Cheap SIMS - To Lyca or Lebara...or better the devil I know? 13 October 2022 at 9:47PM in Mobiles 20 replies 1.2K views

Harvey07

I've been looking for cheap SIM only deals for myself & two teenagers (their Vodaphone contracts are up in 2 weeks' time & ID Mobile for me). Those deals highlighted by MSE (& others) with Lyca & Lebara have caught my eye, but I've seen some very worrying reviews tonight on the like of Trust Pilot. Are these options more bother than they are worth & should I stick with the bigger players, even if it does cost me a few quid more in the long run. Any opinions & advice? Thanks

flashg67

Can only comment on Lebara - been fine, and I have 3 sims with them, including an unlimited one in a 4g router for my main broadband (rural location). If you get a decent Vodafone signal where you most use the phone, you could do worse IMHO. It's only a 30 day deal so easy to leave if no good for you

J292

Harvey07 said:

I've been looking for cheap SIM only deals for myself & two teenagers (their Vodaphone contracts are up in 2 weeks' time & ID Mobile for me). Those deals highlighted by MSE (& others) with Lyca & Lebara have caught my eye, but I've seen some very worrying reviews tonight on the like of Trust Pilot. Are these options more bother than they are worth & should I stick with the bigger players, even if it does cost me a few quid more in the long run. Any opinions & advice? Thanks

What plans are your teenage kids on with  Vodafone? I know they have various sim only options as part of their retention toolkit depending on what your after.

eDicky

Request the PAC in each case (valid for 30 days) before signing up with Lebara/Lyca, to see if Retentions ask what you're moving to and offer a similar or acceptable deal.

Lebara is pretty good in general, Lyca perhaps less so, see recent threads.

Harvey07

Thanks all. They are on a Vodaphone plan with unlimited mins & texts, 2gb of data + an extra 2gb. Was 24 months with a Motorola phone. Can't recall what it's called. It's £22+ a month.

I'm on a £6pm ID monthly SIM only plan & wanted to switch to their 15gb 12 months plan with the £40 voucher (<£5 a month) but they've said it's no go as I'm an existing customer. So I'll likely jump elsewhere myself. Might switch the kids to ID tho'. 

grandadgolfer

RWG have some good plans

https://www.rwgmobile.wales/rates-plans-eng-per/

3wheels

I've got an RWG SIM PAYG & it's fine, as someone else said they have some good plans now too. 
I couldn't resist the 1p for six months Lebara deal so also have that now (dual SIM phone) and since joining have been very impressed 👍🏻

J292

Harvey07 said:

Thanks all. They are on a Vodaphone plan with unlimited mins & texts, 2gb of data + an extra 2gb. Was 24 months with a Motorola phone. Can't recall what it's called. It's £22+ a month.

I'm on a £6pm ID monthly SIM only plan & wanted to switch to their 15gb 12 months plan with the £40 voucher (<£5 a month) but they've said it's no go as I'm an existing customer. So I'll likely jump elsewhere myself. Might switch the kids to ID tho'. 

Vodafone have an offer of 6GB for £8.80 which includes a 20% loyalty discount if you fancied the switch I’ve seen they are doing £11 for 100GB as an additional line got a relative  who works there so get told what offers they have which is always handy on contract renewal 😆

savergrant

Harvey07 said:

Thanks all. They are on a Vodaphone plan with unlimited mins & texts, 2gb of data + an extra 2gb. Was 24 months with a Motorola phone. Can't recall what it's called. It's £22+ a month.

I'm on a £6pm ID monthly SIM only plan & wanted to switch to their 15gb 12 months plan with the £40 voucher (<£5 a month) but they've said it's no go as I'm an existing customer. So I'll likely jump elsewhere myself. Might switch the kids to ID tho'. 

If you can live with a couple of days disruption then it is worth porting your number to a free sim then rejoining. But definitely move off a contract which includes the cost of the phone. would be worth checking how much they actually use of their allowance. Rwg do 2gb bundle for £3.50 or 5gb for £6 on ee network.
https://www.rwgmobile.wales/rates-plans-eng-per/

KxMx

I've been happy with Lebara, but since moving I don't get a great 4g signal. 
My spare mobile is Tesco network which always has a good signal so I'm definitely considering porting to Lyca as they also use the O2 network. 

superstylin

I've recently been with both Lebara and Lyca. Lebara was great, no issues with SIM or service and their app is decent. Lyca on the other hand was awful. Set up was hit and miss, their app and website is god-awful, I would lose all signal and have to reboot my phone, their data roaming stopped working midway though a holiday, then the 'auto renewal' of my plan stopped happening. Oh and when you raise an issue they 'escalate' it to another team, tell you they'll be in touch and then randomly close the incident as fixed and you're no further forward. 

Give Lebara a go for a month. It's easy to switch off auto renewal so youll hardly pay anything if you find you don't like it.