Vodafone PAYG1 changes

zagfles

Doesn't seem to have been mentioned here or is MSE news, but this excellent tariff for low/intermittant users is changing for the worse (much worse for some).

Used to be 20p/min/text/5Mb, but capped at £1 a day for unlimited mins/texts and 500Mb of data.

From Jan it'll be £1 as soon as you use send a text, make a call or use data, still capped at £1 for unlimited mins/texts but only 50Mb of data! I thought that was a typo at first but doesn't appear to be. They are chopping the daily data to the cap to a tenth of what it was, from 500Mb to 50Mb.

More details here https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/public/documents/webcontent/payg-terms-payg1-november-2020.pdf

tinker411

90% cut in data? Yikes.

Considering the data cut, makes you wonder what market they're aiming this at seeing as O2 and Smarty have the unlimited calls and texts (and picture messages in Smarty's case) for £5 a month market rather sewn up outside contracts. With that in mind, unless you use your mobile less than 5 days a month you'd be just as well going on either of them rather than Vodafone PAYG1 I'd have thought.

Neil_Jones

Its been obvious for a while PAYG isn't cost effective now for the networks, so we're going to end up with a situation where you're encouraged onto the bundles, as that works out better for the companies bottom line.

However that being said there are probably better tariffs than Vodafone depending on one's definition of "low use" and what you use it for.

zagfles

It was definitely a good tariff for my wife's typical use - very occasional calls and texts, big usage of stuff like WhatsApp, messenger etc but nearly always on wifi. Mobile data almost always turned off. But occasional heavy data usage eg on holiday so £1 for 500Mb has been useful. Even worked in places like Turkey though I imagine that may change.

She usually did 2 or 3 £10 topups a year so it cost about £2 a month average. Even the like of Smarty can't beat that.

1pmobile looks good - would probably be £2.50 a month with the min £10 topup every 4 months, or possibly Asda mobile buying occasional data packs when on holiday - but will have to wait to see what happens with EU roaming after "actual Brexit". 

Connie

Although I only send the occasional text, and don't use data on my mobile unless it's absolutely necessary and I'm away from home (ie  -  away from my home computer), I'm horrified by this price increase.  £1 for a text!

Sadly, there's no real alternative for me, as Vodafone gives the best signal in my area.

Neil_Jones

Connie said:

Although I only send the occasional text, and don't use data on my mobile unless it's absolutely necessary and I'm away from home (ie  -  away from my home computer), I'm horrified by this price increase.  £1 for a text!

Sadly, there's no real alternative for me, as Vodafone gives the best signal in my area.

Messages sent via the likes of WhatsApp are free.  Just needs a wifi connection.  Or data.

pmduk

Unfortunately, low/intermittent users are very expensive for networks to cater for, They contribute little to the rising cost of network maintenance and bandwidth charges to the Govt. Those, mainly MVNOs, who offer deals with unlimited data etc work on a quasi-subscription basis where the network can expect a monthly payment to continue the service. \I suspect its a case of the low users suffering because of the race to provide cheap services demanded by customers. 

Cisco001

zagfles said:

It was definitely a good tariff for my wife's typical use - very occasional calls and texts, big usage of stuff like WhatsApp, messenger etc but nearly always on wifi. Mobile data almost always turned off. But occasional heavy data usage eg on holiday so £1 for 500Mb has been useful. Even worked in places like Turkey though I imagine that may change.

She usually did 2 or 3 £10 topups a year so it cost about £2 a month average. Even the like of Smarty can't beat that.

1pmobile looks good - would probably be £2.50 a month with the min £10 topup every 4 months, or possibly Asda mobile buying occasional data packs when on holiday - but will have to wait to see what happens with EU roaming after "actual Brexit". 

You can consider three data sim instead if your area have good three signal.

Savvy_Sue

zagfles said:

It was definitely a good tariff for my wife's typical use - very occasional calls and texts, big usage of stuff like WhatsApp, messenger etc but nearly always on wifi. Mobile data almost always turned off. But occasional heavy data usage eg on holiday so £1 for 500Mb has been useful. Even worked in places like Turkey though I imagine that may change.

She usually did 2 or 3 £10 topups a year so it cost about £2 a month average. Even the like of Smarty can't beat that.

