Virgin Mobile £5 / Month offer - Don't Use

shaymenRup

Hi, just a warning to those thinking of using the above deal which appears competitive for 250mins, unlimited texts and 250MB internet.

Virgin WILL NOT cap internet use, despite using the EE network and having the capability of doing so.
Virgin will claim that they will text to let you know when limits are getting close. THEY DON'T.
Virgin will not offer you the option of reducing the available credit unless you specifically ask for it.

Unfortunately then with kids you are likely to run a gauntlet and end up with a big bill. Fortunately I noticed before a huge bill was run up.
BEWARE. There are slightly more expensive deals , but with better safeguards. I suggest you take your business elsewhere.

Autumnella

I pay £4.95 a month with life mobile. Runs from EE networks, allows me to cap my spend and for that I get 500mins. 500txts and 500mb a month on a rolling monthly contract so can cancel at any time.

DCFC79

shaymenRup wrote: »

Hi, just a warning to those thinking of using the above deal which appears competitive for 250mins, unlimited texts and 250MB internet.

Virgin WILL NOT cap internet use, despite using the EE network and having the capability of doing so.
Virgin will claim that they will text to let you know when limits are getting close. THEY DON'T.
Virgin will not offer you the option of reducing the available credit unless you specifically ask for it.

Unfortunately then with kids you are likely to run a gauntlet and end up with a big bill. Fortunately I noticed before a huge bill was run up.
BEWARE. There are slightly more expensive deals , but with better safeguards. I suggest you take your business elsewhere.

Them with kids can either go for a payg sim or Tesco (may be others who cap) mobile who do cap bills.

pappa_golf

Autumnella wrote: »

I pay £4.95 a month with life mobile. Runs from EE networks, allows me to cap my spend and for that I get 500mins. 500txts and 500mb a month on a rolling monthly contract so can cancel at any time.

likewise , but upgraded to the £6 offer 1500 mins and 1g data , my cap is set at £1


I refuse to ring any 08xx numbers and use say no to 0870 , the £1 cap is because I found to ring the police (111?) costs 15p and does not come out of your time plan


on my 6th month with them , 6 x £6 = £36


happy bunny

Kaye1

I am a very low user of texts/calls etc. I had been with Virgin for as long as I could remember.

Thanks to MSE, I realised my deal was pretty poor on the PAYG scale. I had been paying £10 a month for at least 8 years but only sending about 15 texts a month. I rang and rang them, trying to get them to improve my deal- I didn't really want to leave. They wouldn't so I changed to giffgaff, who are brilliant.

£5 per month, so halved my monthly charge are really super service. They text you with updates on how much text/cash you have left and and if it runs out, that's it. It doesn't run up anything further.

Helix

shaymenRup wrote: »

Virgin will claim that they will text to let you know when limits are getting close. THEY DON'T.

They do, you should get several text messages before you run out of data. My Dad often asks me to turn off data on his phone as Virgin have text him saying he is close to his limit and doesn't want to pay for going over.

paddyrg

Is 250MB even worth having? You must use that just on updates to programmes alone!

The-Truth

shaymenRup wrote: »

Hi, just a warning to those thinking of using the above deal which appears competitive for 250mins, unlimited texts and 250MB internet.

I've signed up to this offer this week.

Your don't use message hasn't worked with me:

Mainly because I've read what the offer is.

I know what the charges are.

And I know they can't be beaten for the price at the moment I'm posting. (dig and you get 500mb)

And also I've got the sim card and it works as promised.

So therefore in my opinion the op's post is a load of rubbish!

Forwandert

Depending on what phone you are using you can set a mobile data limit yourself which cuts off data after you hit a certain limit set by you. I know this is available on android phones so it would solve the issue of you having to monitor/manage your own data usage.

The warning/rant is pretty is pretty pointless though as VM aren't there to monitor your usage. If the person using the phone isn't capable of managing how much data they have used and how much they have left they should probably stick to PAYG.

barbiedoll

I've had various Virgin pay-monthly sims for many years and I think they're very good value.

When my son was younger, we gave him his dad's old phone and a monthly sim card with a data allowance. He was warned that if he went over the limit, he would have to pay for it out of his pocket/birthday and Christmas money. We showed him how to check his balance and left him to it (I did check it every couple of weeks at first!)

He got into the habit of checking his balance regularly and apart from going over his limit slightly once, he was fine with it. It was a good lesson to teach him, I think.

He was around 12 years old then, before that, he wasn't allowed to have the internet on his phone. We had wi-fi at home where we could monitor his usage, I wasn't going to allow a primary school kid have unrestricted access to the web if I didn't know what he was looking at!

I'm on a £5 Virgin sim now. I had been paying £10 month for ages, and when I called to order a new phone for my son, they offered me the lower-priced sim with more data and minutes/texts. I'm very happy with them!

peachyprice

shaymenRup wrote: »

Virgin will claim that they will text to let you know when limits are getting close. THEY DON'T.


Unfortunately then with kids you are likely to run a gauntlet and end up with a big bill.

What is more likely I wonder, Virgin not sending texts even though they say they do or child deleting them?