FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Wed, 18th Jan 2012
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Am I the only person left alive who, on any given day, has no idea how many free minutes, text messages, or data packets are left on their mobile plan? Or on their broadband plan? Or, for that matter, how many points they have on their Fly Buys, or if they are eligible for that free coffee yet?  No, didn’t think so.

The result, of course, is that I either go well over my limits and get hit with charges, or worse, lose my speed or points (or worst of all, my free coffee).

Of course, I could log in to each account and check it - assuming it is one that can be tracked online - but I don’t. It’s all too time consuming.

And this is where Consume comes in. This nifty little app allows you to monitor your account usage including mobile phone, broadband, tolls, rewards cards and more, right on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Consume currently supports around 100 providers around the world, including 19 in New Zealand. It’s simply a case of selecting your country, selecting the provider, and loading in your account details and password. Consume then displays everything from anytime minutes to data usage to when your plan rolls over - and it works just as well with prepaid accounts as it does with postpaid ones.

As well as showing you the actual figures there is a coloured scale so you can see at a glance how things are going. Blue and everything is fine, red and you need to slow down your usage.

At $4.99, Consume is not overpriced for what it can save you in unwanted fees or inconvenience, and it’s a nice, simple app to install. It has beautiful graphics and doesn’t require a fresh log in each time you use it, unless you choose that as an option. Otherwise, it simply checks and refreshes your information when you launch the app.

My only disappointment with Consume is that while I can load up my Vodafone Mobile account, I can’t add my Vodafone broadband account. I can only assume this is still coming, since most other broadband providers are showing.

You can also check your Fly Buys, your One Card, your Subway Sub Card, and track your courier progress.

Now if they can just add my favourite cafes to the list, it will be almost perfect.