Excessive ID verification .

I probably could have taken my crane licence ,its got my pic on it ..........there is probably someone wearing a turban using my MC licence right now ........hope they drive safe,and dont overload.

You can try but the horse has bolted. I have no doubt that despite your efforts a professional search would find hundreds of places around the world where your most secret information is stored.

Many people are not aware that you can do a credit check on ANYONE. There are a number of companies like Dunn and Bradstreet who charge a very minor fee for me to see your credit rating, loan history (including applications you never proceeded with), repayment record, debt recovery actions and bankruptcy proceedings and numerous other things. All financial institutions share this information. You can not get another persons account and password information.

Never, ever, give anyone any password. Even think twice about giving your brother-in-law the password to your automatic front gate. There is no hand written or scanned form, no matter how official looking, that will require you to fill in a password box. The only time you should ever use a password is electronically on a confirmed corporate site. .No legitimate company will ever ask for your password if they contact you for anything - they will require you to make the running by doing a normal log-in on their site if they want secure information from you.

Really important is having different passwords for each place and changing them occasionally.. It is a complete pain in the a... having all these different passwords but worth the protection and to limit your pain in case of a breach. If you trust them (and why not as they know everything from your whereabouts to shoe size) an efficient way to keep passwords for regularly used sites like this one, Facebook and Google Earth etc is to allow Google to save them. When you put a new password into your Gardening Club site it will pop up :"Do you want Google to save". Any time you go to any of those sites you will not have to go through the sign in procedure - and remember what password applies, Google will do it for you. I recently read that Google holds billions, not millions, of log-in names and their accompanying passwords, voluntarily given by users, and have never had a breach arising from their storage.

 

Years ago I left Telstra because of their bad accounts system n lack of good deals.
Went to Optus which turned out to have better deals, slightly, but endless drop outs.
Left them and went to Aldi. No bullshit with id, buy a SIM card headed home n followed the instructions. Went with what was back then $15/mth unlimited calls n SMS with 3gb data that accumulates each month from what you don't use up to a max of 100gb data which then stays there until you use it. Next month there is a price increase to $19/mth same stuff but extra gb/ mth. We pay via direct debit n never had an issue with them n so far very very few black spots that were not there before on Telstra.
I don't remember having to give up license details only home address. 
 

Cobba

If you travel outside populated regions of Australia ALDI and other third party Telstra chips are as useless as OPTUS for coverage. That is why they are cheap. If you look at the wholesale (third party provider) map coverage compared to full TELSTRA coverage you will be shocked.

Both these maps are from the official TELSTRA web site current to November 2024.

This is what you get with ALDI - this is still slightly more than you get with full OPTUS whose coverage area is slightly different but still less population than TELSTRA cheap. OPTUS also fudge their coverage maps with "outdoor with antenna" to make it look better.

 

What you get with real TELSTRA

 

As far as I’m aware Kogan use Vodafone. I’m with them with a yearly pay up front of $150 with more data than I can ever use. Coverage is ok except for remote areas and some local black spots.

Overnite you are correct KOGAN use Vodaphone - bloody atrocious coverage, far less than Telstra Light or  OPTUS. Here is their official map.

 

Just some of the TELSTRA cheap companies are listed here. The only secondary provider of, almost, full TELSTRA is BOOST as far as I can make out

BOOST, Belong MObile, Tangerine, Everyday Mobile,More, TeleChoice, Exe3tel, ALDI

TELSTRA is actually very cheap for the nation as a whole because under the heritage regulations they must provide communications for the entire country. The result is they have double the area coverage of anyone else and have huge areas of totally uncommercial loss-making towers. Look at their phones in tiny Aboriginal and various other outback whistle-stops and along highways. Yet they still manage to compete against two foreign giants like OPTUS (Singapore) and Vodaphone (UK) who have been allowed to pick the ripe fruit from the tree and ignore any requirement to help TELSTRA harvest the complete orchard.

I feel that anyone using OPTUS or Vodaphone, not only get far less for their money but are like someone going to the supermarket and choosing tinned fruit from Thailand instead of SPC and even though it is not as good, it is 10 cents cheaper. We want our country to produce and be strong but are not willing to support it.

I had a Telstra mobile ever since the Brick days ..........would still have one except for 4G .......Telstra had some insane objection to my email adress ,and to contact Telstra is near impossible ......actually impossible ..........so I grabbed an Aldi sim at the checkout ..............BIG however ,is apparently Vodafone was pinged by the govt (and penalized) for scammers using the network ......so how long before Aldi is asking for ID the same?

Hi Lang, 
for all the places we travel to now n in the past we have had almost no issues with service signal strength. We have travelled from Colloundra in the north to Phillip Island on Pacific n Prnices hey  New England n Hume hwy plus then across to Mt Gambier up to Peterborough n surrounds then through the middle of Victoria n NSW with only one spot just south of Eden where there was a black spot.
Since we font travel overseas anymore nor have the desire to go into the red centre Aldi mobile has proved itself time n time again. So for our needs we dont need to pay out 2 to 3 tumes more to get the same service

That is fine for you as you only stay in the 'burbs' where there is high population density. For many Australians who travel or live outside those areas they would be without a phone most of the time. You could not be a grey nomad and expect to talk to your grandkids regularly once you left the coast.

At least you are using Telstra.

Just a point. Many people, even on this site, justify their decision with the fact they have always had good service when talking about coverage. It is not up for discussion and apocryphal tales of how good Optus, Vodafone and Telstra light is don't hold water when compared to the true map coverage. It is where you go. If you want to stay in your own backyard where the mass population is, any company will do. If you want to see Australia only full Telstra has any sort of ability.

I have always had Telstra, from Mobil phone day dot, we don't have coverage at home, but have Voice over internet Wi-Fi, that comes out of the sky, most of the family keep in contact on "what's app" I have never been a big phone person so that suits. if I am at work, I mostly turn the phone off, then you at least I get one job finished without being molested (mostly), if I am away from home the only ones I want or need to talk to are the wife and kids and we have always managed to do that although in the early days you may have to visit half a dozen phone box's to do that.