Aim! Shoot!! Duck!!!

Ok, I’m late on this, a week late. But I think there’s enough confusion that it warrants a brief explanation on the plans DiGi is offering for their iPhone.

DiGi iPhone Plans

DiGi iPhone Payment Options

I’ll be focusing on only the iPhone 32GB model & iDiGi 88 plan as the principle is the same all across, so no point repeating it. Basically DiGi subsidise around RM1k for you, the buyer, but you pay this back monthly with RM88 which gives you a set number of calls, SMS & MMS. The confusion seems to happen on the payment options side, which even I have to admit, I didn’t get the first time I went through it.

You are given 3 options to get the phone, pay cash + 6 months monthly fee, 24 months installment or 36 months installment. Now all plans are tied to a 2 year contract so even if you take the 1st option, you will still be paying RM88 for the next 18 months. In total the 3 options works out as follows:

Option 1: RM2544 + (RM88 x 18) = RM4128

Option 2: RM176 x 24 = RM4224

Option 3: RM117 x 36 = RM4212

So you end up paying almost the same using any of the options. But of course there’s a catch. There’s a 5% service charge charged each month you pay your bills. So the longer your installment, the more service charge you pay. Simple as that. So if you can manage it, take Option 1 by all means.

Just to clarify Option 3, you’re only tied to a 2 year contract with DiGi so during the 3rd year, you’re just paying back your credit card installment & not paying for a iDiGi plan. You won’t be on ANY DiGi plans after the contract expires but you are free to sign-up for a normal DiGi plan or move to another telco.

Now I’m not going to compare DiGi plans to Maxis plans, DiGi already provided that here. Safe to say, DiGi doubles up everything on what Maxis offers for every plan. But the more important things to note are:

1) DiGi charges 1 rate to all networks for calls, SMS & MMS. This is a BIG plus to me.

2) There’s no extra charge if you go over the limit of the quota set for local internet access. Just your speed will be reduced. This is quite important as you will use the iPhone to access the internet often, not just for web browsing, but any apps that require internet connection. In fact I think even with the throttled speed after going over quota, you might still get better speed than on Maxis with it’s congested network.

So I guess my blind faith in DiGi paid off. Yes I did pre-order the iPhone, for fun, but no I didn’t get one because I’m broke. LOL!

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