What's the phone for me? What's the data deal for me - in South Africa

I have been asked... What's the phone for me?  What's the data deal for me?

I have taken out contracts - but only if the price of buying the phone plus data  plus airtime makes sense.  Otherwise, it's buy the phone for cash, and go PrePaid for me.

I like Samsung J70 Pro, and now their A71 - Telkom FreeMe deals were gr8 until 1st May 2020 when Telkom reduced their value so much so that I cancelled getting the new A71+FreeMe 1GB.  

I decided to stay with my J7 Pro with its "expired" contract - which still has the "old" FreeMe 1G plan (free 3,000 Telkom to Telkom minutes (cell and landline), and 1GB data and 100 any network minutes included).

I also like Xiaomi phones -  Redmi 4X dual SIM phone was a gr8 phone and still working well.

All phones in my house are dual SIM.  I purchase the following pre-paid deals for my family - depends on their use:

• 365 days validity: CellC data 10GB for R599: https://www.cellc.co.za/cellc/get-databundles  (works out to 6c per MB)
• I am also considering moving them to Afrihost AirMobile (PrePaid): https://www.afrihost.com/airmobile/prepaid# where you get 2GB for R69 on MTN - if you login to their app once a month.(this works out to 3c per MB)Data lasts for at least 60 days.

FNB’s eBucks Compare: What’s the difference between FNB Gold, and Premier, and Private accounts?

I recently started taking advantage of FNB’s eBucks rewards program and have managed to get to Level 5. 
Here are the steps that I took:
1) “Downgraded” from Premier cheque account to Gold Fusion: Reasons: R199 pm fee went down to R109 pm, *and* I get 1,000 points per month *and* I get a “Free” credit facility (30 days free credit as opposed to 59 days – but there are no credit charges as long as you pay by due date) Note: interest charges are higher if you don’t pay it all off.
2) Use the FNB calculator to see what I needed to do to earn points per month: https://www.ebucks.com/web/calculator/rewardsCalculatorAction.do
Use the Account selector to see your goals:


3) With the help of the calculator, I made the following changes (based on Gold Fusion account) – target is 9,500 points to get to Level 5):

a) started using the FNB app (2,500 points pm),
b) Spend more online – using my Fusion card (1.5% back in eBucks – limited to R7,500 pm) (>R2,000 gives 2,000 points)
c) Converted my Gold account to a Gold Fusion account (1,000 points pm) – no charges incurred when doing this
d) Stopped drawing cash from ATMs – use tellers at Pick ‘n Pay and Checkers (2,000 points)
e) Spend more than R5,000 on Fusion card pm (1,500 points)
f) Use Fusion card for 100% of spend (2,000 points)  => 11,500 points reached => reached the target of 9,500 points to get to Level 5.
g) Scheduled an auto-transfer of R500 per month to FNB savings account (500 points pm)

I then could take advantage of the eBucks – earning at level 5 (from the bottom of the eBucks Calculator page):

I then quickly hit the limits – check by entering a large amount in each cell in the calculator:

Then I thought: what would the limits be if I “upgraded” to a FNB Premier account, or Private, or Private Wealth account?
So, I used the calculator to see… but it was difficult to see them side by side using the FNB eBucks calculator :(

So, I put together this table to see them side by side (downloadable pdf here) (downloadable xls here).  

and the rewards comparisons:

There is also a great forum for tips here: MyBroadband forum Tips-to-boost-your-ebucks-1-july-2019-to-30-june-2020
and a WhatsApp group click here