I have been using Smart’s Mega Combo 250 for years, and then last month, Smart discontinued their cheapest postpaid flexibundle.

Because I was irked at losing the very nice monthly plan, I did some research into some alternatives. Let’s see which is the best plan or promo for people who don’t need a lot of texts, minutes and data and don’t want to spend a small fortune on their mobile bill.

BATTLE OF THE BUDGET PLANS

I will be looking at plans that are around P250 – 300 per month, but will consider up to P500/month if there are no other options.

GLOBE TELECOM

Prepaid

I love Globe’s prepaid Gosakto. I’m sure a lot of you like it too for the flexibility and the combos you can make.

Using Gosakto, you can make stacking combos that give you 510 minutes of Globe / TM calls and 1020 texts and 1GB of data for P246! If I hadn’t had my whole circle switched to using Smart, I would totally be using this Gosakto promo right now. It’s the best available right now.

I personally use the Gotscombodd70 promo that gives me 1 GB of data good for 7 days, and I just register to a new one before it expires so that any unused data is rolled over to the new registration. When I need to call a Globe number, which only happens a few times a month, I just register to a P10 one day promo giving 10 minutes of Globe / TM calls, or register to a GoUnli20 if I feel like I need more minutes. This is very easy for me because I just load P10 or P20 to my SIM from my GCash wallet and it takes less than a minute.

The only problem with using the Gosakto tips and tricks is that sometimes they suddenly get yanked by Globe. So you always have to keep up with the latest tips and tricks because the good old ones are removed by Globe when they realize that a lot of people are taking advantage of the Gosakto loopholes.

The Gosakto tricks are not illegal, hacking, jailbreaking or anything like that. People just found loopholes to get more out of their Gosakto promos. It’s not like you’re hacking Globe or anything. You don’t need to install any hacking software. You just register to Gosakto promos like normal. There are just certain combinations of promos that people have found that give them more bang for their buck.

Postpaid

If you want to stay on the legit side, for Globe, the MyStarter Plan 300 is a good deal for postpaid in the P250 – P300 price range.

MyStarter Plan 300:

300 All-Net Text
300 Mins Calls to Globe/ TM
200MB mobile internet
Free Facebook
Free Viber
Free Spotify Basic (1GB data allocation)

This MyStarter Plan 300 actually sounds pretty good. I called their hotline and asked if it was possible to get it as a line-only plan, and they said if you didn’t want to get the phone, then you can get the MyStarter Plan 300 line-only, and there’s no lock-in period for this line-only option.

You can also retain your Globe prepaid number – they’ll just convert it to a postpaid. I also asked the customer service agent if I’ll be able to get my number back to prepaid in case I’m not happy with postpaid and want to go back to prepaid. He said yes. Although I’m not quite convinced because all the info I have seen online is saying that Globe won’t let you turn your postpaid number back to prepaid. If anyone can confirm this, please leave a comment! Thank you 🙂

So, how this myStarter Plan works is that it’s a combination of postpaid and prepaid. If you go over your allocated data, text or minutes, it will cut off. As the Globe customer service guy explained to me, you need to buy prepaid load and load your number to continue using it. For example, if you use 299 minutes already, and you go on your 300th minute, after the 300th minute, your call will disconnect. You need to load up your account and either use that as regular load, or, you can register to any of the prepaid promos. I asked him if I could use Gosakto, and he said yes, I could. I’m not totally convinced yet, so if anybody who has any info about this can confirm it, that would be much appreciated by everyone 🙂 This is only for the myStarter plans and not for the regular postpaid plans.

Touch Mobile has an Easy Plan that’s P150 every 15 days and includes Unlicalls to Globe/TM and unli all-net texts. So that’s P300 every month for unlicalls to Globe/TM and unlitexts. I don’t have any experience using TM so I can’t say much about it.

SMART COMMUNICATIONS

Prepaid

Smart Mega All In 250 is still available for prepaid. It is P250, good for 30 days, and includes 180 min calls to SMART, TNT and SUN, Unli SMS to all networks and 100MB Data.

To register, text MEGA250 to 9999

Another Smart prepaid promo is the Unli Call & Text 350 – P350, good for 30 days and includes Unli calls to SMART, TNT and SUN, Unli SMS to all networks, and 500MB data.

To register, text UCT350 to 9999

Postpaid

For postpaid, the next best budget plan is to get the Trinet 399 if you are an existing Freedom Plan subscriber. That’s what I am using now because I don’t have any other good alternative unless I am willing to go through the hassle of changing my number, updating my Viber, my 2-step notification security thingies, and all the other services where they text your access code, etc… I can’t even remember them all and I’m sure I am going to miss something when I switch. I want to switch to another network but I feel like my cellphone number is held hostage…

Trinet 399 – It includes 500 minutes worth of calls to SMART, TNT, Sun and PLDT Landline + 2,000 texts to all networks + 150MB worth of mobile Internet browsing for 30 days. I mean, it’s a good offer, but it’s a bit too many minutes for me… on average, I only use around 100 – 150 minutes a month. I don’t telebabad anymore, and usually talk to close friends during get togethers, face to face. I use my minutes to call people only when I have an urgent question, etc… and for the usual “nasaan ka na?” type of calls.

