Is there a CHEAP PAYG SIM for very occasional use?

FrankFalcon

Hi all

i am getting a dual SIM phone because…
Like a lot of folk, I have a personal phone number that I use for family, work and important stuff. I am also a member of a camping club, I am an eBay seller and I sell items online. My problem is…To be a member of my camping club it has recently changed to Whattsapp. Also, on EBay, I sometimes need to give my phone number. There’s a couple of other reasons why I want my own personal number to remain important for personal stuff only. I simply don’t want everyone in my camping club to have my number. I don’t want ebayers contacting me when it’s not appropriate. So… here’s my thinking…
I get a dual SIM phone. SIM 1 is for my family, work and important stuff. This is my £30 per month EE contract. SIM 2 will be for my camping club, eBay etc. Now, I know I can just go out and get any SIM Only deal for SIM 2, but they have a monthly charge. Even if it was £5 per month that would still cost £60 per year, which is too much for a SIM I will only use occasionally. My question is… are there any deals where I can buy a cheap SIM (£5 or £10) with no contract at all?. I will probably need no minutes because my groups are WhatsApp and I can do from WiFi. I will probably need hardly any texts and just a tiny bit of data. 

Any ideas guys? 

km1500

one option is to get an EE sim with a pack or bundle which is 10 pounds a month say.

once you get it to text 'stop pack' to 150 and that will switch off the bundle auto renew so you'll be on standard pay as you go rates 

all you have to do is use it once every few months e.g send a text to keep it active

J_B

You don't want to spend a fiver a month on sim2, but you're happy paying thirty a month for sim1 - hmm!

I have used a Lebara MSE deal for sub £2 pcm (6 months half price deal) in my second slot and binned it after the discount ran out - is that an option? It's only a monthly contract.

FrankFalcon

J_B said:

You don't want to spend a fiver a month on sim2, but you're happy paying thirty a month for sim1 - hmm!

I have used a Lebara MSE deal for sub £2 pcm (6 months half price deal) in my second slot and binned it after the discount ran out - is that an option? It's only a monthly contract.

Spot on! I am totally happy spending my money on SIM 1. That’s my main phone. I need it. I use it. I don’t complain about it.  I can’t understand why you replied - hmm! with regards to the SIM I only want as an occasional SIM 

FrankFalcon

km1500 said:

one option is to get an EE sim with a pack or bundle which is 10 pounds a month say.

once you get it to text 'stop pack' to 150 and that will switch off the bundle auto renew so you'll be on standard pay as you go rates 

all you have to do is use it once every few months e.g send a text to keep it active

Hey, thank you for your brilliant, non sarky advice. Is this kinda deal available on other networks too?… just being greedy now 🤪

glennevis

I am looking for a second SIM for a similar reason, mainly for incoming calls and txts. I found a PAYG deal yesterday with talkhome.co.uk called "penny pro 5G". The deal seems to be you buy a SIM for 1p and you're on a monthly recurring PAYG tariff charging 1p/MB data, 1p/minute calls and 1p/txt. Their minimum top up is only £2.50 every 90 days.

Sounds too good to be true and I'm still looking into it. I don't know anyone who has signed up for it.

km1500

wirh the EE sim, once you switch to PAYG rates you only need to send a text every few months to keep it active I believe this cost 15p !

J_B

FrankFalcon said:

Spot on! I am totally happy spending my money on SIM 1. That’s my main phone. I need it. I use it. I don’t complain about it.  I can’t understand why you replied - hmm! with regards to the SIM I only want as an occasional SIM 

I'm sure you could get your sim1 for much less money .. then you could afford a few quid a month for sim2 

flaneurs_lobster

glennevis said:

I am looking for a second SIM for a similar reason, mainly for incoming calls and txts. I found a PAYG deal yesterday with talkhome.co.uk called "penny pro 5G". The deal seems to be you buy a SIM for 1p and you're on a monthly recurring PAYG tariff charging 1p/MB data, 1p/minute calls and 1p/txt. Their minimum top up is only £2.50 every 90 days.

Sounds too good to be true and I'm still looking into it. I don't know anyone who has signed up for it.

Does sound worth considering. Runs on EE, doesn't have VOLTE or Wi-Fi Calling. Presumably that means all voice comms are via 2G?

PHK

flaneurs_lobster said:

glennevis said:

I am looking for a second SIM for a similar reason, mainly for incoming calls and txts. I found a PAYG deal yesterday with talkhome.co.uk called "penny pro 5G". The deal seems to be you buy a SIM for 1p and you're on a monthly recurring PAYG tariff charging 1p/MB data, 1p/minute calls and 1p/txt. Their minimum top up is only £2.50 every 90 days.

Sounds too good to be true and I'm still looking into it. I don't know anyone who has signed up for it.

Does sound worth considering. Runs on EE, doesn't have VOLTE or Wi-Fi Calling. Presumably that means all voice comms are via 2G?

Yes, if the help article is correct. But they haven’t updated it for eighteen months so it would be worth checking. 

If they don’t 1p mobile has a similar tariff with a minimum spend of £2.50 every 60 days. They support VoLTE and WiFi Calling. 

Murmansk

1pMobile are very good and RWG are cheap but not so good on customer service in my experience