Mobile phones

[stooz]

I have seen a lot of people spending a surprising sum on mobile phone contracts. If you are not aware already, the typical "free" phone is far from free and you are better off buying a phone (on a 0% credit card) and paying it off over 12 months and slapping in a sim only card.
I only pay £5 a month, saving me £240 on a typical 18 month contract with the benefit of only being locked in for 30 days.


A new comer to the sim only market is plus net who now offer what I think is one of the cheapest around - offers available seem to make this an even better deal..

https://www.plus.net/mobile/plans/sim-only/

(not affiliated)

I also recommend giffgaff

https://www.giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/stooz

(affiliated)

[CatcheeMonkee]

Here's unlimited minutes & 4GB data for £10 a month, one-month rolling contract, courtesy of MSE

https://www.plus.net/mobile/deals/4gb/d ... -rates/MSE

PlusNet is owned by BT and runs on their EE network. Offer only until 13th December. There are other offers on the PlusNet Mobile site. Prices are generally similar to Vodafone's TalkMobile service, though they don't match this deal and their best prices are on a 12-month contract.

[Radiccio]

See my post here:
http://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1233&p=13715#p13715

When I moved to TalkTalk broadband they included a free 200mins/500MB monthly SIM with another for £5 per month. One call to EE to get the PAC code and my number got ported over within hours.

We always buy the phone separately and in the unlikely event we find something cheaper we can switch again...

[CatcheeMonkee]

Has anyone tried FreedomPop's free service?

[jackdaww]

talkmobile - owned by vodafone do a happy hour tariff - up to 1hour for 10p . texts are 4p.

credit runs indefinitly , you need to make a call/text every 3 months.

good for occasional / emergency use.

BTW giiffgaff is now owned by O2.

[swill453]

BTW giiffgaff is now owned by O2.

It always was. Well by Telefonica anyway.

Scott.

[CatcheeMonkee]

talkmobile - owned by vodafone do a happy hour tariff - up to 1hour for 10p . texts are 4p.

Yes, it's a good deal. I have a Happy Hour SIM in an old, spare, phone. And in the second SIM slot of my dual SIM phone.

https://talkmobile.co.uk/order-payg-sim

[premierfella]

Has anyone tried FreedomPop's free service?

I've got a few of their SIMs for data use (handy to check how far the bus is from my stop in the morning).

The VOIP service itself is as you'd expect - whenever I've tried to use it (on wifi) the person on the other end usually indicates that they are having problems hearing me, so I confess I haven't really bothered to keep it always on for incoming calls and just have my main number on a cheap PAYG SIM.

[NomoneyNohoney]

talkmobile - owned by vodafone do a happy hour tariff - up to 1hour for 10p . texts are 4p.

Yes, it's a good deal. I have a Happy Hour SIM in an old, spare, phone. And in the second SIM slot of my dual SIM phone.

https://talkmobile.co.uk/order-payg-sim

I do exactly the same - I have a Talkmobile sim as second sim in my iphone. Really useful if you're calling a company. As an example, I was on hold for 37 minutes a few days ago, waiting to find out where an order had got to. Checked my Talkmobile balance straight after - cost of 37 minute call to an 0344 number: 10p.

Love it...

[AF62]

BTW giiffgaff is now owned by O2.

Giffgaff was always owned by Telefonica, the owners of O2, they just tried not to pretend they were not. Not that I minded as I made quite a lot of money from them when they first launched from referral fees.

Anyway, getting back to the topic, another tariff for low use that is quite good is the Three 321 tariff, 3p per min for calls, 2p texts, and 1p for data.

Also Three will give you a data sim that gives you 200MB free every month (https://www.three.co.uk/Free_SIM_MBB/Order) without needing to put any credit on it. It also works abroad in their "feel at home" countries for free. 200MB is not a lot, but works well for an old Android phone I use as a sat nav, and worked brilliantly in Spain last summer.

Although the free 200GB sim is a data sim and the store staff will tell you "it won't work in a phone", it does, and can receive calls. On other forums people have had success adding credit to it where calls and texts are charged as the 321 tariff (but with the free 200MB of data each month).

Another option is to use a dual sim phone which gives you an option of picking the best from two sources. I have an old T-Mobile contract (no longer available) that is fine for minutes and texts for me, but is a bit stingy for data and is only 3G (EE's 3G coverage is a bit rubbish these days). So in the other sim slot is a Three prepaid 12GB sim card which you can pick up for about £25 and lasts for a year (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01CMD4VKC/) and gives far better 4G and 3G coverage than T-Mobile/EE 3G service.

