Best package for minimal usage, 99% incoming calls + some data?

FoxEye

FoxEye

FoxEye

Caporegime
Joined
17 Feb 2006
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29,263
Location
Cornwall
Have been looking at PAYG vs pay monthly, they all have drawbacks.

I'm going to be making a seriously low/non-existent amount of outgoing calls from my phone (when I buy it). It will mainly be used as an emergency phone for people to contact me.

I would like to use it with Google maps as a basic satnav. There will be a little browsing going on, but apart from Gmaps very little of that either.

Now my first thought was PAYG would be best. When I was a uni student I used PAYG - even back then contract was the norm. However these days it seems any money you put on your phone expires after 30 days, including any data allowance, and most require you to top up £10 min?

Which means there's little difference between PAYG and pay monthly :/ A bit of a scam, tbh, having expiry dates on your topped up credit.

Because I would probably not use £10 worth of talk time in 6 months! The data bit I honestly don't know. I'm not sure, having not had to worry about this previously, how much data Gmaps will rinse through (including viewing satellite imagery, which cannot be pre-cached/downloaded to the phone like regular maps can, say for the whole of Cornwall).

The cheapest pay monthly tariff I looked at was £6.50 (12 months 1/2 price offer) from TT, with 400 mins (will be 99% unused!), 5000 texts (I never text!) and 1gig data. And that tariff goes up to £13 after 12 months (only 12 month contract tho, so can cancel). Even that is overkill for my usage. They do a £4 tariff but only 300mb data, not sure if I'll need more data...

The trouble is that as far as I can see, the more expensive tariffs have more talk time (which I don't need) rather than being able to take more data and keep talk time low.

I guess I don't use my phone like 99% of people do. Or nearly as much as others do.
 
The People's Operator currently have a PAYG deal for £5 a month with 500 minutes, texts and MB. They run off the EE network and you also have the GiffGaff £5 deal with 100 minutes and MB, 300 texts who run off the O2 network.
 
koooowweeee said:
No idea what that is, sorry!
Click to expand...

You know those premium rate texts that you get billed £1.50 a time for, and you don't actually even have to sign up to anything to start getting sent them?

They're Mobile Terminated Billed SMS (aka premium rate SMS).

There are literally hundreds of companies buying lists of mobile numbers and sending people these texts with very little way to stop them once they start.

The mobiles operators get a cut of every premium text sent, so they actually go out of their way to deny any responsibility when it happens.

The only way to stop them is if your network operator will let you bar them. I know EE and o2 allow this, but not sure if anyone else does.

There's been threads all over the 'net about it. And since the mobile industry is self-regulated, you're really up **** creek without a paddle if it happens to you.

Has been stories on BBC Watchdog, MSE, etc...

/tangent
 
Not sure if 3 block them or not. I've had it happen to me so I just canceled the contract I was on.

If you have problems with giffgaff it's all Internet based and no one to take to. The monkeys they have replying to emails don't even read them and just give a scripted reply all the time.

So I left.......
 
I've never come across the premium rate scam, or know anyone who has, not saying we shouldn't be wary, but maybe its not really that widespread.

I only ever have a few quid credit on my giffgaff account anyway, so don't think they could charge me much if I was targetted.

I'd think somebody like giffgaff would be a good choice here, for one thing it gives you flexibility, you're not tied into a contract and can chop and change what package you have on a month by month basis. Personally I'm about to give the post office a try having been with giffgaff for a long time.
 
mark43 said:
I've never come across the premium rate scam, or know anyone who has, not saying we shouldn't be wary, but maybe its not really that widespread.

I only ever have a few quid credit on my giffgaff account anyway, so don't think they could charge me much if I was targetted.

I'd think somebody like giffgaff would be a good choice here, for one thing it gives you flexibility, you're not tied into a contract and can chop and change what package you have on a month by month basis. Personally I'm about to give the post office a try having been with giffgaff for a long time.
Click to expand...

Whit giffgaff you have to buy a bag every month (it us cheap) but with 3 £10 could last months and months. 2p a min with giffgaff it's 25p I think?
 
koooowweeee said:
Whit giffgaff you have to buy a bag every month (it us cheap) but with 3 £10 could last months and months. 2p a min with giffgaff it's 25p I think?
Click to expand...

Ah sorry you're right, I've never looked at their 123 thing, didn't realise there were any payg deals with resolvable data charges.
 
Popped into a 3 store last week to pick up a PAYG SIM, told me I'd have to order one online (really?). So I did. A few days later, received a "Now that you've got your free SIM card..." email. Still no SIM!

Phoned 3 today about blocking premium SMS. They can't do it. I know EE and O2 do, but 3 can't.

I swear - assuming I ever get this SIM - the first premium SMS I receive I am ditching 3 for someone else.

Alarmingly, on wifi, my simless phone has used 60MB since being turned on! That's 60p! :p Going to have to find some way to allow data, but restrict when and how it uses it. Gadgets, eh.

It's a shame that data allowances are so low on mobile networks, unless you pay silly money. I'd happily pay £5 a month for 10gig, you know? I imagine the mobile operators are making silly profits with the amount they are currently charging.
 
I think you're worrying too much about these premium texts, I've never had it happen to me or anyone else and this is the first I've heard about it online. I also use 3's 1 2 3 plan, the signal isn't always the best but its damn good value if you primarily use data. What I haven't seen mentioned is you get free data every time you top up. So if you top up £5, £10 etc you will get 150mb free, which makes £5 really good value. I can survive on around £3 per month at the moment with my usage which is brilliant.

I have also used a 4g connection to game online with when my internet went down, it wasn't cheap and ended up costing me £1.50 an hour or so but it was incredibly stable and I had a good connection.
 
I'm on the old 3 internet essentials contract for £6.90, it's now £8pm. I get 200 mins, 500mb data and unlimited txts.

I don't send txts (use WhatsApp), and use roughly 5 mins of minutes per month tops. I've only gone over the 500mb once in the last 12 months. I've actually worked out though that the 123 pay as you go plan would be cheaper for me. But I'm getting a benefit from my bank for paying direct debit to 3, so reluctant to drop to pay as you go yet.

But yeah 123 pay as you go plan from 3 is unbeatable!
 
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