FACT · MOBILE PLAN TYPE
About Annual prepaid pack (Jahrespaket)
Pay-once-per-year prepaid plan. No 4-week cycles, no auto-renewal surprises.
Key facts
What is it?
An annual prepaid pack (German: Jahrespaket or Jahrestarif) is a prepaid mobile plan where you pay once for a full 12 months rather than topping up every 4 weeks. The pack typically includes a fixed data allowance + unlimited calls + unlimited SMS, valid for one year from purchase.
Annual packs are common in Germany because they sidestep the 4-week billing trap: a prepaid tariff that looks like "EUR 9.99/month" usually renews every 28 days, costing EUR 129.87/year. An annual pack at EUR 100/year for the same data allowance is cheaper and easier to budget.
The cheapest annual packs by tier:
- ALDI TALK Jahres-Paket XS - 60 GB for EUR 69.99/year (cheapest entry tier)
- O2 Jahrespaket - 150 GB for EUR 89.99/year (cheapest national-network annual)
- Telekom Jahrestarif - 240 GB for EUR 99.95/year (best premium-network value)
- congstar Jahrespaket - 240 GB for EUR 100/year (Telekom-quality MVNO)
- LIDL Connect Annual 450 GB - EUR 149/year (largest annual bucket on the German market)
Annual packs do not auto-renew. When the 12 months elapse, your number stays active but data, calls, and SMS revert to PAYG rates - typically EUR 0.09/minute and per-MB charges that can quickly add up if you don't notice the expiry. Buy a new pack a few days before expiry to avoid the gap.