SIM only deal question

Pete_Smith_2

Hi all.

Long time reader, first time poster. The MSE weekly email has saved us loads on money off coupons, and we've got all our insurance via Martin's links.

Quick run-down of the situation:

I've currently got an Orange OVP Virgin - I get pretty much the same deal I used to have on virgin. It's a pay monthly (or rather it's not a PAYG) account. I get all calls 25p/min for the 1st 3 min, then 5p after that. 10p text, free voicmail, non-free 0800 calls, but quite expensive data. We have the option of £7.50 a month for uncapped data.

This "account" has 2 OVP Virgin SIMs on it, and we pay by direct debit each month. One SIM for me, one for my wife. Our spend is normally about 10-15ukp each month.

I've got a 3 year old Orange SPV C600 (Windows Mobile phone, so has music player, sat-nav, MS Office tools etc), which isn't a 3G, just a 2G. I'm currently looking on ebay for a more modern equivalent of mine with 3G, WiFi etc, but this one will do me for now.

What I *want* is ...

A SIM(or SIMs) that will give me 2G *and* (potentially) 3G, if I ever upgrade my phone to a 3G model.
I'm not bothered about a new phone - the one I have is fine, My wife has a new one from Chrismas, so I don't want to spend extra on "free" phones that are recouped on any monthly costs.
I want cheap calls, or a pay monthly with enough calls included.
I want "free" or "unlimited" data.
I'd rather pay by direct debit, so I don't have to have any hasstle of paying for topups.
And I want it now.

Does everyone think I'm just as well off keeping the current SIMs, and putting an unlimited data pack on it?

Are there any corking special offers out there that would do us better.

Thanks.

Pete.

HTCWinMob

Hi Pete

Can you break down your usage a bit more. ie how many minutes/texts are you using on each a month?

But without that info, I'd say you're headed in the direction of an O2 simplicity deal (sim only). For £19.58pm you'd get a 600+ minutes and 1200+ texts and unlimited web bolt on, plus free voicemail. Also if you go through quidco I think they are still offering a deal giving £70 cash back on a 12month sim only. Have a look on these boards for more info on that.

Jon_01

I'm not sure data services will work on a sim that old. I used to work in Orange data support and sometimes we had a heck of a job getting data to work on old sims and most of the time we coundn't. The system just wouldn't update on them as they were never designed to work with data...
Orange won't send you a new one as their trying to kill off all the old style acc's. It most certainly won't work on 3g as that's a different kind of sim all together.

I'd have to agree with the post above, a new sim on a new network would be a better idea, then you can keep the ovp sim as it is...

Pete_Smith_2

Jon_01 wrote: »

I'm not sure data services will work on a sim that old. I used to work in Orange data support and sometimes we had a heck of a job getting data to work on old sims and most of the time we coundn't. The system just wouldn't update on them as they were never designed to work with data...
Orange won't send you a new one as their trying to kill off all the old style acc's. It most certainly won't work on 3g as that's a different kind of sim all together.

I'd have to agree with the post above, a new sim on a new network would be a better idea, then you can keep the ovp sim as it is...

Hi.

Thanks for the feedback.

I've been using data on the SIM for about 7 years now. Connects via GPRS and EDGE (when I can get the signal) quite happily.

We're not high usage, so we'd not want to go anywhere near as much as £20 a month (this month is the highest we've had since we were on holiday, roaming, in August, when it was £25, and this month it's £19 for both of us)

Between us, on the same account, we use no more than 60 minutes worth of calls a month.

My Data usage (with having upgraded my OS for one more keen to connect to the net) has been higher this month than usual. This month, we used 34 minutes, 39 texts and 10Mb of data (which is the real killer - it's only 7 days worth!)

Again, thanks for the feedback. I think I'll stick with my phone and SIM! I'll just cap my data costs at the £7.50/month offer that Orange sent me in the post that I've now lost.

Pete.