The Lemon Fool

In the past I've used a Three sim in a payg mobile phone, as they had the best rates: 3p/minute for calls, 2p/text and 1p/meg for data. Their network is too spotty for me, and I was delighted to discover that O2 have the same pricing on their classic tariff, but with the advantage of O2's -in my opinion- much better and more reliable network.

It's pretty easy to get a new sim from O2, get a PAC code from your current network, and then port your number onto the new O2 sim card,if you have an unlocked phone. Good rates, solid network, works for me. Just fyi.

If you own the phone outright you can get a 1 year sim-only contract for around £10/month with unlimited minutes.

There are cheaper deals with monthly top ups or pay by the minute, but with all of those you have to spend time topping them up and if you miscalculate or talk for too long they can easily cost more.

For me the time saving and simplicity/peace of mind is worth an extra £5/month.

Lanark wrote:If you own the phone outright you can get a 1 year sim-only contract for around £10/month with unlimited minutes.

There are cheaper deals with monthly top ups or pay by the minute, but with all of those you have to spend time topping them up and if you miscalculate or talk for too long they can easily cost more.

For me the time saving and simplicity/peace of mind is worth an extra £5/month.

Do people still use mobile phones to talk?

When I'm looking at a deal the only thing that matters is the data. There is invariably far more bundled texts and calls than I need.

I'm currently on a special offer from Vodafone (transferred from Talkmobile) with 3.5GB for £6.92 per month. I think this is limited to 2 years, are there other O2 or Vodafone deals around for similar money?

Giffgaff has 3GB for £10 I think.

Scott.

I'm away most of August but have my phone deal expiring while I'm away. Just trying to figure out how I maintain/transfer the service without EE stitching me up for an extra month of £30 contract fee (which originally included the handset price, but now is OTT for the minutes/data only).

I pay EE £10 for a month with unlimited texts, 90 minutes plus bonus minutes of talk time and 2GB of data plus bonus data. It's a package on their PAYG tariff. Currently 3.5GB and 300 minutes. I never use anything like those amounts, but I would were it not for Wi-fi.

TJH

tjh290633 wrote:I pay EE £10 for a month with unlimited texts, 90 minutes plus bonus minutes of talk time and 2GB of data plus bonus data. It's a package on their PAYG tariff. Currently 3.5GB and 300 minutes.

I've recently been given a free £20 VOXI SIM. They have 3 tariffs, all on a rolling month by month basis, all with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited access to social media (i.e. use of Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Viber and Facebook Messenger don't eat into your data allowance).

The £20 will get me 45GB of data for 30 days, the other tariffs are £15 for 15GB and £10 for 6GB.

They use the Vodafone network (they're owned by Vodafone).

Seems like a pretty good deal, but I haven't tried it yet.

http://www.voxi.co.uk

Scott.

NomoneyNohoney wrote:In the past I've used a Three sim in a payg mobile phone, as they had the best rates: 3p/minute for calls, 2p/text and 1p/meg for data. Their network is too spotty for me, and I was delighted to discover that O2 have the same pricing on their classic tariff, but with the advantage of O2's -in my opinion- much better and more reliable network.

It's pretty easy to get a new sim from O2, get a PAC code from your current network, and then port your number onto the new O2 sim card,if you have an unlocked phone. Good rates, solid network, works for me. Just fyi.

Smarty.com
Unlimited texts
Unlimited calls
All for £5.00 a month no contract.
I also get 2.5GB data for an extra £2.50 month but don't pay for any data not used so for most of the year I don't pay this £2.50.
I have a J3 Samsung which cost £120.00 and find its more than adequate for my needs.

AiY
TiY (Thrifty in Yorkshire)

Sky mobile: unlimited calls and texts, 8gb of data and 8gb welcome bonus, roll over of unused data, SIM only , £10/month, 12 month contract.

Some sites do cashback, making monthly cost as little as £2 and unlimited calls and txt

Asda PAYG (EE network) has 2GB of data plus some calls & texts for £7 a month. Or 4GB for £10 a month. No contract, just buy the bundles when you want or set them to recurr.

Before Asda, I was with giff gaff (O2) who had something similar. However the phone signal went to nothing when some new houses were built between me and the O2 transmitter.

Getting a bit OT I suppose, but the Giffgaff £10 Goodybag has unlimited minutes and now has 6Gb data (actually 7GB once you've bought 2 or 3 Goodybags).

What I like about Giffgaff is the flexibility to change Goodybags from month to month (I need a bit more data to listen to BBC Radio when out and about when I'm away for several weeks in Tenerife) and to easily change call and text service settings and top-up options.

I never understand why when people ask questions about payg, the answers include monthly tariffs. The reason I stick with Three's 3-2-1 is while 1p/Mb for data is now very high compared with bundles, I find my £5 top-ups last nearly a month, so my costs really are low.

