Going over your call plan minutes - bright ideas please!

JennyP

I don't want to have more minutes on my current plan. I might not use them.
I think having an Orange PAYG is ideal - it means he can call me free as I'll be one of his magic numbers and I can call him for 25p per hour as long as I top up for £10 a month. If I don't top up, he can still call me!
If you top up £10 but don't use it, what happens? Does it disappear at the end of the month or do you carry it forward?

HappyMJ

JennyP wrote: »

I don't want to have more minutes on my current plan. I might not use them.
I think having an Orange PAYG is ideal - it means he can call me free as I'll be one of his magic numbers and I can call him for 25p per hour as long as I top up for £10 a month. If I don't top up, he can still call me!
If you top up £10 but don't use it, what happens? Does it disappear at the end of the month or do you carry it forward?

It depends on which tariff you choose. Racoon has no magic numbers as they consider it a cheap plan. The Canary plan you are thinking of only has the magic number for a month after you top up by £10 and you have to opt in to get it and lose the 100 free minutes to any number offer. Read the T's and C's. You can only make 3 magic number calls per day totalling up to 3 hours. There are better offers. If you both switch to Ovivo you can call each other for free at any time.

JennyP

I don't think my friend will switch. He's been with Orange for years and loves them. I don't mind losing the 100 free minutes.

I thought the Orange idea was ingenious! Especially as I can just get him to call me back so I don't even need to top up!

Can you top up for less than £10 at a time?

HappyMJ

JennyP wrote: »

I don't think my friend will switch. He's been with Orange for years and loves them. I don't mind losing the 100 free minutes.

I thought the Orange idea was ingenious! Especially as I can just get him to call me back so I don't even need to top up!

Can you top up for less than £10 at a time?

I'd suggest Racoon then and the calls or texts will cost 14p for 1 minute or 1 text and he can call you back for 25p.

Yes you can top up for as little as 10p in store.

JennyP

Not Canary? I won't use it for other texts. i have 5000 in my plan with Tesco!

HappyMJ

JennyP wrote: »

Not Canary? I won't use it for other texts. i have 5000 in my plan with Tesco!

Nope that requires a £10 topup each month. Racoon you can top up any amount at any time and get relatively cheap calls @14p/minute and if your friend can call you back straight after you texting them for free from your Tesco phone then you won't ever need to top up your Orange phone.

JennyP

I see! Thank you! That really clarifies it - you should get a job at Orange and rewrite their website. You've made things much clearer!

JennyP

Now what I need is a cheap second handset that will work with bluetooth!

techno79

If you have unlimited data then you could use Skype to make calls for when you go over your allowance. The benefit with using Skype is that your credit won't run out regardless how infrequent you use it (PAYG SIM's normally require topping up every now and again or make a chargeable call to determine it is still active).

The other benefit with Skype is that you can configure it so that your main mobile number comes up on the receiver's caller display. If you use a PAY SIM then you'd either have to call with withheld number or you'll have the hassle of a completely different number coming up on the other end.

HappyMJ

techno79 wrote: »

If you have unlimited data then you could use Skype to make calls for when you go over your allowance. The benefit with using Skype is that your credit won't run out regardless how infrequent you use it (PAYG SIM's normally require topping up every now and again or make a chargeable call to determine it is still active).

The other benefit with Skype is that you can configure it so that your main mobile number comes up on the receiver's caller display. If you use a PAY SIM then you'd either have to call with withheld number or you'll have the hassle of a completely different number coming up on the other end.

Skype is OK but every time I've tried it the quality isn't really that good and it also requires both people to have Skype running all the time on the phone although I suppose a free text "open Skype I want to talk" will sort that out.