Optus are the new bill police and on the prowl for data roamers and plan jumpers.
To help customers manage their mobile bills, the Telco will inform mobile users via text when they exceed 80% of monthly voice/ data allowance and when they are being charged for roaming services.
But, the bill alert is in place for postpaid plans only and the ‘roaming alert’ kicks in within an hour of the data downloads, meaning bills could still mount.
However, the alert does allow customers to disable international data roaming to avoid further charges and for those who stay on, Optus will notify at every 15MB of usage to help control their spend.
The alert system will give users “greater level of visibility and control of their mobile bill,” say Optus. Rival’s Telstra and Vodafone also recently announced similar policing plans.
The yellow Telco will also send alerts to customers if they spend $20 or more on services which aren’t included in their cap, such as international calls or premium SMS.
The new bill alert system, which is to kick off “soon”, will apply to the voice, text/ data, whichever is reached first.
“This new alert system will notify customers when they use data roaming and make them aware of how much it is costing them if they choose not to turn it off,” says Gavin Williams, Marketing Director, Optus Consumer.
We believe it will lead to fewer customers coming home to unexpectedly high mobile bills or at least make customers more aware of how much it will cost them if they do choose to use data roaming.”
The SingTel owned telco are also looking at simpler plans and better data roaming rates for popular destinations, it also revealed today.
