[PSA] Singtel Vs Circles.Life - Guess Who Won Me Over?

No politically-correct nonsense such 'It depends on what you want'.

I was a Singtel customer for as long as I could remember. Along the years I grew tired of their 'Make Everyday Better' nonsense.

Seriously, for Combo 2, the cheapest post-paid plan with decent data (2GB), it costs $42.90 a month and comes with the following:

Outgoing Calls : 200min
Incoming Calls : Free
Local SMS/MMS : 1000
Others : 2GB Singtel WIFI

It does not come with caller-ID, which costs $5 a month. This amounts to $47.90, and with GST, it becomes $51.25. This is on top of additional one-time activation fee, which one might have to beg to get it waived.

Honestly I do not know who uses SMS that excessively nowadays - when there's no data perhaps? It is probably worthwhile before the mobile data era, but I think we have long past that. Giving 1000 SMS free is akin to giving $50 credits which I do not use. Not sure what value it was trying to add for me. And the free Singtel WIFI is a joke because it is slow and is near non-existent.

Along the way, they added more nonsense like the X2 and X3 data bundle, for $5.90/mth and $9.90/mth respectively. For the Combo 2, I will have 4GB, and 6GB, of data (how nice!) if I signed up the X2 or X3 respectively, but I will have to pay  $57.56 and $61.85 correspondingly. This probably makes sense with the more expensive combo plans that are bundle with more data. Then again, the subscription to those plans are normally some celestial numbers. For example, a Combo 4 that comes with 4GB will make me poorer by at least $82.90 (without GST and caller ID) every month. A Combo 12 plans is in the $200s. [You see, $10 for the X3 plans over $200-ish monthly subscription is almost negligible.]

Then came Circles.Life.

I shunned it when it started after learning that it rents M1's infrastructure. From my experience, M1 signal is not very good. I was holding out for myRepublic to win the 4th telco bid (oh, I switch from Singtel Broadband to myRepublic, another story I will share in another time), but I was gravely disappointed when they did not win the bid by a close margin. [I was on a SIM-only plan with Singtel while waiting. I shall not elaborate how expensive it was and packed full of nonsensical stuff that I do not use, as more details can be found in their website.]

Circles.Life plans are easy to understand. For $28 a month for a basic 2GB plan, you get:

Outgoing Calls : 100min
Incoming Calls : None (+$2/mth to opt for this option)
Local SMS/MMS : None  (Incoming SMS is free, and it charges $0.05 for each SMS used)
Others : Free caller-ID, Whatsapp data is waived, 4G speed, data bonuses

There is more allowance for customisation (add SMS, talk time, data, etc) in their app. What's more it allows you to boost your data by small increments such as by 100MB for $2.50 and not a 1GB for $10.95. It may sound ridiculous here, but I think it makes sense because when there's a need to boost data at the end of the billing cycle, $2.50 beats $10 without having excessive balance data which you cannot really bring to the next cycle. Then again, with the many data bonuses, I doubt there is a need to boost the data per se, but my point is there are more rational options in Circles.Life.

I ported my number over and received a 1GB bonus and another 1GB for activating the app. And because there was some new year promotion, I am now holding on to 7GB of data every month for up till July this year. After that, I will still have at least 4GB.

There is also a loyalty rewards: for every 6months I stay with the telco, I receive 500MB of data. That is a 1GB data per year. Also, if I refer my friend and they uses my code (which is AXBX4 by the way), they get $20 registration fees waived when they sign up/port over, and I get 200MB of data as long as they stay with the telco.

I also received a 500MB bonus data as a birthday treat. This is valid for a month once activated and the bonus expires 2mths after the birthday month.

And all these for $30/mth (because I got the free-incoming calls option).

And recently they came up with the 20GB for $20 add-on. I notice some people may not understand that it is an add-on and not a plan by itself. So should I sign up for that, I pay $50/mth for a whopping 24GB of data. (Remember a Combo 12 is $200++/mth?).

Then what about quality?

Initially I was not expecting too much for the cheaper price. Afterall, staying with Singtel has 'taught' me that I have to pay for 'better service'. However,  I do not have any complaints with the connectivity after 3 months into the service. Customer service was good - everything can be done through the app and no need to wait for 45min on the call listening to things like 'Your call is important to us'. I am sorry for those who have had bad customer experience with Circles.Life, but so far I am satisfied - their response is prompt and my problems got solved promptly.

How about roaming?

I have yet to test this. So I cannot comment.

If you wish to find out and take a leap, you can sign up or port over here. Remember to use my code AXBX4!

By the way, I am just sharing my experience with Circles.Life. I am not endorsed or anything by them.

~ZF