Re: Cheap payg phone tariff
Posted: February 7th, 2020, 2:32 pm
Yes, O2 is the same, you need to make a chargeable call at least once every six months, to keep your sim and credit alive.
Talking of O2, I had been meaning to mention something about PAYG.
Remember last year I was extolling the virtues of O2's 3-2-1 Classic tariff, which I preferred to Three's similar priced offering? Well, in November O2 stopped accepting new activations on that tariff, so I guess its now a Grandfathered tariff, so to get the same pricing it now has to be Three network.
Quick bit of history before I get to the point.
Originally myself and my family were on Giffgaff, which piggybacks on the O2 network. Good call quality and signal strength most places in the UK and there was something 'edgy' about them that I liked. Anyway, their PAYG charges were 15p/minute for calls and 5p for texts. From the end of February 2020, these PAYG charges change to 25p/minute and 10p for texts. The other advantage of Giffgaff is free calls Giffgaff/giffgaff, if you top up £10 every three months - which we don't.
Faced with this forthcoming hike in prices, I realised that on my phone, I use O2 payg Classic tariff - 3p/min calls, 2p/text and 1p/mB data - and I had a spare emergency phone tucked away with the same Classictariff. My wife was using Giffgaff, and I realised that it would be better to try and get her on the same tariff, via the emergency phone sim.
So: PAC code requested from Giffgaff, and then her old number ported onto the O2 sim card later that day. End result? Same carrier, 'cos Giffgaff use O2, same old number that everyone knows, and just 3p/minute talk costs, compared with the new Giffgaff 25p/minute from March onwards. Absolutely seamless transition, and call charges at a saving of 88% compared with Giffgaff, if my maths is right.
Despite the tariff not accepting new activations, a number port onto an existing activated sim card went through effortlessly.
Someone commented about how, "do people still use phones for making calls?" Well, most places have free wifi available, so then for us, it's either Skype or WhatsApp for free calls to people, and if there's no free wifi, then that's when the phone gets used. This is the reason that call-credit lasts so long, just being thrifty about what service to use to make calls.
WhatsApp voice calls have proved to be good quality, and using a supermarket's free wifi, it's nice to be able to WhatsApp or Skype video call and discuss stuff with pictures if needed. "What do you think of the colour of this?" "Are these what you wanted?" "Do you like the style?"
Naturally, its different strokes for different folks. If you want to surf the web on your commute to work, then a data package is fine, where payg would be daft. If you ned to make lots of phone calls irrespective of wifi availability, then a data & speech package would be more suitable. If you're parsimonious like me then payg could still fit the bill.
+++
By the way, talking of being parsimonious, here's something that tickles me pink.
To quote extracts from Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comment ... g_is_king/
" ...
So, I didn't even buy my KK3G for e-reading. I bought it strictly because of its web browser and free worldwide browsing capabilities. E-reading just happens to be a bonus which I've also come to enjoy.
Through the Kindle Keyboard 3G alone was I able to—while in Mexico, Germany, and Italy—read messages from and send messages to family and friends back in the States in the form of:
e-mails via Gmail;
texts via Google Voice;
Facebook messages, status updates, and timeline posts;
... and more, all for FREE. Just buy the unit. It comes with lifetime, worldwide 50mb/month of free 3G wherever AT&T gets reception (no need to struggle finding wi-fi or staying in range of it). No one seems to know this for some reason. This alone makes it a more important purchase than potentially a laptop. And it probably fits in your jeans' back pockets ..."
I bought this old KIndle cheap, just to find out if I'd get on with an e-reader: its not that ergonomic, but it helped me understand if I'd want to spend more to get a more modern one, and when I found it still has very limited free 3g connection, I did chuckle!
Talking of O2, I had been meaning to mention something about PAYG.
Remember last year I was extolling the virtues of O2's 3-2-1 Classic tariff, which I preferred to Three's similar priced offering? Well, in November O2 stopped accepting new activations on that tariff, so I guess its now a Grandfathered tariff, so to get the same pricing it now has to be Three network.
Quick bit of history before I get to the point.
Originally myself and my family were on Giffgaff, which piggybacks on the O2 network. Good call quality and signal strength most places in the UK and there was something 'edgy' about them that I liked. Anyway, their PAYG charges were 15p/minute for calls and 5p for texts. From the end of February 2020, these PAYG charges change to 25p/minute and 10p for texts. The other advantage of Giffgaff is free calls Giffgaff/giffgaff, if you top up £10 every three months - which we don't.
Faced with this forthcoming hike in prices, I realised that on my phone, I use O2 payg Classic tariff - 3p/min calls, 2p/text and 1p/mB data - and I had a spare emergency phone tucked away with the same Classictariff. My wife was using Giffgaff, and I realised that it would be better to try and get her on the same tariff, via the emergency phone sim.
So: PAC code requested from Giffgaff, and then her old number ported onto the O2 sim card later that day. End result? Same carrier, 'cos Giffgaff use O2, same old number that everyone knows, and just 3p/minute talk costs, compared with the new Giffgaff 25p/minute from March onwards. Absolutely seamless transition, and call charges at a saving of 88% compared with Giffgaff, if my maths is right.
Despite the tariff not accepting new activations, a number port onto an existing activated sim card went through effortlessly.
Someone commented about how, "do people still use phones for making calls?" Well, most places have free wifi available, so then for us, it's either Skype or WhatsApp for free calls to people, and if there's no free wifi, then that's when the phone gets used. This is the reason that call-credit lasts so long, just being thrifty about what service to use to make calls.
WhatsApp voice calls have proved to be good quality, and using a supermarket's free wifi, it's nice to be able to WhatsApp or Skype video call and discuss stuff with pictures if needed. "What do you think of the colour of this?" "Are these what you wanted?" "Do you like the style?"
Naturally, its different strokes for different folks. If you want to surf the web on your commute to work, then a data package is fine, where payg would be daft. If you ned to make lots of phone calls irrespective of wifi availability, then a data & speech package would be more suitable. If you're parsimonious like me then payg could still fit the bill.
+++
By the way, talking of being parsimonious, here's something that tickles me pink.
To quote extracts from Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comment ... g_is_king/
" ...
So, I didn't even buy my KK3G for e-reading. I bought it strictly because of its web browser and free worldwide browsing capabilities. E-reading just happens to be a bonus which I've also come to enjoy.
Through the Kindle Keyboard 3G alone was I able to—while in Mexico, Germany, and Italy—read messages from and send messages to family and friends back in the States in the form of:
e-mails via Gmail;
texts via Google Voice;
Facebook messages, status updates, and timeline posts;
... and more, all for FREE. Just buy the unit. It comes with lifetime, worldwide 50mb/month of free 3G wherever AT&T gets reception (no need to struggle finding wi-fi or staying in range of it). No one seems to know this for some reason. This alone makes it a more important purchase than potentially a laptop. And it probably fits in your jeans' back pockets ..."
I bought this old KIndle cheap, just to find out if I'd get on with an e-reader: its not that ergonomic, but it helped me understand if I'd want to spend more to get a more modern one, and when I found it still has very limited free 3g connection, I did chuckle!