Very Cheap SIM Only - Are they any good

[Deleted User]

My mobile contract is up in November, so looking around for SIM only deals. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of these people. Seems a bit too good to be true. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/mobile-phones/deal/?id=197293844851

[Deleted User]

https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/sim_only_deals/
3 unlimited text and minutes 4gb data.

glennevis

Save_Dosh wrote: »

My mobile contract is up in November, so looking around for SIM only deals. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of these people. Seems a bit too good to be true.

You're right it IS too good to be true. IMHO.

Their UK forum gives you an idea of the problems people are having.
** Google Freedompop UK forum, I can't post a link.

The service is only free if:
1. You cancel the introductory trial offer, which is charged for after the first month if not downgraded in time. Funny how many people don't realise this, or maybe can't work out how to cancel the trial (could be because it is hard to find and requires confirming the downgrade three times).
2. You make sure any additional trial offers of separately billed services are also downgraded during the first month.
3. You monitor your data usage and don't go within 20MB of your allowance each billing cycle. Otherwise 'auto top-up' feature means you will be charged £5 for PAYG data (cost 1.5p/MB) as soon as you are within 20MB of your allowance. If you don't use all of the £5 the remainder is credited to your account but supposedly lost after a few months.
Effectively the standard free allowance is therefore only 180MB.

If you still want to try the service you will still have to decide:
1. Do you want to install their special app to make VOIP calls and send/receive texts? The app is required unless you are only interested in using data, but it takes over calling and messaging from your phone's built-in apps, so you have to uninstall the app to use another network SIM.
2. Do you want to use a laggy VOIP service for phone calls? In my experience this can be horrendous even on a rock solid WiFi connection.
3. Are you happy for txts to be handled by an app? They are not stored in the phone's built-in Messaging app like other SIMs.
4. Can you cope with the service being down every month for a number of hours on your billing date? Unbelievable but true. Every SIM I have does this.
5. Can you cope with a service which logs data usage up to 3 hours late, so you can easily exceed your allowance since warning emails can come too late. It is advisable to monitor data usage yourself.
6. It uses the Three 3G/4G network, what is coverage like? It is poor in some parts of the country. Unlike a Three SIM there is no fallback to 2G when in remote locations.

Some advantages:
1. WiFi tethering is allowed. I use the Freedompop SIMs in an old phone and WiFi tethering when away from home to make use of the data.
2. You can increase your monthly free allowance by a further 200MB if you are willing to invite at least 20 other users who may be complete strangers to become 'friends' to earn the extra free data. To do this you publish your email address on a forum, with the risk of having that address harvested.
3. You can share up to 100MB of data per month with a friend. I gave away 300MB one month to 3 friends when I had data to spare. Another time I needed more data when I went on holiday, received 300MB so ended up with 700MB that month.

I have three SIMs and I have been using the service for over a year (I took advantage of two special offers they emailed me). I only use the FreedomPop SIMs for data. I am IT savvy and retired and was therefore prepared to spend time working out how to get the best out of the service for free. You may not want to put in this amount of effort for this level of service.

My main SIM is on EE network and is in use all the time. It is a £5 a month SIM only contract but it only has a 500MB data allowance.

There is NO WAY I would use FP as my only service due to the way the service is designed to work.

[Deleted User]

treboeth wrote: »

https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/sim_only_deals/
3 unlimited text and minutes 4gb data.

Thank you so much. That's an amazing deal, worth considering, though I don't need that much as I mainly use home wifi on my mobile. I will have a think - like this also as it includes tethering, we get a bad signal sometimes https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/sim_only_deal/f94b9af123fec98ab53a420161fbd8d7b9faf2f4?comparison=bj10aHJlZSx0YWxrLW1vYmlsZSZzdD1zdGFuZGFyZCZzPW1vbnRobHktY29zdCZwPS9tb2JpbGVzL2NvbXBhcmUvc2ltX29ubHlfZGVhbHMvJnBvPTU=

glennevis wrote: »

You're right it IS too good to be true. IMHO.

I am IT savvy and retired and was therefore prepared to spend time working out how to get the best out of the service for free. You may not want to put in this amount of effort for this level of service.

Thank you so much for taking the time out to explain that - I really am quite rubbish when it comes to remembering to cancel etc., and am trying to reduce and simplify my outgoings. I really won't bother. Sounds like your getting an amazing deal for all you effort.

Will go for the 3 above or the other one - thank you both for your help.

sdduk

OP Life mobile is very good its own by EE but life is cheaper and very good custom service so not all the cheap mobile operates are bad.
https://lifemobile.co.uk/

The 3 deal is good i have just signed up for it a few days ago but there is NO Feel at Home and NO tethering it didn't matter to me because i don't use them other then that all good.