Talk Home end Penny Pro PAYG, now £5 every 30 days

shaftthemarket

Talk Home's Penny Pro PAYG deal worked very well for me as an occasional phone user. Now out of the blue they have introduced a £5 every 30 days top up requirement, whether the phone is used or not (or just for a few minutes. This is not PAYG, you pay whether you go (call) or not. Furthermore, there is no way in a typical month I use 500 minutes, so money will just accumulate in my account unused, and no way of ever getting it back.

Such a pity and I fear very short-sighted - I and I am sure many others will be forced to look elsewhere.  

Update: I've just checked my Talk Home account and they have deleted the credit I did have with them. It wasn't a lot, but it is still unacceptable to delete credit without warning, They have also set up Auto Renew for £5 every 30 days without telling me. Thieves!

PHK

Putting it into perspective that is about 1% of the basic state pension, less than half an hour at minimum wage and less than 0.2% of average monthly wage. 

But you can do better, you could pay £3 a month for unlimited calls ,texts and some data. If you take out a special offer then about a £1 a month. 

It's harsh, but there is a cost to keeping you connected to the network whether you make calls or not and no company can survive nowadays on a few pence per month from the dwindling numbers who rarely use a phone. 

shaftthemarket

I do realise we are talking about small amounts, but nonetheless a jump from no annual charge to over £60pa is quite an increase. Had it been more modest, I might well have accepted it.Instead, as you say, there are more affordable offerings including some Talk Home ones as listed on MSE's SIM only deals page, and they now represent better value for money.

I am not sure what the cost of keeping me connected to the network is, given much of the time the phone is off, and therefore not connected, as I only turn it on to make calls. 

flaneurs_lobster

Now that my Three Data Reward SIMs have died and I've run my 1p Mobile account down to zero, the only "proper" PAYGs I've got left are RWG and O2 Classic. 

RWG are reportedly less than solid (mine's OK) but the O2 soldiers on. Can even check its balance/top up using an app!

Still available on eBay for less than the cost of postage - takes £10 to activate.

PHK

shaftthemarket said:

I do realise we are talking about small amounts, but nonetheless a jump from no annual charge to over £60pa is quite an increase. Had it been more modest, I might well have accepted it.Instead, as you say, there are more affordable offerings including some Talk Home ones as listed on MSE's SIM only deals page, and they now represent better value for money.

I am not sure what the cost of keeping me connected to the network is, given much of the time the phone is off, and therefore not connected, as I only turn it on to make calls. 

Previously, you were paying as you used it but note you've not included that cost in the comparison calculation. That's not the way to see if something is poor value.

There won't be many people who leave the phone off because people can't call or message you. So I'd say that yours is a fairly rare us case. 

With regard to the costs.  There's an ongoing account management cost maintaining the systems that keep track of your balance etc. Costs to processing payments and any customer service you need. 

 When you do turn on the phone, it will be authenticated, any provisioning SIM updates checked and carried out, your location will be updated on their system  (so that they can direct calls/texts to the phone) and voicemails notified to you.  Plus power to do that. 

While it's on their systems need to manage with mast your are connected to, periodically authentic the phone and deliver notifications (if only voicemail) and text messages. 

None of this is very expensive (an incoming text message is about 0.1p) but if you are paying only a few pence then they make a loss. 

The MoneySaving answer to you query is to find a deal that suits you, taking account of service as well as price. The MSE tool and offers is a good place to start. 

savergrant

shaftthemarket said:

I do realise we are talking about small amounts, but nonetheless a jump from no annual charge to over £60pa is quite an increase. Had it been more modest, I might well have accepted it.Instead, as you say, there are more affordable offerings including some Talk Home ones as listed on MSE's SIM only deals page, and they now represent better value for money.

I am not sure what the cost of keeping me connected to the network is, given much of the time the phone is off, and therefore not connected, as I only turn it on to make calls. 

There will be some administrative costs and presumably an mvno will pay something towards maintenance of the host network. However it does seem that they are taking advantage of their customers by hiking prices as I doubt those costs have increased greatly.

Isolis

flaneurs_lobster said:

Still available on eBay for less than the cost of postage - takes £10 to activate.

Thanks for the heads up, I just ordered an O2 Classic SIM from Ebay for the princely sum of 20p!

But I just started considering that SIM cards can be cloned, and I ordered from a random Ebay seller. Is there any risk here?

flaneurs_lobster

Hope you got free postage too!

Risk of what? That your SIM might not turn up and you'll be out 20p?

These cards are still on the market because they were supplied to wholesalers for little or no cost, but will pay a fee to the reseller when they are activated by a paying punter. If the card were hooky then O2 wouldn't activate it and the seller wouldn't get paid.

Don't you think that O2 might notice if they were activating duplicate cards?

Duplicating SIMs is hard, requires specialised kit, is illegal and brings little or no reward to the duplicator since their use will be detected and the SIM blacklisted in short order.

Isolis

Hope you got free postage too!

Oops, missed that one, ah well!

Don't you think that O2 might notice if they were activating duplicate cards?

To be honest I don't know how it works, and I am most likely being overly paranoid. Can a SIM be cloned before it is sent out and then later activated at some future point to gain access to someone's phone number?

flaneurs_lobster

Isolis said:

Can a SIM be cloned before it is sent out and then later activated at some future point to gain access to someone's phone number?

Duplicate a SIM/mobile number in order to impersonate and gain access to a bank or email account?

Well, anything's possible but I haven't heard of a single case where this has happened.

Far less hassle for the fraudster to get a replacement SIM from the network by impersonating the legitimate user with enough genuine information and a decent sob story as to why they don't have the password/PIN/secret word etc.

Isolis

Thanks for the additional information, much appreciated. Turns out I did get free postage after all, happy days!