Advice on group mobile contracts for family

Frozen_up_north

While the EE shared plan looks "OK" on the face of it, the small print would put me off. The lead account holder appears to have to take a phone + SIM deal, you can't just take 3 x SIM cards on a 30 day contract.

We bought our phones outright and they are SIM free (and not network locked). We have 2 SIM only 30 day contracts with the old 3 "One Plan", which is sadly no longer offered to new customers. However, more than a year down the line we are still on one of the best deals around with virtually unlimited use (2000 any network mins, 5000 3 to 3 mins, unlimited data inc unlimited tethering on 4G as it rolls out), all for £18 a month and so far (touch wood), no increases in charges with inflation.

If you can split the phone and SIM it gives much greater flexibility. Especially given the number of complaints on here where sites have changed or where folks have moved house to find poor coverage leaving them stuck with the remaining months of the contract.

On the original point about combined contracts, I don't think the networks see 3 users at the same address as a big deal. There have been deals where you can call nominated numbers, or call other users on the same network for a huge number of minutes or free, which can give good savings. On 3 between the two of us, ignoring being able to use VOIP calls such as Skype to Skype on data, we could talk to each other for a combined total of 14000 mins per month... Which I know is silly, but some of these features may give a big saving for a family... we don't spend over the £18 per SIM except for the odd text message when overseas.