OT PAYG mobile phone tarrifs

[ARW]

All I want is a sim card with £5 or £10 on it that I can use when needed and the credit will not run out at the end of the month.

No need for internet or free texts.

Any suggestions?

[tim.....]

As long as you use it, or do you expect it to last for every if you never use it?

If the former:

Sainsbury's or Asda standard tariff 8ppm, 4ppt. Avoid the bundled tariffs. Tesco have such a deal in their price list, but it doesn't seem possible to get it as a new customer

In my area the Asda staff were a bunch of numpties who didn't have a clue and the Sainsbury's' "specialist phone expert" was very helpful

YMMV

tim

[Capitol]

EE 321 tariff

[Theo Markettos]

If you have a 3G phone, Three's standard tariff is called 321:

3p/min 2p/text 1p/MB

There's extra free stuff when you topup (MB and 3-to-3 mins/texts) but you can ignore that.

Theo

[alan_m]

Giffgaff

[philipuk]

Check coverage. SIM is no use if you can't get any reception, which bars O2 /GiffGaff out around here.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Truphone.

Been reasonably impressed especially with the divert ansafone to email feature

[alan_m]

As with most SIMs you will have to make one call using the SIM every 3 (??) months to keep the SIM active - the credit on a basic GiffGaff SIM card stays until you use it. They have other deals with a regular amount per month but ignore these deals and just get the SIM card and put 'ordinary' credit on it (don't buy a goodybag or databag).

GG uses the o2 network.

[ARW]

Check coverage. SIM is no use if you can't get any reception, which bars O2/GiffGaff out around here.

I have no idea where I will be:-)

This is for a spare phone (with all the numbers I need stored in it) that will be kept in the glovebox of the van.

The EE 321 plan suggested by Capitol looks interesting.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've got a Tesco one in the spare phone and was surprised to find any credit doesn't appear to time out - unlike Vodaphone PAYG.

[Ronnie]

My spare phone (Orange chip) has had credit on it for years. I just make a short call every now and then.

[Jonathan]

Not true of my Vodaphone pay as you go.

Jonathan

[Jim Newman]

3 do a 3 2 1 PAYG that doesn't run out.

3ppm for calls

2ppm for texts 1ppMeg for data

However, if your phone is 'old school' it may be based on 2G mobile comms, so it's possible it won't work on 3, which is 3G only.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Was with mine. Some time ago they even took back my number and re-issued it - claiming lack of use. Had a devil of a job getting it back. Hopefully things have changed.

[Malcolm Race]

I was put onto that tarrif without adequate explanation when I bought a simple text/voice only phone (because the previous one had not survived the washing machine. EE attempt to take £10 per month but as long as I keep less than this on the phone they eventually go away until the next month. I have tried to opt out but so far the electronic routes have (unsurprisingly) failed. I shall have to summon up the energy to discuss the matter with the local EE shop

Malcolm

[alan_m]

Often the T&C state one call in, say, 3 months but often they don't take back the number for 9 to 12 months. GiffGaff send an email informing that no calls have been made in the period and if you want to keep the number just make a single call.

I keep a 'emergency' £15 phone in the glovebox of the car that is charged every time I drive. The GG PAYG SIm is ideal for this purpose.

[Dave W]

I would double-check that. I had an O2 PAYG phone for emergencies and sent a text now and again, but the account got deleted because only calls are counted, not texts, according to them when I complained. I suggest making at least one call every 3 months.

[Michael Chare]

I have several PAYG Sims. I do send a text message every 3 months. Start of each quarter.

[Windmill]

I find that Vodaphone (well, Icardmobile which runs on their network) gives better coverage than some others. Can get a signal even when I'm down in the crawl space trying to solder water pipes, so in an emergency I could call the fire brigade, ambulance, or whatever.

My thinking is that (here at least) Vodaphone use a lower frequency which seems to cope better with stone walls etc. Though some individual once denied that this could be true.

[Scott M]

Nope, it's true to a degree. For the 2G part of their networks (dunno about the 3G part of their operations) Vodafone uses the 900MHz band (as does O2 IIRC) where EE, Orange, T-Mobile[1] use 1800MHz which doesn't propogate as well. Three is 2GHz which struggles yet more. So /on average/ for good coverage in general Vodafone has always been the best bet. Localised geography also comes into it to make a mockery of the average, natch.

A good stone wall will stop pretty much everything though!

[1] Are they all the same now? I really don't care.