JohnB wrote:I never understand why when people ask questions about payg, the answers include monthly tariffs. The reason I stick with Three's 3-2-1 is while 1p/Mb for data is now very high compared with bundles, I find my £5 top-ups last nearly a month, so my costs really are low.

...because you can generally get a fairly decent contract for around a fiver. Deals aren't brilliant at the moment, but you can still get

Minutes Unlimited
Data 1GB
5G No
SMS (Text Messages) Unlimited
Monthly Cost £6.00
Upfront Cost None
Total Cost £6

https://www.mobiles.co.uk/sim-only-deal ... y_cost_asc


...and that's a one month rolling contract, so little different in terms of commitment to your last £5 top up. Oh, and cashback via tcb...

JohnB wrote:I never understand why when people ask questions about payg, the answers include monthly tariffs. The reason I stick with Three's 3-2-1 is while 1p/Mb for data is now very high compared with bundles, I find my £5 top-ups last nearly a month, so my costs really are low.

Your sentiment is fair enough.

However, even if I buy one month bundles, it's still "pay as you go", just in larger chunks and importantly, with no 18 month contract or anything such commitment.
Furthermore, if I tootle off outside the EU on holiday for 3 months in the winter, I don't buy any bundles for that time. So again, it's more like pay as you go, since when I'm not using it, I'm not paying.

I use a sim only deal from iD (owned by Carphone Warehouse) which is £10 a month for 10GB of data! There is a limit on voice minutes (300 I think) but I very rarely use that many and if I do get close to my limit I can always use data to call someone via Skype or Whatsapp calls.

Customer service has been good and they let you set a limit of any out of plan spending, so you'll never get stung with a huge bill for say, calling a number that isn't included in free minutes.

In terms of a phone to go with it, I'd highly recommend the Motorolla G series of android phones. Much cheaper than top end brands with similar specs. In the UK Amazon often offers a unique variant of them with improved specs for only a little more cost.

1pmobile seems to offer good rates for low phone users with no data requirements

Stonge wrote:1pmobile seems to offer good rates for low phone users with no data requirements

Yes, the rates are good. However, they do require you to top up by £10 at least once every 120 days.

A couple of suggestions/points.

Don't forget Quidco/TopCashback & other websites, as they frequently offer better deals than going direct to the mobile phone company website, plus the possibility of cashback.

For example the 12GB / unlimited calls and texts contract is £16 a month if you go direct to Three, but exactly the same thing is £10 a month through Quidco plus the possibility of £55 cashback; so £16 vs £5.42 a month for the same thing from the same supplier!

Don't worry about going through Quidco/TopCashback as it will simply 'drop' you onto the mobile companies website to complete the order. Obviously to get the cashback, usual precautions needed; clear cookies beforehand and don't have an adblocker running.

Secondly, you may not get all the benefits of the mobile phone companies service if you go for a service through an MVNO rather than direct from the network operator. For example although Smarty runs on the Three network and is owned and run by Three, you don't get to use VoLTE or WiFi calling or data access on the tube in London if you use Smarty.

Similarly if you don't buy your phone from Three (unless it is an iPhone) then it also likely won't use VoLTE (Three call this 4G SuperVoice) or WiFi calling - Apple have the power to say "you will make this work" so it will work on any iPhone no matter where bought - although obviously needs to be unlocked.

VoLTE uses channel 20 on Three which provides coverage where you don't normally get coverage, particularly inside buildings. WiFi calling obviously uses WiFi to to make calls when you are not in a coverage area.

So my experience in using Three in an Amazon bought Moto G7 was significantly poorer than using it in an iPhone bought from Argos, simply because the iPhone is able to use VoLTE even though the Moto G7 was capable of using VoLTE but was excluded from using it by Three.

NomoneyNohoney wrote:In the past I've used a Three sim in a payg mobile phone, as they had the best rates: 3p/minute for calls, 2p/text and 1p/meg for data. Their network is too spotty for me, and I was delighted to discover that O2 have the same pricing on their classic tariff, but with the advantage of O2's -in my opinion- much better and more reliable network.

It's pretty easy to get a new sim from O2, get a PAC code from your current network, and then port your number onto the new O2 sim card,if you have an unlocked phone. Good rates, solid network, works for me. Just fyi.

I just had a look:

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/pay-as-you-go ... -as-you-go

If you don't top up, or add a Bolt On at least once in any six month period, your mobile will be disconnected and you'll lose any credit on your account. If you want to be reconnected you'll be given a new mobile number.

That looks like a show stopper for me. £10 credit lasts me about six months on 3 Mobile PAYG.

I have EE payg I've just been almost a year between top ups. Their test is if you haven't USED it in 6 months.

Rob