HELP! Landline necessary? Cut costs: landline/broadband/mobile SIM

ANNA

My 18 month contract for landline broadband 36Mb & inclusive anytime calls with Plusnet has expired. Plusnet has raised the monthly price substantially! I can cancel penalty free.

I have Lebara's most basic monthly mobile SIM deal.

I'm paying £60pm and need to get it down to £20pm.

I've read the MSE sticky article, but don't fully understand. Is the advice still current, especially the advice to keep a landline?

Lebara include calls, including some international minutes, which I use. So if I make all calls by mobile, I won't need landline calls. How else can I cut back? Do I actually need a landline?

My phone calls usage is extremely minimal, certainly not daily. I use landline broadband for research (like this), to watch YouTube and some TV streaming catchup. No gaming. Single person household, so no multiple users. I can't see my monthy data usage, as Plusnet has restricted access to my account, because I've missed a payment. I don't have a premium TV entertainment package, and don't intend to get one. I own a one year old android 4G smartphone, an older MS pc and MS laptop, and a smart TV. I have Plusnet's router, but not the latest one.

I've put my postcode in MSE's Compare broadband deals, for broadboad with landline rental, and I'm seeing £12.70 10Mb Plusnet and £16.58 30Mb Shell Energy. Both are 12 months contracts. I can't commit longer. I'd keep my Lebara £5pm SIM.

I've also looked at Smarty mobile SIM only deals. Smarty offer £20pm 1 month plan with unlimited calls/sms/data. Neighbours with Smarty say they have no problems connecting.

https://smarty.co.uk/plans/unlimited

So my choices are (£12.70+£5)=£17.70 or (£16.58+£5)=£21.58 or £20.

Please advise me, if you are more knowledgeable than I am. Please don't recommend higher spend.

QrizB

ANNA said:

My 18 month contract for landline broadband 36Mb & inclusive anytime calls with Plusnet has expired. Plusnet has raised the monthly price substantially! I can cancel penalty free.

I have Lebara's most basic monthly mobile SIM deal.

I'm paying £60pm and need to get it down to £20pm.

£60pm to Plusnet for that bundle seems rather a lot.

I've put my postcode in MSE's Compare broadband deals, for broadboad with landline rental, and I'm seeing £12.70 10Mb Plusnet and £16.58 30Mb Shell Energy. Both are 12 months contracts. I can't commit longer. I'd keep my Lebara £5pm SIM.

I've also looked at Smarty mobile SIM only deals. Smarty offer £20pm 1 month plan with unlimited calls/sms/data. Neighbours with Smarty say they have no problems connecting.

https://smarty.co.uk/plans/unlimited

So my choices are (£12.70+£5)=£17.70 or (£16.58+£5)=£21.58 or £20.

Please advise me, if you are more knowledgeable than I am. Please don't recommend higher spend.

As an existing Plusnet customer, is the 10Mb deal open to you?

I'd suggest the Shell 36Mb deal plus your existing Lebara SIM. It avoids the all-eggs-in-one-basket problem which would mean that a problem with your Smarty phone leaves you completely disconnected.

Farway

You need a landline to receive any broad band or streaming services, that's how they get into your home and router. 

The alternative is no landline and just use a SIM, some people do this but costs and reliablity vary, and of course you do need a good mobile signal

Your plan of cheap Plusnet and a Lebara SIM sounds good, have yoi looked at NOWTV? for broadband inc landline only. Pricing is similar to PN but I found them to be more flexible wiht pricing

Olinda99

I use a SIM package in my mobile phone for all my internet needs. No landline.

I pay Three £13 for unlimited calls, texts and 30GB of data a month.

I connect my laptop to the internet via the mobile phone, and use some of the 30GB fo all my internet needs.

If you do streaming though, this is not for you. Maybe the very occasional program but not regular. You could try Three unlimited data at around £20  month for this, but you do start to eat up data when streaming and also it will depend on the speed of the mobile signal.