Best Sim-Only plans? EE/Vodafone/VOXI / Others?

Rexxar

Rexxar

Rexxar

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I need to think about getting off my rolling sim-only plan, I missed the boat on the EE Winter sale (Said it finished 31/01/2025 - I would have said that meant midnight tonight, but apparently it's 00:01 this morning!)

They did have Unlimited everything plus Netflix for only £29 a month, Now up to £48 a month!

Who is a good sim-only provider these days, worth staying with the big names or are Voxi etc any good?

I'm not sure how often the EE sales come up, they have the best signal here and pondering holding out for their next one.

Anyone recommend a good cheap network? I've been a bit blinded by entertainment deals previously and found myself tied in.
 
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Obviously location dependent but I just keep going back to EE and getting what you pay for, even to the extent that we moved our company sims from VF to EE recently. Specifically where I am O2 (Giffgaff) and Vodafone have recently went sharply off a cliff.

For what it's worth I can still see the Unlimited all-rounder at £27 on https://ee.co.uk/mobile/sim-only-deals with Netflix included, albeit a 24 month deal.
 
As someone who works for a mobile provider, never go with the "main ones"
It's literally pointless and a waste of money. They are way way too high. Just pure greed.

Go with third parties like Lebara, Smarty, talk mobile etc on 1 month rolling plans.
Voxi are owned by Vodafone, literally no difference apart from cost and where you go for support. Check who has good signal in your area and check HotUKDeals and the third party comparison sites for the cheapest with the amount of data you want.

biron_w said:
Smarty are currently doing 50GB for £8 a month. They run on Three. I've used them for ages and they're excellent.
Click to expand...
Lebara do 50GB on 7 month plan's for £1 or under regularly and various others.
Once it's coming to an end you switch via PAC to PAYG (Asda is popular),. buy a new Lebara SIM on another cheap deal and PAC code back.
Remember to use topcashback and you get literally more money than you spent in cashback. Haven't spent money on my SIM in years.

Whatever you do dont sign up to a main providers 24month con SIM plans.
Entertainment is a con when you can get an alternative with better quality for £2.50 a month and not be limited to netflixs catalogue.

Smarty is probably the most popular of the third parties and good pricing.
 
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Agree with everything Matsy says above.

Take a look at the likes of uswitch who do tarrif's that the network themselves don't advertise. I'm with Lebara and now that my 3 month deal has ended I'm still only paying £6.95pm for 15gb.
 
Been with Lebara for quite a while can't complain , I usually jump around SIM only 30 day rolling deals, when they give offers for 6 months

Lebara 5GB Sim - Best Sim Only Deals - Compare Cheap Contracts - MSE

Compare the best SIM only deals which includes minutes, texts and mobile data for a monthly fee without a phone. SIM only deals are normally cheaper than a traditional mobile phone contract.
www.moneysavingexpert.com www.moneysavingexpert.com
 
Let's not forget about their massive bill from HMRC, whatever happened to that story, not sure if that will be enough to fold them if goes against them. As in the linked thread, I had a fraud attempt on my card, my friend did a week after joining and they also overcharged me by £20, contacting them I just go a corporate "go away you're not a customer anymore so we can't do anything" response.

For EE signal, Spusu and 1p Mobile are popular choices and I see Mozillion now joined the party, only seem to have been operating for less than 6 months but if want to take a punt they are offering 100gb monthly data for £149, 24 month contract.

Lebara is one of the more popular choices with constant offers for Vodafone signal, TalkMobile is similar but they do a credit check (if that matters) when you take out their SIM plans.
 
MatsyLR said:
As someone who works for a mobile provider, never go with the "main ones"
It's literally pointless and a waste of money. They are way way too high. Just pure greed.

Go with third parties like Lebara, Smarty, talk mobile etc on 1 month rolling plans.
Voxi are owned by Vodafone, literally no difference apart from cost and where you go for support. Check who has good signal in your area and check HotUKDeals and the third party comparison sites for the cheapest with the amount of data you want.


Lebara do 50GB on 7 month plan's for £1 or under regularly and various others.
Once it's coming to an end you switch via PAC to PAYG (Asda is popular),. buy a new Lebara SIM on another cheap deal and PAC code back.
Remember to use topcashback and you get literally more money than you spent in cashback. Haven't spent money on my SIM in years.

