Mobile - Pay Monthly Or Sim Only??

Smowball | 11:48 Wed 09th Jan 2019 | Technology

17 Answers

My contract with O2 ends on 1st Feb. It’s pay monthly and far too expensive so I’ve decided to do a Sim only deal. But it’s a minefield. Currently I have unlimited calls and txts, and 3GB data a month. To stop me leaving O2 have offered me unlimited calls and txts and 5GB data for £13 per month. But Carphone Warehouse , where the contract was taken out, have offered me unlimited calls and txts, and 3GB data for £5 per month with their own network (IT or something like that) I just don’t know what to do.....

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Guilbert53

I don't think the O2 deal is that good, I get 6Gb with Virgin for £10 a month.

Also it wont be Carphone Warehouse own network, they will piggy back on one of the main networks (EE etc)

If you use less than 3GB of data a month go with that £5 a month deal.

You can check how much data you use by going in to the "settings" on your phone.

bainbrig

Go O2 Sim only.

You buy a sim for £0.02, then you have to put ten quid into your account - not monthly, just a one-time payment.

End of. Texts are a penny a time, calls 2p a time.

Spend your ten quid, put in another ten quid.

Since May, I’ve spent £6.54!

Search for O2 Sim only.

BB

Smowball

Question Author

Yes Carphone piggyback onto Three.
I didn’t even know about that bainbrig....

ummmm

How much do you use your phone?

Smowball

Question Author

I txt constantly, both family, friends and customers. Don’t actually ring anybody all that much tbh

Buenchico

My recommendation is to buy a SIM-free phone and then to find a service provider offering pay-as-you-go bundles that will suit your needs.

Pay-as-you-go used to work out a lot more expensive than contracts but it's often at least as cheap, and quite possibly cheaper, these days. Since you're not stuck with a fixed-term contract, you can easily change the type of bundle you use at any time. (If you're happy to stick with the same bundle though you don't have to remember to renew it each month. You can set things up so that it automatically renews itself).

I use Asda Mobile's £12 bundles but, for the amount I use my phone, I could almost certainly get by if I reduced my payment to £10 per month, or possibly even to only £7. Details here: https://mobile.asda.com/bundles

(Asda Mobile has outstanding customer service. Calls are answered in seconds by helpful and knowledgeable staff in the UK. It was named a 'recommended provider' by Which last year).

The other PAYG service that's very popular among ABers seems to be GiffGaff. Their prices are here: https://www.giffgaff.com/sim-only-plans

[If you're worried about signal strength at your location (or where you travel to), Carphone Warehouse's iD service uses Three's masts. GiffGaff uses those operated by O2. Asda Mobile uses EE's service].

Smowball

Question Author

I’m going to keep the phone I have - Samsung S7 - as I love it. So yes it’s just choosing best deal. Signal good here for all networks tbh as I’m Greater London.

ummmm

I use GiffGaff. I probably top up about £10 every couple of months.

Smowball

Question Author

Ummmm - so you don’t have a sim only monthly deal - you just do PAYG?

maggiebee

After being on contract for some time, my daughter bought a "new" phone from Cash Converters then got a Tesco sim card which costs her £5 per month. Need to investigate this as I pay way over the odds with 02 and have just been too lazy to change.

snags

1p Mobile: 1p per minute calls. 1p per text. 1p per MB of internet. No contract. 4G EE network. Majority of my calls and messaging via Whatsapp and Viber for free so 1p Mobile suits me. Put on £10 credit (which rolls over) since begining of September last year.

ummmm

Just PAYG...I top up by £10 and use £5 of that to buy a bundle. I've never used it up.

sunny-dave

It would be more honest if all providers did as Mr Tesco does and separated the elements of your initial contract - part for 'handset purchase' and part for 'network usage' - and at the end of your contracted period the 'phone purchase' element stopped and you then paid for usage only. At least it would be clear what you were paying for your handset - and you wouldn't just drift on paying £30 (or more) for a handset that was now bought and paid for.

As regards a 'sim only' deal - try to get some stats from O2 about how much data you've been using (I was amazed when I got my figures from EE - much more than I expected) and make sure that your new deal has more than enough - overrunning data limits on sim only can be shockingly expensive.