Virgin - "old PAYG" or "Addict"?

chattychappy

Some months ago I bought a Phone + Virgin PAYG. I just wanted the phone. Part of the deal was that I had to put £20 on the account. Fine.

Well... a friend has just arrived for a short stay in the UK. I have an old phone and still have the unused Virgin SIM. So I've fired it up - all works, £21 on the account. I flicked through the guide - the "Daily Bonus" tariff looked like an improvement over the default tariff but it seems this is no longer available.

I've registered online. I am still on the "original" PAYG tariff. The "Addict" tarriff looks better than this - is there any reason not to change? Can't see one, but it looks like an irreversible decision.

My friend is likely to make a mix of calls - UK mobiles/landlines mostly. She is unlikely to cope with anything complicated - eg signing up for bundles etc.

Thanks..

InMyDreams

DH and I both have the original PAYG tariff and it works out much better than anything else for us as most of our (very few) texts/calls are to each other. Can't knock 3p per text! And the next most common number I call is probably voicemail. Which is free on original but costs on addict I believe. And the final clincher for us is that with the original tariff you can pay by DD each month, just for the calls/texts that you've made, rather than have to top-up/run out of credit. Don't think you can do this with the addict tariff.

Actually I've just given my PAYG sim and phone to my daughter because I've just taken out their £8.50/month deal but all the above still stands. They are all the reasons that I wouldn't switch, but they might not apply to you/your friend. And yes, I got the feeling that you can't take out the original tariff any more (or switch back) which is clever retention on their part I think as I (our family) wouldn't switch provider now unless it was a seriously good offer because we know we'd never get this tariff back again. When my 18 mth contract is up, I may well put my old PAYG sim back into my nice shiny new contract phone unless there are some seriously good (for a light user) sim-only deals around at the time.

Colliefrog

It would depend on how much you call/text and who them calls/texts are to.

The call charges to landlines and any UK mobile network are 20p per minute. Texts are charged at 10p. It's better for people who call/text other networks (PAYG/Daily Bonus charges 40p per minute & 12p a text)

Also, you get an amount of free texts depending on how much you top up - 300 if you top £10, 600 if you top up £15 and unlimited (subject to FUP of 3000) if you top up £20. You also get unlimited (subject to FUP of 1Gb) data allowance.
You top up your phone then you get your texts on the first day of the following month.
If it is your first top up on the Addict tariff then you get the texts immediately PLUS you also get them for the following month. Then you just need to top up by the last day of the month to keep getting the texts.

It costs 20p to retrieve voicemails.

Once you change to Addict, it is permanent. There is no way to change back.

The original PAYG and Daily Bonus tariffs are no longer available to new customers/SIM cards and they have no choice but to have the Addict tariff.