What's the cheapest PAYG sim to get for data

Pabloiom

Bit of explanation needed on this one...

I live on the Isle of Man, so we are on our own mobile networks over here. So that means every time I come back home to the mainland (I'll get shot for calling it that over here!) I end up getting hit with roaming charges, which are a bit painful when it comes to data, especially emails.

So can anyone point me in the right direction for the best value sim card to use as a temporary measure that will give a decent data allowance for when I'm back home for about 4-5 days at a time.

It's not worth getting a contract as I'm only in England about 2 weeks out of the year, so PAYG is going to be the far cheaper option.

JJ_Egan

Virgin PAYG sim only is 30p per day up to 25mb over 25mb charged at £2-0 per mb .
Monthly FUP cap is 750 mb.

jje

Pabloiom

Thanks for that JJE.

Will work out a damn site cheaper than the last time I was in London for one night and got hit with a £40 roaming charge (was at a works party and forgot to turn data roaming off)

Also let that be a warning to anyone coming to the Isle of Man, you'll get hit in the same way!

spinningsheep

Will you be making any calls here in the uk? If so you could look at 02 pay and go simplicity. I just put my brother on it. £15 gets deducted from his calltime, and he gets 100 xnet mins, unlimited texts and 500MB of web plus free wifi on The Cloud and BTOpenzone, valid for 30days. If he doesn't have money on there, it doesn't give him the allowance until he next has enough on there, and then the 30 days starts again. May be worth a look. Think you can also just have the 500MB web option bolt-on for a £5 charge but no mins or texts, but they may have stopped that now.

Pabloiom

I think it's just going to be for data while I'm over there. I'll use my IOM (Sure Cable & Wireless) sim for calls & texts, which aren't too pricey and incoming all ones are free.

This is just to stick a data sim in my smart phone so I can use it as a cheap alternative to buying a satnav (no point in owning one over here as there's only about 4 roads!) but it needs to download the maps from somewhere, so I thought this would be the best idea

It's a right royal pain that we are so close (25 mins on a plane) to England and one of the phone companies is actually owned by O2, but we get counted as a foreign country when it comes to mobile phones

Stuart_W

A talk mobile PAYG SIM would get you 25MB of data for 25p each day you use it. There is a 10p/MB run-on rate.

After the 25MB daily amount, Virgin charge £2 per MB!!.:eek:

If you get the free globetalker SIM, a £10 top up would also happen to get you 75 free minutes of calls back to IOM to use within 30 days from each time you top up - (each £10 credit remains on account). It's an added freebie so may as well make use of it.

http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/pay_as_you_go.html

Pabloiom

£2 per MB is not too far off what I'm being charged for roaming!!

Talk Mobile sounds good with their prices, but I can't find on their site if they are 2/2.5/3g. Anyone use their service that can let me know?

Im_just_careful

If you have a 3G phone then a "3" SIM might be what you want.

150 MB "free" when you top up (minimum top up £5).

Once you have used that, 50p a day gets you 120MB (can be bought each day you need it) or £5 for 500MB which lasts for 30 days if you are in the UK.

That's you sorted, so, in return any recommendations for data tarrifs for someone who is going to the Isle of Man for a few days to enjoy the superb scenery and historic transport ?

ivinsp

What about Giffgaff? Free data (fup 100mb) til 28th Feb. 50p for up to 30mb after that date or unlimited data with no fup with goodybags (bolt-on) of £10 and above. Payg sim only

neil40

Giffgaff blows the rest of them out of the water when it comes to data allowance!

Andy7856

Dont forget to check the T&C regarding how often you need to make a call to keep the line open!!!