Best Sim-only Deals guide Discussion 4 November 2016 at 6:02PM edited 12 November 2018 at 3:33PM in Mobiles 666 replies 177.7K views

blueste

Three* – top pick MSE Blagged, via MobilePhonesDirect	Equiv £6.33/mth – you pay £8/mth but get £20 automatic

Anybody else had trouble with this deal? I and then my wife (possibly because same address) failed the security check.

travel_light

If anyone thinks of going with three, always check the cashback from topcashback.co.uk before you do. They always seem to have something for the various sim only deals. Just do the maths for the whole of the contract to see if they are worth while. Sometimes it takes a while for the topcashback to come through but it always has.

isleofdogs

Am an existing 3 customer, on a contract soon expire.  Will I be able to get the unlimited deal for £16 for 12 months on MSE?  Or is this deal for new customers only?  Thanks.

brookhouse

isleofdogs said:

Am an existing 3 customer, on a contract soon expire.  Will I be able to get the unlimited deal for £16 for 12 months on MSE?  Or is this deal for new customers only?  Thanks.

Yes, just call them and ask for it. If they sense you'll jump they'll give it to you. Failing that, move to Smarty or Lebara for a month and come back as a new customer!

ulsterpaddy

Very happy with Sky Mobile SIM only deal. Their 5GB for £5 per month on 12 month contract ended this month for me and it was going to drop to 500mb for £5. Quick call resulted in an improved 1gb for £4.50 per month. Suits my usage perfectly. And I still have 4.7gb rollover saved from last year’s contract. Win, win!

Phil68

I take all MSE SIM-only recommendations with a pinch of salt.
MSE had a SIM-only deal through ChatChit as its top recommended deal at the start of this year. I signed up and it worked for a while and then the company just disappeared in May. Website down, no response to queries, no social media presence. Quite a few people on a number of forums have queried what is going on and I made a complaint to MSE via Revolver (a dispute resolution website). Nothing. So I lost all mobile connection for a week, lost my month's subscription to ChatChit (which wasn't much).
Disappointed that Martin, the consumers' champion, has been absolutely silent on this. I feel MSE has disowned its recommendation. For me the good reputation of MSE has been sullied and I will be cautious about using this site from hereon.

flashg67

Phil68 said:

I take all MSE SIM-only recommendations with a pinch of salt.
MSE had a SIM-only deal through ChatChit as its top recommended deal at the start of this year. I signed up and it worked for a while and then the company just disappeared in May. Website down, no response to queries, no social media presence. Quite a few people on a number of forums have queried what is going on and I made a complaint to MSE via Revolver (a dispute resolution website). Nothing. So I lost all mobile connection for a week, lost my month's subscription to ChatChit (which wasn't much).
Disappointed that Martin, the consumers' champion, has been absolutely silent on this. I feel MSE has disowned its recommendation. For me the good reputation of MSE has been sullied and I will be cautious about using this site from hereon.

Not sure how MSE, or anyone for that matter, can predict which companies will be around a few months later. There's some big names having problems this year, let alone some smaller businesses. If this were a basis for a complaint, no-one would be able to recommend anything to anyone!

jasonwatkins

There's currently a deal on for ID Mobile for 100gb, 5000 texts and Unlimited minutes.   £15 p/m on a 1 month sim only, but apply the code "HOTUKDEALS" at checkout to reduce it to £10 a month.

50Twuncle

Stangi said:

Vodafone basics sim brill! Virgin pac code difficulties though. I don't use data on my mobile phone (just use internet at home on tablet/notebook). I am really pleased with my Vodafone basics sim £6 pm (heard about from mse email) which gives me unlimited calls and texts (plus some data if I wanted it). All I need as I don't need roaming etc. You can choose limit.  Porting my number from Virgin Mobile was difficult from the Virgin end though, because the automatic text for getting the PAC code just kept coming back with a 'technical difficulties, try again later' message and this method never worked. So I was forced to ring Virgin on 789 and it was like pulling teeth. Many security checks to make sure it was me. Not being forthcoming with the reason I could not get a pac code. Had to insist she told me how to remedy this. The fact they'd sent me a new sim (which I didn't order but they felt necessary) which had not arrived anyway, meant I had a "pending order" showing on my account, which was preventing generation of a pac code. Only on my insistence would she cancel the new unused sim, so that I could get a pac code. Then the code she told me verbally was one digit different from the code I was then texted. I gave the texted one to Vodafone and from thereon on my change of mobile provider went like clockwork. Virgin are changing the provider they piggyback on, so many people will unknowingly have these 'pending orders' blocking their pac code generation, if they want to leave. Getting hold of Virgin Customer Services is even more difficult at the moment, so many are being prevented from leaving them. None of the newer Virgin sims would ever work in my old sony walkman phone, circa 2007, and apparently if you have a phone older than 2016, be prepared for problems with their new sim. Because of this and the uselessness of their offshore customer service, I wanted to leave Virgin before my old sim card stopped working when they changed provider. I feel free. And my new provider even has some UK based callcentres, bonus. Thought the info about the reason for prevention of pac code generation on Virgin's part might be useful for others wishing to leave them.  

I agree about the problems in cancelling a Virgin account - https://www.virginmedia.com/help/accounts-and-billing/broadband-tv-phone/make-a-change/cancel takes you to a page that offers no help at all - you say "I want to cancel" and see where it takes you - next step ??

And unless you are transferring a number to a new supplier - there is no way to cancel on-line !!

gritpype

I've been with Lebara now since April 2020 and their £5 rolling monthly contract offers 2 GB data. I don't understand why MSE headline this deal as "up to 3GB." Where's the missing 1GB? It made me recheck Lebara's deals as I thought it was a new one. I hit a couple of snags when signing up:retaining my original mobile number which took a few days after providing the PAC number; setting up the auto renew payment. I got no text reminders that I had not done this until I found I couldn't make any calls; when I complained to customer service about being cut off without any pre-warning or explanation they did not seem bothered. What cushioned the blow was a £10 top-up credit they gave me. Also, watch out for answering voice mails - they are charged at 21p.