1pmobile looks good - would probably be £2.50 a month with the min £10 topup every 4 months, or possibly Asda mobile buying occasional data packs when on holiday - but will have to wait to see what happens with EU roaming after "actual Brexit". 

We've been using Vodafone PAYG for colleagues who've needed a work phone since March, but wouldn't normally need one. We started with Big Bundles but they didn't suit those who only made very occasional calls - none of us are ever likely to need much data because we're either at home working or in the office working. So now my advice to colleagues is "PAYG1 unless you're making a lot of calls / sending multiple texts on multiple days" and I feel it will still be reasonably cost effective for those of us who ONLY make calls on a couple of days a month ... 

However, we probably could do better, but I may end up with different plans for different needs - one colleague sends a LOT of texts for example. 

I'm thinking aloud here, I guess my starting point is the Cheap PAYG SIMS guide, and try to get my head round that. Going to be a bit of a nightmare persuading colleagues to work out what's best for them, port their numbers and then handle topups - is it fairly standard to be able to both topup online OR get a voucher (which will suit some people better)?

Thoughts welcome ... 

zagfles

Savvy_Sue said:

zagfles said:

It was definitely a good tariff for my wife's typical use - very occasional calls and texts, big usage of stuff like WhatsApp, messenger etc but nearly always on wifi. Mobile data almost always turned off. But occasional heavy data usage eg on holiday so £1 for 500Mb has been useful. Even worked in places like Turkey though I imagine that may change.

She usually did 2 or 3 £10 topups a year so it cost about £2 a month average. Even the like of Smarty can't beat that.

1pmobile looks good - would probably be £2.50 a month with the min £10 topup every 4 months, or possibly Asda mobile buying occasional data packs when on holiday - but will have to wait to see what happens with EU roaming after "actual Brexit". 

We've been using Vodafone PAYG for colleagues who've needed a work phone since March, but wouldn't normally need one. We started with Big Bundles but they didn't suit those who only made very occasional calls - none of us are ever likely to need much data because we're either at home working or in the office working. So now my advice to colleagues is "PAYG1 unless you're making a lot of calls / sending multiple texts on multiple days" and I feel it will still be reasonably cost effective for those of us who ONLY make calls on a couple of days a month ... 

However, we probably could do better, but I may end up with different plans for different needs - one colleague sends a LOT of texts for example. 

I'm thinking aloud here, I guess my starting point is the Cheap PAYG SIMS guide, and try to get my head round that. Going to be a bit of a nightmare persuading colleagues to work out what's best for them, port their numbers and then handle topups - is it fairly standard to be able to both topup online OR get a voucher (which will suit some people better)?

Thoughts welcome ... 

If it's for company use then there are contracts where you can spread an allowance of mins/texts/data among staff, or alternatively a low ppm rate. Our company have had both in recent years. Not sure if the number of staff needs to exceed a certain level for it to be cost effective.

Savvy_Sue

zagfles said:

Savvy_Sue said:

We've been using Vodafone PAYG for colleagues who've needed a work phone since March, but wouldn't normally need one. We started with Big Bundles but they didn't suit those who only made very occasional calls - none of us are ever likely to need much data because we're either at home working or in the office working. So now my advice to colleagues is "PAYG1 unless you're making a lot of calls / sending multiple texts on multiple days" and I feel it will still be reasonably cost effective for those of us who ONLY make calls on a couple of days a month ... 

However, we probably could do better, but I may end up with different plans for different needs - one colleague sends a LOT of texts for example. 

I'm thinking aloud here, I guess my starting point is the Cheap PAYG SIMS guide, and try to get my head round that. Going to be a bit of a nightmare persuading colleagues to work out what's best for them, port their numbers and then handle topups - is it fairly standard to be able to both topup online OR get a voucher (which will suit some people better)?

Thoughts welcome ... 

If it's for company use then there are contracts where you can spread an allowance of mins/texts/data among staff, or alternatively a low ppm rate. Our company have had both in recent years. Not sure if the number of staff needs to exceed a certain level for it to be cost effective.

do you know who that was from? I've resisted speaking to Vodafone business so far: our 'normal' contract phones are more than £12 per month and we can't spread things out. 

thanks for the tip!