whats the difference?

donnydiva

hi

can someone please explain the difference between 'sim only' and PAYG on a 30 day contract?

thanks

Guys_Dad

With sim-only, you buy a bundle of minutes and when that runs out, you get charged at the normal rate so you could end up with a £50 bill on a £20 sim-only contract - just like a normal handset-included contract.

With PAYG, when your money runs out, your phone can't make any more calls till you top up.

donnydiva

thanks for that - that was a quick reply!

could i be cheeky and ask another quickie question? When it states you get so many mins in a deal, say 200 texts, 100 mins, etc, are the mins useable to any other mobile? Im on Orange at min, and know their Magic Numbers are just Orange to Orange, but was wondering about the minutes included in a deal. (hope i dont sound thick, not well up on this sort of thing!)

ta

Guys_Dad

Nowadays minutes are to land lines & mobiles on any UK network, but 08xx numbers and overseas numbers are outside the bundle and are chargeable on top.

Orange to Orange magic numbers are included on top, I believe, but a quick call to 150 will confirm that. Orange Wednesdays are included at the std 35p per time.

Do look at the minutes/texts you can get from Voda, O2, T-Mobile and Tesco as well and also look at the cost of any minutes over your standard. Some are as much as 35p per minute.

Also look and see if your chosen network has a minimum call duration for all calls.

Vodafone, for example, has a minimum 1 minute per call so if you ring someone and get their voicemail, that's a minute even if you are only connected for 10 seconds.

I would always err on the side of caution and go over with my monthly minutes. at 35p per minute, the extra £5 you spend on the bundle equates to less than 15 minutes outside the bundle.

Having said all that, there are lots of people who swear by giff-gaff and their goody bags on PAYG, particularly if you want to use data.

donnydiva

thanks once for your help - much appreciated :-)