Best Sim Only Deals (MEGATHREAD)

Silverbirch

Hi Colin, thanks very much. That was extremely helpful. Happy new year. Christine

alkip

J-Greens wrote: »

Anyone had any problems with the Amazon/EE £11 per month deal?

How long does the confirmation email take? I'd rather have some insurance the deal's legit before I signup for the contract with EE.
Thanks.

Not the answer you were looking for but I am leaving t-mobile (part of EE). I've had loads of trouble since joining them; more often than not no signal at home, total incompetence when it comes to billing, absolutely atrocious customer service and decidedly dodgy mobile internet service - I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

colinicky

Personally I have just gone back to Tmobile with 2 of my phones. My wife's has been with them all along. I only left at renewal because they could give a deal to make me stay but to be honest I wish I had paid & stayed. I get a good to excellent signal in most of my normal areas & my Internet speeds beat my home broadband all day long. So it really does depend on where you are as to the service you receive from any operator. Cannot really comment on their CS as only used it a handfull of times but ever had a problem with it .

kingcog2014

I'm on vodafone red sim-only. Bought with £157 cashback from TCB and then 20% off the original price through a friend who works at a company that uses them.

So it comes to under £4 a month for unltd calls and texts and 1GB data.

Cashback is only valid for new contract customers so at the end simply give notice to go to PAYG on the day of contract expiry and then buy another SIM and migrate the number across. You don't even need to be on PAYG that long. It worked for me on less than a week.

Of course there's no "free" phone but subtract £4 from the monthly cost of such a contract and multiply by 24 and you will struggle to find a deal that makes the handset cheaper than sim free.

I don't know why everyone doesn't do this.

Topper1900

kingcog2014 wrote: »

I'm on vodafone red sim-only. Bought with £157 cashback from TCB and then 20% off the original price through a friend who works at a company that uses them.

So it comes to under £4 a month for unltd calls and texts and 1GB data.

Cashback is only valid for new contract customers so at the end simply give notice to go to PAYG on the day of contract expiry and then buy another SIM and migrate the number across. You don't even need to be on PAYG that long. It worked for me on less than a week.

Of course there's no "free" phone but subtract £4 from the monthly cost of such a contract and multiply by 24 and you will struggle to find a deal that makes the handset cheaper than sim free.

I don't know why everyone doesn't do this.

I assume because not everybody who has a friend who works at a company who uses them?? Also it relys on the cashback paying up w/o any issues, if it doesn't GiffGaff etc are cheaper.

sarge1979

Look on orange for sim only deals. Also sim only is an excellent way of getting your foot in the door for people that are on pay as you talk and never had a contract before. It builds up a relationship with the network if you make payments on time and after 6 clear payments with them you should have no problems been able to upgrade to a contract with a handset after then aswell. Also it builds up your credit rating to! Orange should have the highest pass rate I have heard aswell ;o)

sarge1979

Silverbirch wrote: »

Hi, I am thinking of changing from PAYG to a sim only deal. Are the deals at the start of this thread still current? A friend of mine has just gone over to the Orange one for £8 a month but says that calling your answerphone is not included in the deal (so you have to pay extra for that). Is this the same with all of them? The GiffGaff one looks good (£7.50) but just wanted to check out about the answerphone thing. Also, what does 1m mean here? A contract for just one month - it can't be! Thanks for any advice.

Not sure about the voicemail bit but you can get sim only which is just a 30 day rolling agreement and is a great way to build credit to. If you pay by direct debit with this you can try to upgrade for a proper contract after 6 months to and should be accepted if you make payments on time!

grumbler

sarge1979 wrote: »

...It builds up a relationship with the network if you make payments on time and after 6 clear payments with them you should have no problems been able to upgrade to a contract with a handset after then aswell. ...

sarge1979 wrote: »

...If you pay by direct debit with this you can try to upgrade for a proper contract after 6 months...

Why on earth do you think that everyone wants to have a 'proper' contract with a handset?

M0ney

I just got a PAC code from Vodafone, I'm tempted to go for the 30day SIM only contract, on offer is 150mins, ultd texts, 500gb for £7/month. The only thing that puts me off is the Vodafone tech told me that during busy time Virgin customers may get cut off because they are cheaper alternative using the T-mobile network. Is this true and would I be likely to notice any issues if I was with Virgin?

Wouldn't mind hearing about people's experiences of Virgin mobile in general too...

ZhugeEX

M0ney wrote: »

I just got a PAC code from Vodafone, I'm tempted to go for the 30day SIM only contract, on offer is 150mins, ultd texts, 500gb for £7/month. The only thing that puts me off is the Vodafone tech told me that during busy time Virgin customers may get cut off because they are cheaper alternative using the T-mobile network. Is this true and would I be likely to notice any issues if I was with Virgin?

Wouldn't mind hearing about people's experiences of Virgin mobile in general too...

Not true. Yes they get a lower priority than EE customers, but it's hardly noticeable. Best thing to do is try the network in your area yourself first.