Cheapeast way to receive an SMS

flaneurs_lobster

Not having a mobile phone proving to be a problem? Just in case it helps, a 4G dumbphone can be had for £13.50 from Argos, a free SIM from Asda can be activated with a quid.

RomfordNavy

flaneurs_lobster said:

Not having a mobile phone proving to be a problem? Just in case it helps, a 4G dumbphone can be had for £13.50 from Argos, a free SIM from Asda can be activated with a quid.

Can an Asda SIM receive text messages without putting any credit on?

flaneurs_lobster

RomfordNavy said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Not having a mobile phone proving to be a problem? Just in case it helps, a 4G dumbphone can be had for £13.50 from Argos, a free SIM from Asda can be activated with a quid.

Can an Asda SIM receive text messages without putting any credit on?

It certainly used to be the case, yes. 

Just looked at the Asda Mobile website, looks like you can't just order a SIM anymore, you have to buy a months-worth of package. So the cheapest is £4 Talk'n'Text (no data). Not such a bargain as I thought.

WiserMiser

Search for Free SIM Cards and you'll find lots of offers.  If Royal Mail has given up in your area just pop along to Argos and get a SIM for £1.

flaneurs_lobster

WiserMiser said:

Search for Free SIM Cards and you'll find lots of offers.  If Royal Mail has given up in your area just pop along to Argos and get a SIM for £1.

Don't think there's too much of a problem getting a "free" or £1 SIM, it's the spend required to get them activated to allow SMS receipt that's the issue. 

What's the cheapest you know of?

WiserMiser

flaneurs_lobster said:

WiserMiser said:

Search for Free SIM Cards and you'll find lots of offers.  If Royal Mail has given up in your area just pop along to Argos and get a SIM for £1.

Don't think there's too much of a problem getting a "free" or £1 SIM, it's the spend required to get them activated to allow SMS receipt that's the issue. 

What's the cheapest you know of?

  20p including free postage.  IIRC it'll receive SMS without a top up.  Seems worth the risk, especially with the ultra-low prices.

• Calls are 3p a minute.

• Texts are 2p.

• Data is 1p a MB.

flaneurs_lobster

WiserMiser said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

WiserMiser said:

Search for Free SIM Cards and you'll find lots of offers.  If Royal Mail has given up in your area just pop along to Argos and get a SIM for £1.

Don't think there's too much of a problem getting a "free" or £1 SIM, it's the spend required to get them activated to allow SMS receipt that's the issue. 

What's the cheapest you know of?

  20p including free postage.  IIRC it'll receive SMS without a top up.  Seems worth the risk, especially with the ultra-low prices.

• Calls are 3p a minute.

• Texts are 2p.

• Data is 1p a MB.

Good call. O2 Classic SIM - I got 2 for 20p last year. Just fired up the spare I had sitting unused, can confirm I've sent it a couple of texts successfully without doing anything other than crack it out of the card and stick it in a phone.

RomfordNavy

WiserMiser said:

  20p including free postage.  IIRC it'll receive SMS without a top up.  Seems worth the risk, especially with the ultra-low prices.

• Calls are 3p a minute.

• Texts are 2p.

• Data is 1p a MB.

Looks like that is my answer then, O2 SIM now ordered.  Thanks

RomfordNavy

WiserMiser said:

  20p including free postage.  IIRC it'll receive SMS without a top up.  Seems worth the risk, especially with the ultra-low prices.

• Calls are 3p a minute.

• Texts are 2p.

• Data is 1p a MB.

O2 one works perfecty.  They even sent me two for my 20p and seems to receive texts without having to put any credit on.

Subito242

Yeah most of those free SMS sites are basically useless now. They all use public numbers that have already been used a ton of times, especially for Facebook, so they just get blocked or don’t receive codes at all

You can check SMS-Activate.com, it’s not a seller itself but just an independent catalog of different providers with free numbers. Since they don’t sell anything directly, there’s no bias, so it’s actually useful for finding options that might still work

Another thing you can try is free numbers from eSIM providers. Those usually get abused less compared to public SMS sites, so sometimes you can actually receive a code there. Still not guaranteed, but way better than typical free SMS websites 👍