Best PAYG Tariff

lynseydee

I currently have an O2 sim on PAYG. I don't use my phone lots but was wondering if I could find myself a better deal. I thought I should be getting 100 free minutes when topping up £10.00 a month but have just had a 17 minute call to another mobile and the call has cost me nearly £7.00 and I only topped up on Thursday. £10.00 used to quite easily last me a couple of months but this is the second month running where my credit has gone quite quickly.

I have tried looking online but with so many providers and so many tariffs it's a minefield to know which one to go for.

What do other people recommend?

KillerWatt

You may have only topped up on Thursday, but your free minutes (if you have them) will only start from your anniversary date.

lynseydee

Just looked to see how to find out my anniversary date is and got a text message back saying free monthly allowance -0 minutes and 0 seconds or 0 texts and 1.0 MB left which will expire on 31 March.

Not sure what that means.

KillerWatt

Your anniversary date is the 31st March, that's when your free 100 minutes (or 100 texts) will kick in.

grumbler

I don't see anything about free minutes in the OP (EDIT: I see now). What I see is £10 and 100 minutes. I don't understand how 17 minutes on a PAYG can cost £7 after a recent topup. Is this 'simplicity' PAYG?

I have tried looking online but with so many providers and so many tariffs it's a minefield to know which one to go for.

http://giffgaff.com/ is very popular now.
Also have a look at T-mobile Cashback loophole. Get £55 and free minutes for nothing.

KillerWatt

grumbler wrote: »

I don't understand how 17 minutes on a PAYG can cost £7 after a recent topup. Is this 'simplicity' PAYG?

No, it's the old Talkalot tariff that is coming up on 14 years old.
You have to put £10 on every month, and in return you get 100 anytime cross network minutes (or 100 texts), and you get to keep the £10.

Once you've done your free minutes, you get charged 30p per minute for the first 3 minutes of the day, then it's 5p per minute thereafter.
MMS are charged at 30p, while SMS is charged at 12p once the freebie credits are done. I'm not too sure how the OP could hit £7 for 17 minutes, unless he/she hasn't told us about text messages that may have been sent as well as if they are using the internet side of it or not as well.

O2 first introduced the tariff to bring the masses in (it was quite a deal back then), then they did their usual once they had enough customers and started introducing other plans that sounded great but weren't and got the customers to switch (just like they have with their broadband).

Stompa

KillerWatt wrote: »

I'm not too sure how the OP could hit £7 for 17 minutes...

An 070 personal number perhaps?

KillerWatt

Stompa wrote: »

An 070 personal number perhaps?

We have one, they are only 20p per min unless the owner decides to swallow all or part of the cost.

Stompa

KillerWatt wrote: »

We have one, they are only 20p per min unless the owner decides to swallow all or part of the cost.

Isn't it 50p per min to call an 070 number on the Talkalot tariff though? And I guess a lot of people would think they were just calling a normal mobile number.

lynseydee

KillerWatt wrote: »

No, it's the old Talkalot tariff that is coming up on 14 years old.
You have to put £10 on every month, and in return you get 100 anytime cross network minutes (or 100 texts), and you get to keep the £10.

Once you've done your free minutes, you get charged 30p per minute for the first 3 minutes of the day, then it's 5p per minute thereafter.
MMS are charged at 30p, while SMS is charged at 12p once the freebie credits are done. I'm not too sure how the OP could hit £7 for 17 minutes, unless he/she hasn't told us about text messages that may have been sent as well as if they are using the internet side of it or not as well.

O2 first introduced the tariff to bring the masses in (it was quite a deal back then), then they did their usual once they had enough customers and started introducing other plans that sounded great but weren't and got the customers to switch (just like they have with their broadband).

It's actually 25p for the first 3 minutes then 5p a minute but close enough

The 17 minute call I made was the first call I made since topping up on Thursday, no texts made and I only have a basic phone so don't use the internet. I was calling my mum on her mobile who is on the Tesco network but not sure if that has any impact.

I might have a look and see what grumbler has suggested.

diamonds

Orange bundles on payg are great on Dolphin, £5 a month = unlimited texts, £5 for 100 mins for the month or buy weekly 100 mins bundles for £5, data costs are a draw back compared to cheap 3 if payg data is a use you want

I got a mate on Orange 100 mins a week and unlimited texts for £25 with flexibility to not lose mins when in Europe for work as he does not buy them that week if away, if he was here most the month then I'd recommend the £25 a month 3 payg add on for 100 mins more than Orange, 3000 texts and UNLIMITED data

Still for your usage £10 on 3 buys 100 mins, 3000 texts and 500mb data, I'd add an extra fiver as for £15 you get 300mins, 3000texts and UNLIMITED data (no fair use policy & includes tethering (using mobile as modem)

http://www.three.co.uk/Pay_As_You_Go/Add_ons