I am confused with how 1p Mobile PAYG works, any help ?

BensonBooga

The company took £10 out of my bank account for a top up on 14th July, as part of their 2 monthly automatic top ups. Given I have only used 6 pence since the 14th how can I be down to £7.43 already ? Below are some pics, I really don't get it at all. Am I missing the obvious ?? 

The 6p is what I have used since last billing........

PHK

It means that in the previous 60 day period you had spent less than £10, so they used part of the £10 top up on  the 14th (plus whatever balance you had) to bring you up to the minimum spend. 

The £7 odd is what is left. 

Have a look at the minutes, texts, data you are using. You might be better off with one of the yearly plans or moving to someone that does calls, texts and a bit of data for £5 (or less) a month. 

Frozen_up_north

As PHK mentioned, for that kind of money you can have unlimited calls and a small amount of data on a “non contract” scheme that you can change every month -depending on circumstances (holidays, trips away from home, etc that might need more data for a short while).

£6 per month on GiffGaff is one example, it has 2GB of data, unlimited UK mins/texts and EU roaming. The GG app is particularly easy to use if you need to adjust the data amount.

HillStreetBlues

PHK said:

It means that in the previous 60 day period you had spent less than £10, so they used part of the £10 top up on  the 14th (plus whatever balance you had) to bring you up to the minimum spend. 

The £7 odd is what is left. 

Have a look at the minutes, texts, data you are using. You might be better off with one of the yearly plans or moving to someone that does calls, texts and a bit of data for £5 (or less) a month. 

That still puzzles me.
As OP must have topped up £10 on or about 14th May, if they had spent less than the £10 then all OP should lose is that balance if the whole £10 wasn't spent.
I can't see how you can deduct money from this 60 day period, when the last 60 day period must have also been topped up with £10.

tinker411

HillStreetBlues said:

PHK said:

It means that in the previous 60 day period you had spent less than £10, so they used part of the £10 top up on  the 14th (plus whatever balance you had) to bring you up to the minimum spend. 

The £7 odd is what is left. 

Have a look at the minutes, texts, data you are using. You might be better off with one of the yearly plans or moving to someone that does calls, texts and a bit of data for £5 (or less) a month. 

That still puzzles me.
As OP must have topped up £10 on or about 14th May, if they had spent less than the £10 then all OP should lose is that balance if the whole £10 wasn't spent.

Yes that's right - if OP's balance on 14th May was £10 exactly.

HillStreetBlues said:

I can't see how you can deduct money from this 60 day period, when the last 60 day period must have also been topped up with £10.

You can't, you're right, because any deductions for the £10 minimum spend/service charge are made in arrears, so deductions on 14th July cover the previous 60 days.

As such, I'd say the following happened (I'll put this as briefly as I can, apologies if it sounds dry); when minimum spend deductions were made overnight on 13/14th July this sent OP's credit balance (effectively) down to -£2.51. As OP has auto topup enabled this triggered an automatic £10 topup, as balance was under £2, which will have sent OP's credit balance up to £7.49 - this minus 6p spend gets us to the balance shown above.

With that in mind I agree with everyone else. As OP has spent 6p in the last 12 days 1p Mobile probably isn't the best value for money option for them so it's worth looking around.

BensonBooga

Thanks all. I originally went with 1p Mobile as it was £10 per 4 months which was cheaper than Lebara which was £4 a month, but every year the months have decreased from every 4 months to 2 months. It also gives Wifi Calling on EE which is a bonus but I bet others do too. It has got less good as the years have gone by. 

zagfles

As I've said in another thread you can get 1pmobile from £12 a year if you know what you're doing. Buying a boost removes the min spend requirement, so you just buy a boost towards the end of the 2 month period, the cheapest is the 1GB data only for £3. When the boost expires after a month a new 2 month window starts, then buy another boost just before the 2 months is up. 

Of course they may cotton onto this...

ScratchyCat

zagfles said:

As I've said in another thread you can get 1pmobile from £12 a year if you know what you're doing. Buying a boost removes the min spend requirement, so you just buy a boost towards the end of the 2 month period, the cheapest is the 1GB data only for £3. When the boost expires after a month a new 2 month window starts, then buy another boost just before the 2 months is up. 

Of course they may cotton onto this...

Im missing something. If i was new to 1p what tariff do you sign up to to start with. I dont understand how its £12 a year.

Ive just looked at there boosts.  Its showing 1GB for £5, i cant see a £3 boost.

Frozen_up_north

Beware of "low cost" options on 1p mobile, unless you are paying £10 per month you do not get unlimited minutes/texts. However you do get 50 GB of data for that, and EU + Channel Is/I of Man roaming with 14 GB of roaming data per month and there is no contract.

That is less than the cost of a pint of beer a week.

zagfles

ScratchyCat said:

zagfles said:

As I've said in another thread you can get 1pmobile from £12 a year if you know what you're doing. Buying a boost removes the min spend requirement, so you just buy a boost towards the end of the 2 month period, the cheapest is the 1GB data only for £3. When the boost expires after a month a new 2 month window starts, then buy another boost just before the 2 months is up. 

Of course they may cotton onto this...

Im missing something. If i was new to 1p what tariff do you sign up to to start with. I dont understand how its £12 a year.

Ive just looked at there boosts.  Its showing 1GB for £5, i cant see a £3 boost.

Sign up to the classic PAYG. Then do as I said in my PP. The 3GB data only boost exists. It's obviously £12 per year plus spending on calls/texts/data outside what's covered by the boost and they may stop this loophole.