It's the end of the financial year, and with that has come a burst of activity from Australian mobile providers, who are here to offer you the best plans and have a range of new special offers available. It's a good time of year to find yourself a new phone and a plan. We already have a guide to the best and worst phones available at the moment; now let's take a look at the plans and special offers you could snatch up.

Vodafone

Vodafone have great offers available for some of the hottest phones available right now. Rather than tinkering with already good plans, Vodafone have focused on four of the most popular phones at the moment, and are offering them with a range of freebies tossed in. Call us now for more information about any of the great plans that follow on 1300 850 518.

The Samsung Galaxy SIII, now $5 on Vodafone's $59 Cap, is one of the most celebrated releases of the year. Building on the ever popular Samsung Galaxy SII, the SIII features a light, slender body that nevertheless manages to fit great specs within it, making it a phone that runs fast and can handle a lot while still looking sleek and, well, pretty. Adding to the appeal of the phone, on the $59 Plan Vodafone are now offering to boost your enjoyment of the phone by giving you twice as much data (i.e. 3GB) for the first year of a two year contract, and the first two months of the plan totally free.

The HTC One X has been named a serious contender to Apple's iPhone, with one of the best screens and displays in the business and a great battery life to boot. It uses the Android OS and HTC's own Sense Skin to create a great interface. It's now available, in an online only deal, on Vodafone's $49 Cap with no added handset charges, and if you buy it online, Vodafone will give you the first month free. You can also get the first month free with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, now available on Vodafone's $29 Cap with no added handset charges.

The Samsung Galaxy Note, dubbed by some the "phablet" for its massive screen and other tablet-like features (including a stylus (the S-Pen) that comes with it), is one of the most innovative phones recently released, and it has been welcomed with open arms from the smartphone populace. It's now offered for only $5 handset charges on the Vodafone $59 Cap, and signing up now will get you the first two months free and a stylish free leather case.

Virgin Mobile

Virgin have rearranged their plans, rather than changing them completely; we're seeing some lower level plans being tidied aside and new replacements for light users found. They've extended some deals that we love, and created a new range of plans for those customers who'd like to bring their own phones with them. For more information about Virgin or to sign up to a plan today, call 1300 464 138.

We've already written about Virgin's great bonus data promotion, but we bring good news – the offer has been extended! The extra 2GB on the $29 Big Plan and $39 Big Plan has been extended to the 31st of July, giving you another month to take advantage of this great deal!

Virgin has now also come up with a great range of promotions on their $49 Fair Go Plan, $59 Fair Go Plan, and Topless $89 Plan. They are offering 5 months of your plan at 50% off on certain phones, including the Samsung Galaxy SIII, the HTC One X, and the Nokia Lumia 800. This can result in some massive savings – if you went for Virgin's attractive $89 Topless Plan with the Samsung Galaxy SIII, that would result in a saving of $222. It's an easy way to take a nice chunk out of an expensive two year contract.

As well as this, Virgin have brought out a new line of plans to fit under their Fair Go, Topless, and Big Plans. These plans are all $10 cheaper than their corresponding plan and offer exactly the same amount of data and call credit. For example, the Virgin $19 Big Plan, which gives you $450 worth of credit for texts and calls and 250MB of data, just like the Virgin $29 Big Plan. The only catch? You don't get a phone.

This an interesting offer, given that Virgin mobile plans are more notable for their phones at great value and the frequent special offers than any particularly exciting details of the plans themselves. Standard calls are usually priced at 99 cents per minute – expensive even amongst mobile providers – and outside of their bonus 2GB offer, Virgin never give quite as much data as you'd hope for.

However, it's good to see that once again, providers are taking light users who prefer to keep their own phones into account. Not everyone wants a brand new piece of hardware every two years, while others want to buy their own phones outright rather than be beholden to a provider for them, and in this case BYO plans serve an important purpose. Virgin offer them on 0-month contracts, so you won't be tied in for a long time, and if you find yourself coveting a Virgin plan but don't want to sign up on a 24 month contract, they're a great alternative.

Amaysim

We've already written in depth about Amaysim's new Flexi mobile plan, but it's worth restating again here. Amaysim created the mid-level plan to fit between their Pay As You Go option for light users and the Unlimited Plan for heavy users.

Amaysim CEO Rolf Hansen has said that the plan was created directly in response to customer feedback, cementing Amaysim's fame for brilliant customer service.

Hansen said: "We ran a survey and our customers were saying, where's the middle ground? They couldn't afford $40 and $10 or $15 doesn't get them where they want to be. 'What's the Amaysim version of a mid-ground product? I'm better off right now on a $29 cap plan'."

Hansen also suggested that there might be new and exciting things yet to come from Amaysim, saying: "We'll never subsidise handsets, because locking people in [to contracts] is against our model and is really bad, we think. But we may want to look into opportunities to provide people with simple access to well priced phones, maybe introduce a financing option for that. It's something we've done in Europe, and it worked really well."

Check out Amaysim's Flexi Postpaid SIM Plan here, or call them for more information on 1300 667 584.

Want help finding a phone and a plan? If you'd like to talk to us at Compare Mobile Plans about what phone and plan would suit you, feel free to give us a call on 1300 850 518. We'll go through all the charges you can expect and make sure that there's nothing in the plan that will catch you out or surprise you come the end of the month! As an independent service, we can recommend various providers and talk about the pros and cons involved with all of them, as well as who best will suit your needs.

Or take a look at some of Australia's favourite smartphones: the Apple iPhone 4S 16GB, the HTC One X, or, to try something different, the brand new Samsung Galaxy SIII.