Lebara top ups

TMSG

I am thinking of getting a Lebara SIM and I've seen on their site that I get double data if I top up online vs in store. If I take the £10/15GB SIM deal then I'll have to pay £5 pm for the first 3 months and then £10 pm. Am I right to think that if I top up online once with say £30 this will cover the first 3 (£15) and one more month (£10) and still leaves me £5 in credit? So that I would have to top up again in about 4 months' time? Or do I have to do something every month?

Thanks for clarification!

Neil49

Personally I would go for the MSE promotion where you get 12GB at £2.99 for the first 6 months and £6.90 thereafter.

Just go into the main MSE site, Household Bills / Mobile Phones 

If you need 15 GB then take a look at Uswitch for a similar deal. 

TMSG

Thanks, @Neil49, for that... seems to beat what I've seen so far so will go for that.

I am still unclear though as to how to top up and how to keep the double data offer. If I go for the offer you posted, then I'll have to pay them £2.99pm for the first 6 months, so around £18. If I top up £20 in one go when I get the SIM, will Lebara then take £2.99 every month automatically or do I have to do something? (I was a PAYG user till now but now I need more a bit more data.)

Neil49

It's a rolling monthly contract so they will take £2.99 per month from your bank account for the first 6 months then £6.90 thereafter. You can stop the contract at any point and just be subject to that months payment.

There's no top up involved but if you make calls etc out of the contracted allowance (such as competitions at £2 a time or data outside of the countries included in roaming) then these will be billed as an additional charge. 

Just be aware that you will be advised of each upcoming bill at the rate of £6.90 but you will only be debited £2.99. I'm currently on a deal with them for 1p per month but get a notification of £6.90 so it's nothing to worry about.

Don't forget that if you want to keep your existing phone number then you should get a pac from your payg provider and forward this to Lebara. Ideally do this early in the week and don't leave it to a Friday. 

TMSG

Again thanks! Do I really have to give Lebara my bank acct details (that would be then a direct debit?) or can I pay eg via Paypal?

Or as I said, even top up first time round with enough to keep me afloat for a while?

Coming from a simple PAYG SIM this rolling plan thing is new for me. I won't PAC out for a while (if ever) as I have still some credit left with my old PAYG I'd use for calls/texts.

Neil49

From looking at their website it looks like they accept PayPal. 

Farway

Neil49 said:

From looking at their website it looks like they accept PayPal. 

They do, I use PayPal to pay mine, PP then auto deducts from my credit card

I get monthly notifications about the deduction from both Lebara and PP

TMSG

I'd also seen that Lebara accept PP but from what @Farway wrote, I assume they collect the money by setting up recurring payments. Alas, that is precisely my problem: I do have a PP account backed by a credit card... but that card is normally frozen for online payments (I had my share of fraudulent credit card payments in the past and now only use cards I can manually freeze/unfreeze). But... as I don't know precisely at what point in time Lebara will collect the payment I can't make sure the card is unfrozen for the few seconds it takes them to get the money off it.

That's why I'd rather pay them a reasonable lump sum (eg enough £££ for say 3 or 4 months) and then be done with it for those months.

flaneurs_lobster

TMSG said:

That's why I'd rather pay them a reasonable lump sum (eg enough £££ for say 3 or 4 months) and then be done with it for those months.

I'm guessing that the reason nobody is answering your question is that nobody knows. FWIW I'm not aware of any mobile contract, be it rolling monthly or annual, that is not linked to a DD, CC or another way to take flexible payments in case of out-of-allowance usage. 

You could load up your PP account with credit but you may not trust that either.

Ring them up and ask or try their online chat.

TMSG

Well, so far I've simply topped up my PAYG and used it and when the credit ran low, topped up again. That was really PAYG, no monthly or annual contract, simply a lump sum I would run down and all was well. But given that I need more data now (which would be v expensive via my old PAYG SIM) I have to switch, though for the time being mostly for data.

Now I can top up with Lebara via PP but I've got no idea whether they will take payment for this rolling monthly contract from existing top up credit or whether they insist on DD, CC or PP payment. I could try to contact them but as I have no valid account no I can't even start a chat:-(

But perhaps, as @flaneurs_lobster says... nobody knows. And perhaps I should just order a SIM and see how it goes.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the pointers and help.

savergrant

Really depends on your usage, cheapest real payg is 1pmobile. with minimum topup of £10 every 120 days. But if you are using more than 250 mins/texts/mb per month you could try their 1 year plan, or take a look at giffgaff, which do let you pay for your bundle from your credit.