Virgin Mobile offers call and text credit "rollover"

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 04:16

Your IT - Home IT

Virgin Mobile has launched a suite of capped mobile plans under which unused call credit can be rolled over into the following month. If its survey results are to be believed, they should see customers flocking to Virgin Mobile in droves, but the reality is likely to be rather different.

Virgin Mobile's Rollover Cap Plans allow post-paid Virgin Mobile customers to roll over any unused talk and text - but not data - credits into the following month.

Virgin Mobile has conducted a survey of survey of 1,020 people, as a result of which it claims that "87 percent of Australian mobile users feel cheated when they don't use their entire cap plan and a staggering 93 percent would consider switching carriers for a plan which allowed them to rollover unused value."

However while the new plans might be a clever marketing ploy they are less appealing than first seems. Unused credit can be rolled over only into the immediately following month at the end of which it expires, and it is only used after that month's credit is exhausted. Thus the Virgin Mobile offerings simply replace plans that offer $Y amount of credit in one month with plans offering 2 x $Y amounts of credit in two months.

Virgin Mobile also says it survey showed that "Two thirds [of respondents] say they would feel less worried about making calls; 38 percent would talk for longer and 36 percent would make more calls." If they fully understood the nature of the offer they should be adopting this approach only in a month where they have credit rolled over from the previous month.

According to Virgin Mobile, its own research "reveals that those on a monthly cap plan, on average use their full talk & text allowance less than twice a year, with the rest of their credit going to waste." So its rollover plans are likely to produce only a marginal reduction in this 'wastage', and the survey results suggest that users might do better to switch to alternative plans.

If they want to stay with Virgin, they might well do better on a prepaid plan. All the rollover offers are on 24 month contracts and call charges to non-Virgin Mobile standard Australian fixed and mobile numbers are 90 cents per minute charged by the minute with 40 cent flagfall. Virgin Mobile's prepaid rates are an order of magnitude cheaper: 10 cents per minute with 25 cent flagfall.