You might be surprised how much money you could save yourself each month by bundling your home phone and internet plan together. Here are five ways you could benefit from a bundle.
Discount on your monthly broadband bill
Typically Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will offer a discount on your broadband costs if you also subscribe to a home phone service. iiNet takes off $10 on broadband plans bundled with a $29.95 Phone 1 plan or a $31.95 Phone 2 plan. TPG offers super-cheap plans starting from $9.95 for 10GB to $29.99 for unlimited internet if you bundle with its $30 per month home phone line.
Cheap phone calls
Several ISPs offer free or cheap phone calls as a sweetener for bundle customers. Engin offers the Landline Ignition plan for $49, which includes 2GB of data a month and unlimited local calls. If you make lots of local calls and only use the internet for surfing, this will cut down on your bills significantly. If you are after a bit more, Optus has a great deal on its Fusion 50GB plan. Optus is offering 50GB of data, plus free local, national and mobile calls in Australia for just $99.
Extra data
Some providers will only offer bigger data plans as a bundle. Westnet and Netspace, for example, offer a whole terabyte of download quota for $99.95, but only when bundled with a $29.95 home phone plan. This is an extra 200GB for the same price unbundled.
Free modem
iPrimus will throw in a free one-port modem for its Platinum bundle customers. This is a great plan for light broadband users, with line rental, 21GB, all local calls and a modem included for $89.95 a month. There is also no set-up fee on this 24-month plan. Optus is also offering a free Wi-Fi modem on its $99 Fusion 50GB plan.
VoIP
Bundle customers also get access to more money-saving features, such as VoIP. iiNet, for example, offers two NetPhone plans to customers – but only bundle customers can sign up to NetPhone 2, which includes free local and national calls over VoIP for $9.95 a month. Non-bundled customers can still subscribe to NetPhone 1, also $9.95, but will have to pay for their local and national calls.