[melonfool]

A new comer to the sim only market is plus net who now offer what I think is one of the cheapest around - offers available seem to make this an even better deal..

https://www.plus.net/mobile/plans/sim-only/

Hmm, I like their 2gb, 1000 mins, unlimited texts deal for £7.50.

I currently have 500mgb, 250 mins and 5k texts. Often run to the end of my data, rarely use even ten minutes, and never get near 5k texts.

BUT - we have no ee signal where we live. They do wifi calling, but not on PAYG, only on contract. Does anyone know if this would count as 'contract' as opposed to PAYG, or even if Plusnet offer it as ee do?

I am currently on Tesco which is 02, to be fair, I get no signal with them either....

I own my own phone so no need to get a new one (a OnePlus Two).

Ta

Mel

[AleisterCrowley]

.. a bit stingy for data and is only 3G (EE's 3G coverage is a bit rubbish these days). So in the other sim slot is a Three prepaid 12GB sim card which you can pick up for about £25 and lasts for a year ...and gives far better 4G and 3G coverage than T-Mobile/EE 3G service.

Bit odd as Three and EE use the same physical network (MBNL) I think, at least for 3G . Mind you , I'm not up to speed with exactly how it's implemented these days

[mutantpoodle]

the ''3''...3--2--1 deal is only available on 3G or 4G
(whatever that means)

anyway
having been sent my SIM I find it will not work in either of my mobiles

O2 now have ''classic'' at 5p // 5p// 5p

and that doesnt require latest models of phones

[GeoffF100]

3 mobile does not have a 2G network, so none of their tariffs will work with antique phones. It is also worth noting that you get some extra "free" data (which lasts only a month) when you buy £10 3-2-1 credit. I do not remember how much data, because I top up so infrequently. Nonetheless, the tariff is so cheap that I am using the phone more often.

[GeoffF100]

Grrr. Not so happy with 3 now. The My3 app was showing my credit at over £9, and it did not seem to go down. I have just got a text message telling me that I have run out of credit. The My3 app is still showing my credit at over £9. The 3 website says that I can also check my credit by dialling 444. I guess I will have to do that until I can get to a 3 shop and complain.

[GeoffF100]

I have successfully topped up. In small print, My3 said that my balance was last checked 67 days ago. It turns out that there is a refresh item on the menu. That appears to work. £9.03 for 67 days is not bad though, particularly as my usage has been higher than normal.

[Gfplux]

Lots of sim advise but may I mention good value smart phones.
I am a long term but ex user of Apple and Samsung smart phones. No longer young and no longer needing a brand of phone I have for some time looking at phones that might be as "smart" but not as expensive.
Early in October I bought a Huawei P9 lite for +/- £200. It has 3gb of Ram and 16gb of memory. Having two sim slots I use the second slot for a 64Gb micro memory card. It presently runs Andriod version 6.0 with an update due, understand early in the new year. I am very happy with the performance and to my "normal users" eye it works just as well as the other two brands at a quarter of the price.
No connection, just someone who has seen the light!

[quelquod]

BUT - we have no ee signal where we live. They do wifi calling, but not on PAYG, only on contract. Does anyone know if this would count as 'contract' as opposed to PAYG, or even if Plusnet offer it as ee do?

Mel

No - PlusNet aren't offering wifi calling, also they seem to be picking up a fair bit of flak over number porting and customer service standard but to be fair they are likely inundated with new customers (like me ).

[Dranz100]

I don't do religious analysis of mobile phone provide costs, but I do keep an eye out, and while I know that the choice is dependant on usage, and I'm always surprised that GiffGaff comes up in conversations when Asda rarely does: I think Asda pips Giffgaff in a lot of case.

We run 4 Asda SIMs in our house (and 2 Vodas which are under review).
YMMV
Dranz

[melonfool]

I don't do religious analysis of mobile phone provide costs, but I do keep an eye out, and while I know that the choice is dependant on usage, and I'm always surprised that GiffGaff comes up in conversations when Asda rarely does: I think Asda pips Giffgaff in a lot of case.

We run 4 Asda SIMs in our house (and 2 Vodas which are under review).
YMMV
Dranz

It looks like they only got 4G a couple of weeks ago, so maybe that's why?

And....who wants the words 'Asda mobile' on their lock page!?

Mel