Does this type of SIM exist?

Claremac

I am coming to the end of my agreed term with Virgin Mobile and have been looking at Galaxy Note deals with other companies. I have really low usage on my phone particularly for data as I use it on Wifi at home a lot. For example, I have 3 days left of this month and have used 67 minutes, 55 texts and 33 mbs.

Even the cheapest monthly SIMs give more than I need. What I would like ideally is a SIM where I could buy topups only when I need it, so that I don't keep wasting minutes/texts/data. Obviously this is possible for a non-data SIM but is there such a SIM which has minutes/text/data? If there was, I could either buy a Note or get an O2 contract and cancel the data package which would give me a relatively cheap Note and just using the data I need when I need it.

Any help gratefully received!

reclusive46

Maybe the Dolphin sim only would suite you more http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/price-plans/pay-monthly/sim-only ?

12
months
150
anytime minutes
250MB mobile internet & 500 texts

£7.00

buscape

90 day £10.50 sim only from Vodafone? Bit more expensive than the orange deal above but it's a shorter contract and you won't be wasting too much.

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/personal/price-plans/pay-monthly/sim-only-plans/index.html

Most pay as you go sims come with data these days as well, so don't discount those.

Claremac

Thanks, but I could probably get that sort of deal from Virgin through retentions. What I am after is something that does not have a monthly charge but I pay a set amount and top up when it runs out. I have a (now pretty much unused) mobile dongle which worked like this.

grumbler

Ovivo New Network. 200 minutes 200 Texts Free indefinitely.

MUHAMID

Virgin:You can pay with topup voucher (instead of paying with DD).
I normally keep my account in credit by topping up more than my usage so they never charge me from my bank account.
you can buy discounted topup voucher from ebay with around 20-40% less price.

Stuart_W

Claremac wrote: »

I have really low usage on my phone...this month have used 67 minutes, 55 texts and 33 mbs.

If you don't want to try the advertising supported free option suggested by grumbler, the kind of straight forward simple PAYG option you seem to be after, even the cheapest budget service, is going to be more expensive than either a SIM-only monthly contract or time-limited bundles/extras on a PAYG deal.

icardmobile PAYG offers 6p/min mobiles, 3p/min landlines, 5p/text, 10p/MB, just top up as and when - but even your stated usage this month would have still cost up to £10 this way - more than the £7/month SIM mentioned earlier, and much much better £10/month deals are available.

Talkmobile (via Carphone Warehouse) £5.11/month for 100 mins, 100 texts, 100MB
is a good deal if you stay within these limits.

It depends how variable your monthly usage may be as budget SIM-only deals can end up costing a fortune if you are hit by huge run-on rates (often 30p/min or higher).

mikegahan

Try Giffgaff. Rolling sim only deals, £10 monthly gets you unlimited texts and internet plus 200+ minutes. It uses O2 network and id owned by them. No direct debits unless you want to allow automatic renewal

Claremac

Thanks for all the replies. The Ovivo one looks interesting but I'm not sure about the advertising and it seems a bit untested. I'm not sure I understand the Virgin top-up mentioned and I asked Virgin today about it when I was talking to them and they didn't know it. It does look as though my best bet will be to just get a low price monthly plan.

liubeliu

Claremac wrote: »

I am coming to the end of my agreed term with Virgin Mobile and have been looking at Galaxy Note deals with other companies. I have really low usage on my phone particularly for data as I use it on Wifi at home a lot. For example, I have 3 days left of this month and have used 67 minutes, 55 texts and 33 mbs.

Any help gratefully received!

What phone are you using now, if not an Android, iPhone type smartphone you data usage could very quickly ramp up as it does use data in the background. Therefore a good SIM only deal is definately the way to go. I have a Note and I set it to let me know when I am 25MB from my allowance and to switch of mobile data when I am within 5MB. This gives me time to buy a bolt on, fortunately haven't had to do it yet but at least I won't get any surprises.

Claremac

Hi, I'm currently using an HTC Desire. I expect my usage to go up by a bit as the Note can be used to view the main rather than mobile sites and also because it will be a better browsing experience. If I go with O2 on one of their 100Mb deals I can keep an eye on data in the same way as you and buy an upgrade to 500Mb just for the month for £3 so that might be the way to go.