Choosing a Mobile Prepaid Plan Is A Decision I Took Without Much Thought
For over five years I am using three mobile services choosing my recharge plan guided by convenience and basic needs. Today I adopted a new method.
Decisions Guided by Conventional Habits
I am using two mobile handsets and three services for more than five years. For practical reasons. One service is of BSNL, the second of Vodafone Idea. Let me not go into the third service that plays no part in this short revelation to me as well as possibly to some of you out there.
I am using so many handsets and services of mobile, not out of blind curiosity, but because of my peculiar circumstances. When I chose each service, I evaluated which of needs the chosen service fulfilled, and no single mobile service at Kolkata could satisfy all my personal needs.
Usually, you, my chance reader may well have only one mobile handset with one mobile SIM which you use for all your tasks, calling, YouTube music listening, WhatsApp chats or mail handling. But know the general trend: almost all smartphones today come with slots for two SIMs. Not for nothing.
My suggestion: Stay away from additional devices, services or things that you don't really need. All your material acquisitions are burdens in various forms, the chief one being financial.
The very first step in using a mobile is to choose and buy a mobile handset within your budget that will last you for maximum period of time and satisfy your needs. To tell you a well-known secret:
Needs of the common folks like us go on being inflated as time passes. We discard our old thing and replace it. Effectively, year on year we spend more and more on our devices and services at the least.
Most needs of most people are fueled by peer pressure, increasing wanting of more features most of which remain unused, and most importantly, overwhelming force of growth driven market that subtly and not so subtly forces you to discard your old mobile handset for example, replacing it with a new model with many more features but at the same price of the old one.
For me, decisions to buy a mobile device, to get a new mobile service, and to choose a suitable prepaid plan all were guided by conventional habit driven mindset.
Choosing a suitable handset within my budget, and choosing the suitable mobile service both deserve separate space with critical analytical flavor. Now I will focus on only the last of the three-stage decisions: how to choose the mobile recharge plan that I thought most convenient for me.
For a number of years I chose the Rs.666 plan for usually 84 days with limited data and unlimited calls. That was convenient for me because,
- All three services offered similar plans implying it to be the most popular plan. Who doesn't want to be a part of the majority!
- With this plan, I wasn't bothered with the hassle of recharging about 12 times or more in a year, I have more important things to do. Recharging just 4 times a year is very convenient, I thought.
- Each such plan offered unlimited calls which is the order of the day, as well as offered daily data of about 2GB or so which again was enough for me.
This particular plan made sense and I stuck to routine without any further thought. Till, one of the service providers, raised its price of the plan by about 20%, shocking all the poor folks like me to rethink. But, now I know, it was inevitable.
Almost every other mobile service provider, including Vodafone Idea followed suit.
When I am forced to crash down onto the hard reality, I evaluate in my own way.
Critical Evaluation of How to Choose the Mobile Prepaid Plan with Maximum Value for Money
The very first step in evaluating any decision making is to precisely define the objective of making the decision.
For the last few days, I was alerted more than once, by messages from Vodafone Idea that my prepaid plan is expiring. They had to. I would have done the same if I were them.
Today, I decided to recharge and faced the problem of choosing the best Vodafone Idea mobile recharge plan for me.
My primary need:
The plan must have some data for occasions when I go out of home. And I must have unlimited free calls.
All Vodafone Idea prepaid recharge plans fulfilled these two criteria. A few had additional data per day, and a few had free OTT channels, but both at a higher cost. These plans I could easily eliminate as I don't need the additional data or OTT channels.
This, what I call, is the first stage of choosing: Shortlisting—an important phase.
Still I was left with the problem of:
Choosing one among the plans Rs.409, Rs.3599, Rs.649, Rs.379, Rs.365 (a surprise of the bunch).
The Important New Concept of Per Unit Cost
I could eliminate other plans with additional data or additional OTT features I didn't need.
Recently, I was surprised to see in the printed label attached to the bottle of a 90gm Nescafe coffee: Rs.4.89 per g. That stuck in my mind and will always be a factor in evaluating the cost of my purchases.
That is the per unit cost, whatever be the size of the bottle or a pack of Nescafe coffee (or anything else).
Later, I found this modern buyer-friendly practice being adopted by more progressive brands of consumer goods that we buy every month from the local grocery shops.
A Case of Domain Mapping—From Per Gram Cost to Per Day Cost for Mobile Prepaid Plan Evaluation
To differentiate between the five plans: Rs.409, Rs.3599, Rs.649, Rs.379, and Rs.365 of Vodafone Idea, I set out to calculate the per day cost of each:
Per day cost of the five plans Rs.409, Rs.3599, Rs.649, Rs.379, Rs.365:
- Plan Rs.409 for 28 days: Per day cost: Rs.14.6.
