Going over your call plan minutes - bright ideas please!

Yolina

Many years ago, it was quite usual for unused minutes to roll over to the next month so you could build a buffer of extra minutes for when you needed them, but I haven't seen any contracts like that for ages - I assume they are an extinct species now!

DUTR

JennyP wrote: »

This month, I inadvertently went over the included minutes on my Tesco Mobile call plan for the first time.
It has cost me an extra £77 in phone charges! I had no idea calls would stack up so much as normally I don't make many calls and it's all included.
Anyway, I am keen to avoid that again but don't want to have to restrict my phone use. I'm happy to monitor it however.
I could up the included minutes on my call plan but I won't always want so many minutes so that seems silly.
I did wonder about getting a pay-as-you-go SIM - would that be cheaper to use for the months I do need extra minutes i.e. cheaper than extra minutes off the plan or does it cost about the same?
Any other ideas?
I'm sure there must be a creative money-saving way of doing things!

This month I reach my allowance, so thinking of getting a 30 day sim on virgin

JennyP

I ring the same person most of the time. He's on Orange.
Wondering whether I should get a second mobile on Orange PAYG and nominate him as my magic number. Then I could call him for one hour for 25p!
Only problem would be that when signal drops out, I'd have to ring back. It does frequently seem to drop out because of where he lives!
Have never had pay as you go.
If you top up £10 in a month, and don't use all of that £10, do you lose it at the end of the month, or does it carry forward into the next month?

JennyP

I looked at Virgin too - 1200 minutes for some very cheap price! Might look into that as well!

HappyMJ

JennyP wrote: »

100 minutes would still cost £8 which seems an expensive way of doing it!
I'm wondering if there's any way of having some flexibility but paying for a bundle of minutes!

£8 for 100 minutes on top of £0 for 100 minutes is quite good. If you are planning on exceeding your current limits often then consider paying a few extra pounds to extend your limit. When you are down to the free 100 minutes use them wisely and they should last.

grumbler

JennyP wrote: »

100 minutes would still cost £8 which seems an expensive way of doing it!
I'm wondering if there's any way of having some flexibility but paying for a bundle of minutes!

150m bundle costs £5 at Ovivo, 400 one costs £10.

You can buy 1000 for £10 at Vectone.
However, all bundles last for 30 days only.

JennyP

I'm going to go with the Orange plan.
Just one question that someone might be able to answer.
Say I put £10 credit on my Orange PAYG phone - how long does that credit last? Only a month? Or can you carry it over?

HappyMJ

JennyP wrote: »

I'm going to go with the Orange plan.
Just one question that someone might be able to answer.
Say I put £10 credit on my Orange PAYG phone - how long does that credit last? Only a month? Or can you carry it over?

The free allowances only last a month and you need to top up again to get them again....the calls outside the free allowance are 25p/minute....or you can choose not to have any free allowance and use all your credit on standard rate calls which cost 14p/minute.

19lottie82

can you not increase your inclusive minutes with your current provider for a few £?

DUTR

19lottie82 wrote: »

can you not increase your inclusive minutes with your current provider for a few £?

Sadly not, that's if you mean for the current month