trying to work out best deal for family mobiles - voda / asda/ any other ideas pls

jema_2

my poor head is spinning with figures-someone nice pls help out..

4 in family, have 4 just about working phones, currently
Me 1x v old voda contract £13.50- 300mins free after 7pm & weekends
(expires dec09- i know voda will let me change if needed- usualy spend £25-27 pcm, more daytime calls now, 10-15 txts pcm-must keep phone no.
1 x voda payg- topped up £10 every 2-3 months- calls only, never txt, must keep phone no
1x teenager voda payg- £10 ev 2/3 months- usually calling me, or txting pals- does restrict use as much as can as know not much £ to spend
1x younger child - voda just killed the sim as haddent been used for 3months - carries it really for safety if she goes on bicycle...or needs to call me
... Asda has 8p/ min& 4p text(ironically via vodaphone)... it seems insane but if i work out the voda @ 20p / min & 10p text, what it buys our family .... its loads cheaper... just to move the whole lot to asda.....(or is this likely to suddenly go up in cost -
I had thought about voda family, but they wont add it to my contract as its below the minimun threshhold... & then wouldnt provide teenager cheap txts... any ideas please

sjpkgp

Jemma

I am interested in the response to this as we have two eleven year olds that we like to keep in touch with so "family" type arrangements would also be useful to us. One thing I did note (and I have no idea what this service is like) is Lebara mobile are offering free sims plus £5 credit if you transfer your old number. Calls and texts between all Lebara phones are free and the other calls don't seem overly expensive (10p and 10p texts). Of course there must be a catch somewhere and I note they only offer £5 free with a top up. We are thinking of going down this route as the three phones rarely phone or text anything other than each other (this of course will change as they get older !!) which probably won't suit you but I thought it was worth a mention.
Sal x

peregrin

I think Asda Mobile is good if you don't use it that much - if you use your phone a lot the mainstream networks tend to offer more value because of money saving add-on's etc.

But in this case it's probably your best bet given your usage patterns, if you were topping up each phone at least £10-15 a month then there may be better deals, for instance with O2 Unlimited which offers free calls and texts to ALL O2 customers, not just group members.

With Asda £10 will buy your kids 250 texts or 125 minutes, or a combination of the two. Do you think that would be enough?

I used to have Vodafone Family and loved it but with these plans, they make their money back by raising charges to call other networks, so if you consider one of them then consider this - it might be free to call group members or same network, but if you/your kids are texting and calling other networks then you will probably have to pay more.

The final option is 3, if you top-up any amount from £5 you get FREE 3-3 calls which don't expire for 90 days, plus some free Internet access, plus you get the credit to use on other services. But everyone needs to top-up at least £5 at least every 90 days.

peregrin

sjpkgp wrote: »

Jemma

I am interested in the response to this as we have two eleven year olds that we like to keep in touch with so "family" type arrangements would also be useful to us. One thing I did note (and I have no idea what this service is like) is Lebara mobile are offering free sims plus £5 credit if you transfer your old number. Calls and texts between all Lebara phones are free and the other calls don't seem overly expensive (10p and 10p texts). Of course there must be a catch somewhere and I note they only offer £5 free with a top up. We are thinking of going down this route as the three phones rarely phone or text anything other than each other (this of course will change as they get older !!) which probably won't suit you but I thought it was worth a mention.
Sal x

The catch with Lebara is that calls are limited to 15 minutes duration, after which you have to hang up and dial again. Not a huge problem by any stretch of the imagination but you have to remember, and also other networks like Vodafone Family are far more generous, giving you 60 minutes duration before re-dialling. Other networks impose no limits, like O2 Unlimited.

Finally, Lebara's page says the promotion ends 31st July 2009. Of course it's probable they will extend it - but they might not.

jema_2

thank you guys, stll sort of pondering...
just had 2 comments that both lebara & asda... the texts take ages to come thro'
.... any ideas first hand if this is true?

......as some of the txts in our house are usually... "please come & fetch me"... half an hour delay would be infuriating..

thanks Jane

evenasus

Check out the new Tesco Lite... http://www.tesco.com/mobilenetwork/content.aspx?page=83

Ypaymore

O2 Family Bolt on includes calls,texts, and picture messages between members.

http://yourfamily.o2.co.uk/familybolton