SIM only PAYG price comparison

diamonds

zolablue Vodafone is as budget as you can get, no other mobile network outsources customer care 100% - even 3 Care is 3 Global Services - a 3 company in India

sillygoose

Looking again, alternatively for your profile xe-cute using the O2 PAYG web bolt-on would be ideal. Just get an O2 PAYG SIM and you activate the bolt-on subscription via text. They take £7.50 off your credit straight away but that covers unlimited internet (and email presume) usage, normal PAYG rates apply to calls /texts. Each month they warn you to have topped up enough and they keep taking the £7.50 for internet from your credit. You can stop it any time by sending a text instruction.

Starting to sound like I work for O2 haha! but due to work I use a lot of mobile internet (phone and laptop card) and since the iphone O2 really have got the best mobile data setup.

sillygoose

it seems tariffs vary widely, but so does speed and coverage. GPRS is pants after 3.5G! I guess you pay your money and take your pick like anything in life.

xe-cute

it's a shame my phone (HTC Kaiser) isn't dual sim.

I may use Virgin for emails & intenet usage and ASDA for calls & txts (bit of a hasstle to keep swapping sims though).

EDIT: I can't justify £7.50 per month for O2, i'm 'lucky/unlucky' if I can spend even £5 in phone credit. Due to me only using the mobile when outside the house it is not worth it either as i'll just use PC in house for net. Just I know outside house I will use email and MSN Messenger more than phone & text. Luckily (or is it?) I don't get out much.

Axtualy thats anotehr thing, I hope ASDA does not cut me off if I don't spend x amount of money on top ups every x amount of time... As previosuly said Vodaphone used to cut me off quite regualy for not topping up enough leavingme with a dead phone with lots of credit (I'd have to top up with £5 to make a single phone call because my £35+ credit on phone was locked due to being so long since top ups) In the end I never madce a single call in a whole year and they disconnected me.. I think I would of had over £50 built up in credit on the phone at the time due to all the years of needless top ups. very annoying.

Anyway it's different this time around due to email and MSN messenger that I will use when outside house (so should stay connected and use hopefuly small amounts of credit regualy).


P.S. Can someone enlighten me on GPRS and 3G (or 3.5G?!) networks, speeds and prices please. I know my mobile phone supports them but I am unsure wether ASDA supports it or what they charge.. along with other carriers.

Dickieburd

Using a typical phones built in XHTML browser will eat into your credit. This can be somewhat reduced by installing Opera Mini and using that as it compresses the internet pages and loads quicker, it is also secure you can do online shopping and banking etc.

Dickieburd

Here is the link to Vodafone PAYG plan. http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=template10&pageID=PPP_0038

For O2 plans http://www.o2.co.uk/mobilestariffs/tariffs/paygo/paygotariffs

shirlgirl2004

With Tesco if you put £10 on and get £10 valid for 30 adys what happens if I only spend £10 in the month? Would I still have £10 credit or do they use the paid for allowance before the free credit?

Dickieburd

With Tesco you use up the free allowance first and your original credit is still there to be used as and when.

The only time that you would use up some of your credit is if you send texts or make calls to numbers that are NOT included in the free allowance. But if you use internet or call/text 01,02,03 or 07 numbers then they will be deducted from your allowance first.

zx2011

The free £10 is not exactly free!

They charge 20p per minute. Asda only charge 8p per minute.

Tesco
£10 = 100 minutes (works out at 10p per/min)
£15 = 225 minutes (works out at 6.6666p/min)
£20 = 300 minutes (works out at 6.6666p/min)

Asda
£8 = 100 minutes
£18 = 225 minutes
£24 = 300 minutes
You don't have to choose inadvance how much you want to spend each month.

zx2011

On Tesco Pay SimOnly pay monthly:
£10 = 200 minutes (works out at 5p/min)
£15 = 300 minutes (works out at 5p/min)
£20 = 400 minutes (works out at 5p/min)
£25 = 500 minutes (works out at 5p/min)