Pay-As-You-Go: Enlighten Me

Mr Jones

Mr Jones

Mr Jones

Soldato
Joined
16 May 2006
Posts
11,334
Location
Dubai
Never got a PAYG since I pay my own bill. Always changing my phones for something 'better' after every 12/18/24 months. Missus and I don't need anything new now.

I will be getting a PAC from Orange in a couple of weeks, 30days before end of contract so as not to pay any more than required. I have GG and Three Sim-only cards delivered, missus is deciding which number she'll want / deals or use the PAC to keep her current number.

Anyway, can someone enlighten me how do these deal work?

Do I need to pay e.g. £10 a month at the same date to get the xxx Minutes, xxx Text and xxx Data a month and be charged that price or will I still get the £10 credit available after the offer is used up or passed 30 days?

What PAYG is the best offer now for someone using plenty of text, ~200mins and 500MB data? I am looking at Three but the current contract is with Orange and they may offer a better Sim via Orange / EE.

Thanks.
 
Mr Jones said:
Do I need to pay e.g. £10 a month at the same date to get the xxx Minutes, xxx Text and xxx Data a month and be charged that price or will I still get the £10 credit available after the offer is used up or passed 30 days?



Thanks.
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With O2 I pay £10 for the free minutes etc which do run out after 30 days but then wait another few weeks for the credit to run down before topping up, at which point you get the freebies again. End up paying £10 every 6 weeks or so.
 
You basically have four options with sims these days

18-24 Month Contract with new phone - set minutes, data, text etc per month (not so many 18 month deals now)

12 Month Contract Sim Only deal - no new phone - set minutes, data, text etc per month (very rare to find a 12 month with a phone)

1 Month Contract Sim Only deal - no new phone, 30 day rolling contract - set minutes, data, text etc per month - this is my preference these days. I buy a phone outright as I need it.

PAYG - no phone, no monthly charges, no free stuff unless you 'top up' which then gives you a month of whatever the top up offer is (small amount o minutes, data and text usually), in most cases the top up offer is on top of the credit you just added to your phone. You lose it at the end of the month and you can only claim it once per month in most cases.

You may need to sim unlock/stock rom etc your existing phone if you change provider although this isn't always the case.
 
Brilliant!

I was under the impression that if I get a Sim only and top up e.g. £10, I only get the allocated minutes, text and data, with the £10 charged.

So much like konicky, I'll probably do that once every 6 weeks too.

Does make me wonder why would someone go down the 12 monthly Sim deal when you get good deals from e.g. Three 321 on PAYG.
 
Mr Jones said:
Brilliant!

I was under the impression that if I get a Sim only and top up e.g. £10, I only get the allocated minutes, text and data, with the £10 charged.

So much like konicky, I'll probably do that once every 6 weeks too.

Does make me wonder why would someone go down the 12 monthly Sim deal when you get good deals from e.g. Three 321 on PAYG.
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Convenience more than anything else, I also wouldn't like to be in a situation where I need to use my phone, but have no credit.
 
Mr Jones said:
Brilliant!

I was under the impression that if I get a Sim only and top up e.g. £10, I only get the allocated minutes, text and data, with the £10 charged.

So much like konicky, I'll probably do that once every 6 weeks too.

Does make me wonder why would someone go down the 12 monthly Sim deal when you get good deals from e.g. Three 321 on PAYG.
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well I can't get three where I live lol, I can walk about 500 metres down the road and get it but not where I live....

You can often get cashback from topcashback/quidco with 12month sims which make it a much better deal :o
 
Mr Jones said:
Brilliant!

I was under the impression that if I get a Sim only and top up e.g. £10, I only get the allocated minutes, text and data, with the £10 charged.

So much like konicky, I'll probably do that once every 6 weeks too.

Does make me wonder why would someone go down the 12 monthly Sim deal when you get good deals from e.g. Three 321 on PAYG.
Click to expand...

Three don't give any minutes or texts just for topping up fyi, you get 150Mb data (that only lasts 30 days), to get minutes/data other than just paying the 321 rates you need to buy a bolt-on, this does as you originally thought 'use' the £10 or whatever credit and replace it with minutes/texts/data (again limited to 30 days).

For 3 the main bolt-ons are:
£10 = 100 mins, 3000 texts and 500mb data
£15 = 300 mins, 3000 texts and 'all-you-can-eat' data
£25 = 500 mins, 3000 texts and ayce data

If your usage is a full 500Mb data, 200 mins and 'plenty' of texts then you might find something like the 1-month or 12-month sim-only plans are the better option.

Edit:
You can add funds either online or via the app on your phone (which I guess is the same as online, mostly :p) as well as calling them or presumably you could still go to a store...
 
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