlimited talk minutes and texts in Australia and the coverage that comes with being a Telstra Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

The most popular Pennytel plan at the time of writing (and the one that should suit most users) is their $32.99 Extra Large plan which comes with a generous 30GB of data, unlimited standard Australian talk and text, and unlimited talk and text to 15 countries.

For comparison’s sake, check out the table below to see how Pennytel’s Extra Large plan stacks up against other popular plans in the $30 - $35 per month price range.

As we mentioned earlier, Pennytel is a Telstra MVNO, which means it runs on Telstra’s wholesale network. Though slightly smaller than the full Telstra network (which you can only access through Telstra or Boost), it still covers 98.8% of the Australian population, which is still more than both Optus and Vodafone.

Of course, like almost every MVNO, Pennytel does not offer 5G access, and we can’t say for sure when they will. Still, 4G should be more than fast enough for most people, so check out the coverage map below to see if your area is covered.

Pennytel has kept things simple with its plans, offering seven contract-free plans which differ only on data and international call inclusions. Here’s a full list of its plans.

As you might expect from a budget carrier, sacrifices have to be made in order to keep prices low. In Pennytel’s case, that sacrifice is features.

You won’t find endless data on any of their plans, no data-free music or TV streaming, no data rollover, no data sharing or any such goodies. Still, for most users, these features are only nice-to-haves and likely won’t be missed.

Still, you will get unlimited international calls to 15 countries (China, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam) included with any plan priced $24.99 or over.

They even offer international roaming (in 50+ destinations), but as you might expect, it’s not cheap. For $10 per day, you’ll get unlimited talk and text and 200MB of data to use in that country. For a couple of days, it might seem doable, but if you were to use it for a 14-day holiday, you’re looking at $140 for just 2.8GB of data.

Though its plans are light on features, Pennytel still seems to be a hit with its customers. On user-generated reviews site ProductReviews, it’s got an impressive 4.4-star score. Considering the average score for Aussie telcos on ProductReviews is about 3 stars, 4.4 is pretty stellar.

In terms of support channels, Pennytel offers all the usual suspects. If you have an issue, you can contact them over the phone on 1300 232 888, lodge a help ticket or shoot them a message on their website. There’s also an FAQ section to answer the most common queries, and they’ll even help you out on their Facebook page.

There’s also a Pennytel app available for both Android and iPhone, from which you can manage your service, check your data balance, see your bills, and add extra data or access the support team if you need it.