PAYG or sim only ??

melly_g

Hi,
We have just bought my son a phone for his birthday.
At the moment it is on payg orange canary tariff and the phone is locked to orange. He has already used £4 in credit in 3 days so i'm thinking this is going to end up costing us a fortune. Would we be better getting a sim only deal where we pay each month as i can see him using at least £10 anyway or just stick with what he is on. Shall we get the phone unlocked and get a cheap deal like tesco sim only?
Also as he has to pay for voice mail how can you turn it off so no one can leave him a message?
Many thanks in advance for any advice.

MorrisonsEmployee

melly_g wrote: »

Hi,
We have just bought my son a phone for his birthday.
At the moment it is on payg orange canary tariff and the phone is locked to orange. He has already used £4 in credit in 3 days so i'm thinking this is going to end up costing us a fortune. Would we be better getting a sim only deal where we pay each month as i can see him using at least £10 anyway or just stick with what he is on. Shall we get the phone unlocked and get a cheap deal like tesco sim only?
Also as he has to pay for voice mail how can you turn it off so no one can leave him a message?
Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Has he used the credit on data or calls and texts? There are some really good sim only deals around - ChitterChatter sim only on TMobile start from £6 per month.

essexman77

Your best getting your phone unlocked as it gives you more choice

there are some very cheap paygo deals out there

icard mobile is the cheapest it uses the vodaphone network

6p calls to mobiles 2p to landlines 5p texts I think there voicemail is free

GiffGaff is next 8p Mobile and landlines 4p texts and calls to 0800 numbers are free also you can do tariffs as well like 250 mins calls and unlimted data for 10 pounds a month if you go to referals you get 5 pounds when you top up with 10 pounds also its free to call giffgaff to giffgaff and uses 02 network voicemail is 8p min

You will find Orange is 25p min so his credit would last 3 times as long is he using one of the above networks maybe icard mobile is best if he gets lot of voicemails if its still free even if its not its 4 tmes cheaper than orange dont forget he still port his orange numer over easy

melly_g

Thanks for the replies so far. He's only 9 and we got it for him so we could contact him while he's out playing so i'm hoping he won't be using it much to call people and he's not too great on texting yet. he hasn't got internet on his phone so won't need any data. I'm just worried that he will get carried away and use up all his credit really quickly and it will just cost us a fortune every month. We put £10 on it and have been charged 25p per min and he was charged nearly £1 for texts to receive text alerts form accrington football. I'm not sure how this happened as he wouldn't know how to sign up for this which is a bit worrying. I have sent them a text to stop this.

MorrisonsEmployee

I would definately think about getting it unlocked then go for one of the following providers -

iCard Mobile - Calls 6p/Text 5p
Ikea Mobile - Calls 8p/Text 4p
Tesco Lite - Calls 8p/Text 4p
GiffGaff - Calls 8p/Text 4p

A sim only plan im guessing would not be much use to him if he is not using much data or minutes, Orange are one of the more expensive 'standard' PAYG networks as they charge 25p for calls and 10p for text.

MorrisonsEmployee

Also for now you might want to put him on the 'Racoon' PAYG price plan - Just call from the handset and select the tariff option and in 48 hours the new tariff will apply.

On 'Racoon' calls and text are 12p a minute - Details here -
http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/plans/paygPlanList.jsp?selectedTariffName=Racoon

MarkBargain

The Orange Canary SIM on a 12-month contract may be the easiest option: 300 minutes and unlimited texts for £10-a-month, see http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/plans/simPlanList.jsp?cmsPageId=02510 Get £50.50 cash back too from Topcashback, see https://www.topcashback.co.uk/orange/

bengalknights

Giffgaff have a goodybag thats unlimited texts and data with 300mins for £10 advantage is thats its pay & go so your not in for a shock of a bill.

essexman77

melly_g wrote: »

Thanks for the replies so far. He's only 9 and we got it for him so we could contact him while he's out playing so i'm hoping he won't be using it much to call people and he's not too great on texting yet. he hasn't got internet on his phone so won't need any data. I'm just worried that he will get carried away and use up all his credit really quickly and it will just cost us a fortune every month. We put £10 on it and have been charged 25p per min and he was charged nearly £1 for texts to receive text alerts form accrington football. I'm not sure how this happened as he wouldn't know how to sign up for this which is a bit worrying. I have sent them a text to stop this.

GiffGaff might be the best then but would require both you and him to have GiffGaff sims

As GiffGaff to GiffGaff calls are free and if he runs out of credit he can still call you or anyone else that has giffgaff sim you do have to top up 10 pounds every 3 months for this so could be hand if its mostly you and family he contacts.

Iv converted half my friends to GiffGaff so cut my bills by 50%

allan673

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

cant go wrong with this from three

4Xchaos

I've recently converted my daughter and myself to Giff-Gaff .... on the recommendations of Grumbler here ... So far - I can't fault it and calls between us are free ... which don't eat into her £5 goody bag - so she still feels in control of her limits. This has saved me £5 p/m which my daughter now receives as hard cash to spend as she pleases. So happy mother. Happy daughter!