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Vodafone has added 48-month repayment term for those buying a new phone on a plan, allowing customers to pay off a device over a longer period of time with a cheaper monthly bill.
As with its existing repayment term options, the cost of a device is divided by the number of months, and added to the base plan. On a 24-month term, a 256GB iPhone 18 Pro is $87.45 per month, excluding plan fees. On a 48-month term, this would drop to approximately $43.72 per month.
Vodafone says it introduced the 48-month repayment term mobile plans for two reasons: phones are getting more expensive, and Australians are holding on to their devices for longer. The telco's own research shows that the number of customers keeping the same phone for four years or more has doubled since 2021.
Acting Group Executive for Consumer, James Gully, says the new options "gives Australians another way to manage the cost of technology, with more flexibility and lower monthly repayments".
"Australians are holding onto their phones for four years or more, but until now they haven't had the repayment options to match," said Gully.
While a longer repayment term does mean a cheaper monthly bill, it locks customers into a provider for longer. Vodafone's plans are ostensibly contract-free, but if a customer leaves before the term is up, they need to pay out the remaining fees in one lump sum.
And since plans are contract-free, prices can increase down the line. Vodafone has increased plan prices annually, and these are often past on to existing customers, with the telco explicitly saying "plan prices may increase". Vodafone's most recent price increase was $5 per month, and over the course of four years, a customer could be end up paying as much as $20 per month then they were when they signed up for a phone plan, hypothetically speaking.
Alex Choros
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