If you’re not an existing Freedom Plan subscriber and want to get a new postpaid plan, the new offers are really not very good, in my opinion.

The cheapest offer, a plan that costs P399 / month, may include 3GB of data and unlimited texts to all networks, but only includes 20 minutes of calls to all networks. I’m not really a heavy cellphone call user, but even for me, 20 minutes is way too low. Unless you’re totally anti-social, you are always going to exceed that limit and will be paying for the excess in regular rates! That’s going to be too expensive. Sure, you can call people using Viber, Skype or Messenger, but not everyone is online all the time, and not everyone wants to use up their data just to receive your call. Internet signal and speed can also be poor. Also, what if the person you want to call is using a dumb phone? Regular cellphone calling is still the way most people want to receive calls, and is still the best way.

Smart still has the All-In plans, the cheapest of which is the P500 a month consumable plan. I’m not a big fan of these plans – with the P500 plan, even if you register for the Trinet 399, you still have P101 to use up. If you don’t use it up, you’ll still have to pay for it, and it’s so difficult to keep track of your usage to use only exactly P101. Chances are, you will always go over. If you don’t use up your remaining P101, sayang naman, you just overpaid for something you didn’t use!!!

As for the shared data plan, 3 people share 6GB of data, and only have free calling between the 3 of them. If you call people aside from the 2 people you share the plan with, it’s all charged regular rates. Somehow, I think you are going to need to call other people aside from your 2 shared plan peeps, and those calls to other people are going to be billed on top of your bill as excess usage. And, call me cynical, but I foresee many fights arising from the shared 6GB of data and excess minutes, lalo na if one person uses most of the data and the others get frustrated with the inequality.

Talk N Text has a UTP150 that has Unlitext + 300 mins calls to TNT/Smart/Sun + 300 texts to other networks + All-day access to Facebook, valid for 30 days for P150.

SUN CELLULAR

Prepaid

For Sun Cellular, they have a new combo called the Wais 200, it includes Unlimited Texts to Sun, Unlimited Calls to Sun, 500 texts to Smart and TNT for 30 days, and if you add P50, you get unlimited Trinet calls, and add P50 again to get unlimited all-net texts. So that’s P300 for unlimited all-net texts and unlimited trinet calls! You can also add another P50 for 1GB of data!

If you really don’t need unlimited, you can stick to TU200, it includes Unlimited Sun texts, 5 hours PLDT, Sun, Smart, Talk ‘N Text calls, 1,000 texts to other networks, Free Facebook, Nonstop Chat for 30 days.

Postpaid

Sun has a Fixed Load Plan for P300, with unli-trinet calls but no text allocation and unli All-net texts. This plan sounds really good on paper. Unlicalls (tri-net) and unlitexts to all networks for only P300! If you need a lot of tri-net minutes and Sun signal is strong in your area, this might be a good deal for you. No PLDT calling though.

They also have a regular Plan 350 that only provides unli Sun-to-Sun calls. Not really a good choice if you plan to call or text other networks.

WHO’S THE WINNER?

For this, I’m assuming that you will be using your cellphone within your network (either Globe/TM network or Smart/Sun/TNT network).

In my opinion, it’s much cheaper to pick a dual-sim phone on your next phone upgrade and just maintain 2 SIMs – one for Globe and one for Smart, than to pay regular rates when calling the other network.

Also, people who have free minutes for Smart or Globe won’t have to pay extra to call you because you can be reached on both networks, so they will have a tendency to call you more. Let’s be honest, when you want to call someone and you see that they are on a rival mobile network and you’ll have to pay regular rates, most of us will just decide to text nalang instead of call unless the matter is urgent.

PREPAID PROMOS FOR THE WIN!

It seems like prepaid is always the better deal. For the same amount, prepaid promos always offer the best deal vs. postpaid. The prepaid offers are also so much more affordable!

For the Smart network, Talk N Text’s UTP150 is the best deal for non-heavy users. However, if you’re just not into TNT, there’s Smart’s Mega250 or Sun’s TU200.

For the Globe network, Globe Gosakto is still the best! Check out the different combos that people have discovered and find your favorite.

POSTPAID

If you just can’t be bothered with the hassle of prepaid like looking for load, registering for promos, etc…. TM’s Easy Plan is the best value on paper (no experience with it so I can’t tell you more). But, if you’re not into TM, Globe’s MyStarter Plan 300 line-only is the best deal, in my opinion.

For Sun, the Fixed Load Plan 300 with unli trinet calls and unlitexts to all networks is also a good deal. No PLDT calling though.

I don’t really find any of the currently offered plans from Smart any good…

BEST BUDGET COMBO

If you get the Sun Prepaid TU200 (P200) and get a Globe Gosakto combo package (P246 or less), you can actually maintain SIMs on both networks for less than P500 a month! You get a decent amount of minutes and texts to use, too, and even 1GB of data, plus you can call PLDT using TU200!!!