Cheap Pay-as-you-go Deals Article Discussion

SamProbert

Disappointed that Lebara (on Vodafone) PAYG do NOT offer Wi-Fi calling. I’ve decided to switch instead to Smarty (on Three)

koru

1pMobile is now recommended as the cheapest for occasional/back-up use, but it says you have to top up at least £10 every 4 months, so for really low usage other SIMs might be cheaper. As discussed on a few other threads, this is not quite true.

If you have at least £10 unused credit when the 4 month period expires, you can turn off auto-top up and they will deduct £10 from the balance, in lieu of a top up. So, you only need to top up £10 every 8 months. (If your balance falls below £10, due to usage you would need to top up £10, but over the long run you would pay £10 every 8 months, plus the cost of the calls/data you use.)

JJ_Egan

Still way above my Giffgaff PAYG costs , circa £5 per year.

SpanishBlue

koru said:

1pMobile is now recommended as the cheapest for occasional/back-up use, but it says you have to top up at least £10 every 4 months, so for really low usage other SIMs might be cheaper. As discussed on a few other threads, this is not quite true.

If you have at least £10 unused credit when the 4 month period expires, you can turn off auto-top up and they will deduct £10 from the balance, in lieu of a top up. So, you only need to top up £10 every 8 months. (If your balance falls below £10, due to usage you would need to top up £10, but over the long run you would pay £10 every 8 months, plus the cost of the calls/data you use.)

Unless I am misunderstanding you, if they are deducting £10 from the balance, it is not only costing you £10, but you get nothing for that £10.

At least if you add £10 to your balance, you can at least spend it on calls etc.

getmore4less

That's an average of £15 per year to keep it alive + the cost of any calls up to the point adding £10 works out cheaper.

O2 classic 3p minute break even is
750mins(£22.50) against 1p
or
467 mins against  sky mobile which is cheaper than 1p 
Not PAYG but pretty close at £0pm for the contract element.
Sky mobile is £42 for 3 years including calls and text  £14py. (and a Nokia 105)
(Potentially cheaper as many think the  £0 per month for the contract will continue after 3 years)

optimist?

Just called into our local EE shop to add £10 to my 25 year old mobile account (phone isn't THAT old). The schoolboy in attendance asked me to sit down while he disappeared into a back room THREE TIMES, then returned to say they "couldn't top up my phone using my ID card, only on a "voucher" - whatever that is.  He then suggested I "go somewhere else". The service in this shop has been utterly disastrous for the last two years but now, to just completely abandon all hope of topping up one of their own phones in favour of Asda or the local sweet shop seems pathetic beyond belief.

He also mentioned that "they are hoping to phase out all pay as you go phones", the implication being, 'get a contract or get lost'.

IF this is true,(the staff in there have lied to me on several occasions before this) then watch out for EE/02 just dumping entire generations of kids/pensioners in the near future.

pokora

SpanishBlue said:

koru said:

1pMobile is now recommended as the cheapest for occasional/back-up use, but it says you have to top up at least £10 every 4 months, so for really low usage other SIMs might be cheaper. As discussed on a few other threads, this is not quite true.

If you have at least £10 unused credit when the 4 month period expires, you can turn off auto-top up and they will deduct £10 from the balance, in lieu of a top up. So, you only need to top up £10 every 8 months. (If your balance falls below £10, due to usage you would need to top up £10, but over the long run you would pay £10 every 8 months, plus the cost of the calls/data you use.)

Unless I am misunderstanding you, if they are deducting £10 from the balance, it is not only costing you £10, but you get nothing for that £10.

At least if you add £10 to your balance, you can at least spend it on calls etc.

It is better to top up but if you have too much is better to use the credit to extend the line life. 

d123

optimist? said:

Just called into our local EE shop to add £10 to my 25 year old mobile account (phone isn't THAT old). The schoolboy in attendance asked me to sit down while he disappeared into a back room THREE TIMES, then returned to say they "couldn't top up my phone using my ID card, only on a "voucher" - whatever that is.  He then suggested I "go somewhere else". The service in this shop has been utterly disastrous for the last two years but now, to just completely abandon all hope of topping up one of their own phones in favour of Asda or the local sweet shop seems pathetic beyond belief.

He also mentioned that "they are hoping to phase out all pay as you go phones", the implication being, 'get a contract or get lost'.

IF this is true,(the staff in there have lied to me on several occasions before this) then watch out for EE/02 just dumping entire generations of kids/pensioners in the near future.

EE hasn’t existed for 25 years, I’d bet you have a legacy PAYG from Orange or T-Mobile? The guy in the shop is right, EE want rid of all the legacy bits still hanging on to the modern network.

blagoslovljena

Can anyone give me a bit of advice please? My 14 year old daughter has an old iPhone of my mum’s, and a few months ago I put her on Giffgaff’s £6 per month rolling contract as she had eaten her way through a couple of £10 top-ups on their PAYG rate quite quickly, as they’re quite pricey for texts, and I think she made one call which was extortionate.

She doesn’t use any data as we don’t want her connected to the internet all the time, and she almost never makes calls. It’s just for texts to her mates and any emergency calls she needs to make. She’s generally using 20-25 texts a month, her highest was 51 a few months ago but that was unusual.

We are in a pretty rotten area for signal, hence being on giffgaff rather than a cheaper contract provider, but £6 a month seems a bit excessive for 20-25 texts! Any ideas? We really need to stick with O2 network if poss due to the signal. Vodafone network is a possibility but it’s not great for voice calls around here. Nothing else will work.

flaneurs_lobster

There are still O2 Classic PAYG sims available on eBay for little more than postage, 3p/min calls 2p/text 1p/MB. Needs £10 top-up to activate which doesn't expire.