- Plan Rs.3599 for 365 days: Per day cost: Rs.9.86.
- Plan Rs.649 for 56 days: Per day cost: Rs.11.59.
- Plan Rs.379 for 1 month with 2gb data per day: Per day cost: Rs.12.6.
- Plan Rs.365 for 28 days with 2gb data per day: Per day cost: Rs.13.06.
This is the second stage of shortlisting where I decided, I have to choose between Plan Rs.3599, Plan Rs.649 or Plan Rs.379, all with exact same features with different validity periods.
No point in saving Rs.14 and choosing 28 days Plan of Rs.365 instead of 1 month Plan of Rs.379 with lower per day cost. And Plan Rs.409 I should have eliminated at the outset because of its higher per day cost caused by its higher 2.5GB per day feature.
Domain Mapping—Bringing Return on Investment into the Evaluation
Problem redefined:
How to choose one among the three Plans of Rs.379, Rs.649 and Rs.3599.
A truth about products, especially mobile prepaid plans, I should make very clear:
All mobile prepaid plans of a single service provider have some or other special set of advantages for customer segments with matching preferences.
So, which plan will be the best for me depends on whether I am ready to shell out Rs.3599 today itself, knowing full well that I could have invested this amount in Stock market or anywhere and possibly earned more than Rs.12x379 in the monthly option at the end of one year.
In other words, opting for the annual plan means:
- I have the spare money to pay for the much larger amount for annual plan now itself,
- I am ready to part with this higher amount today without bothering about how much interest it would have given me in a year, but for sure I would be getting rid of the hassle of recharging every month or every 84 days, and
- I must be sure that whatever be the service deterioration of the mobile service provider I will have to continue using it.
These days, worth of money is decreasing so fast, that the differential of Rs.3220 at this moment won't be a deciding factor for any smartphone user. Point one goes.
Being a practitioner of Principle of Exhaustiveness, I try to evaluate my choices on the basis of all the important factors affecting the decision.
Addressing the third point, I know that Vodafone Idea services is going to improve and stay improved for quite some time to come. But don't be influenced by my saying so, just as every COVID vaccine had in fine print a similar disclaimer, I issue mine,
Disclaimer: I cannot be held responsible for any difficulty or loss experienced by you in believing what I said. Verify the truth or falsity of everything you see in your newspapers and media, as well as my uncalled for observations and suggestions before taking your final decision. You must yourself own the goodness or badness of your decision wholly.
Don't believe me blindly, I knew the solidity of Vodafone service at least in Kolkata in the past, know it at present for Vodafone Idea and expect it to improve in future as well. That is my knowledge and belief.
This makes the choice options for me clear:
- Whether I am ready to recharge every 56 days, as this plan has the second lowest per day cost, Or,
- Whether I will opt for the simplest and easiest recharge option of monthly recharge for Rs.379 (monthly is so easy to remember!), Or,
- Whether to take up the option of Rs.3599 annual plan having the lowest per day cost among all the three.
56 days being not much longer a period compared to 1 month and also as this doesn't have the simplicity of remembering 1 month, the option of Plan Rs.649 goes out of the window.
As it often happens, at least in Cricket (I mention Cricket, as this country, for no valid reason has a maniacal frenzy for Cricket), in the final of any important tournament, only two contenders fight it out for the number one place of honor.
My choice of the most suitable mobile prepaid plan for me is no different. I have to choose between Plan Rs.379 and Plan Rs.3599.
As is true in human civilized world, all such decisions must be taken in terms of monetary loss or gain. For me, I felt that as well. I am ready to recharge monthly spending a low amount, but I am sure, I will feel a bit of irritation in taking the extra action of remembering and recharging each month.
This pushed me to calculate:
- How much less money I will pay by opting for the annual plan, and
- What percent will be that annual saving if I choose the annually costlier Rs.379 plan.
Calculation is straightforward:
Percent annual saving = (12x379 - 3599)/3599 = 949/3599 = 26.3%.
In other words, I must invest Rs.3599 in the stock market or anywhere to earn more than 26.3% in one year to offset the loss of Rs.949 in recharging 12 times a year monthly paying each time Rs.379.
Ohhh. That much! Some of you might say spontaneously.
Being a newbie in Market mechanism in India and the World, but still acquiring the basic truths of the Market in a short time of less than three months, as is my habit, I would say,
Earning 26% assured interest this year on any investment now is nearly impossible.
In today's world, the word "assurance" is experiencing a sharply falling stock value, to state in market terms.
So, why continue to waste my and your time! Let us choose Vodafone Idea Prepaid Plan Rs.3599 which is a winner on all counts (remember my disclaimer about taking responsibility yourself for your own decisions).