Whatever you do dont sign up to a main providers 24month con SIM plans.
Entertainment is a con when you can get an alternative with better quality for £2.50 a month and not be limited to netflixs catalogue.

Smarty is probably the most popular of the third parties and good pricing.
Click to expand...

Thanks
 
MatsyLR said:
As someone who works for a mobile provider, never go with the "main ones"
It's literally pointless and a waste of money. They are way way too high. Just pure greed.

Go with third parties like Lebara, Smarty, talk mobile etc on 1 month rolling plans.
Voxi are owned by Vodafone, literally no difference apart from cost and where you go for support. Check who has good signal in your area and check HotUKDeals and the third party comparison sites for the cheapest with the amount of data you want.


Lebara do 50GB on 7 month plan's for £1 or under regularly and various others.
Once it's coming to an end you switch via PAC to PAYG (Asda is popular),. buy a new Lebara SIM on another cheap deal and PAC code back.
Remember to use topcashback and you get literally more money than you spent in cashback. Haven't spent money on my SIM in years.

Whatever you do dont sign up to a main providers 24month con SIM plans.
Entertainment is a con when you can get an alternative with better quality for £2.50 a month and not be limited to netflixs catalogue.

Smarty is probably the most popular of the third parties and good pricing.
Click to expand...
£29 for unlimited everything, full roaming and Apple One is hardly way to high for an EE contract.

The Apple One is almost £19 on its own.
 
MatsyLR said:
As someone who works for a mobile provider, never go with the "main ones"
It's literally pointless and a waste of money. They are way way too high. Just pure greed.

Go with third parties like Lebara, Smarty, talk mobile etc on 1 month rolling plans.
Voxi are owned by Vodafone, literally no difference apart from cost and where you go for support. Check who has good signal in your area and check HotUKDeals and the third party comparison sites for the cheapest with the amount of data you want.


Lebara do 50GB on 7 month plan's for £1 or under regularly and various others.
Once it's coming to an end you switch via PAC to PAYG (Asda is popular),. buy a new Lebara SIM on another cheap deal and PAC code back.
Remember to use topcashback and you get literally more money than you spent in cashback. Haven't spent money on my SIM in years.

Whatever you do dont sign up to a main providers 24month con SIM plans.
Entertainment is a con when you can get an alternative with better quality for £2.50 a month and not be limited to netflixs catalogue.

Smarty is probably the most popular of the third parties and good pricing.
Click to expand...

When you say no difference, can you categorically say that they don’t do any network prioritisation based on whether the customer is a direct one or with an MVNO?


In my (limited) experience, I’ve found every MVNO to be worse than going direct in busy, peak areas, but I couldn’t say with certainty that it is due to any prioritisation or just more busy than usual.


Edit: not provoking, genuinely curious if you happen to know :)
 
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Broken Hope said:
£29 for unlimited everything, full roaming and Apple One is hardly way to high for an EE contract.

The Apple One is almost £19 on its own.
Click to expand...

Where do you see that deal? My EE SO deal runs out February 25th. Currently paying £35 for unlimited everything and Apple Music.

I can only see what you're describing as £32. Tempted to move to it as I already pay for ATV though I have the 2TB iCloud plan so I'd still get billed for that
 
I need to find a reasonably priced way to get on EE. In a massive local park at the weekend with my friend, he had functioning 4G whereas I get E for 90% of the park so unusable unless I put airplane mode on and get a fraction of a second of data when it comes back on. Sky (O2) aren't as bad as 3 but I'm starting to lose count of areas in London I have weak or no data.
 
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Junglist said:
Where do you see that deal? My EE SO deal runs out February 25th. Currently paying £35 for unlimited everything and Apple Music.

I can only see what you're describing as £32. Tempted to move to it as I already pay for ATV though I have the 2TB iCloud plan so I'd still get billed for that
Click to expand...
It was part of the Winter sale that ended on the 31st, was full works for iPhone for £29.
 
doodah said:
I need to find a reasonably priced way to get on EE. In a massive local park at the weekend with my friend, he had functioning 4G whereas I get E for 90% of the park so unusable unless I put airplane mode on and get a fraction of a second of data when it comes back on. Sky (O2) aren't as bad as 3 but I'm starting to lose count of areas in London I have weak or no data.
Click to expand...
spusu and 1pMobile are worth checking, both on EE. As someone who travels around London a lot I found EE to definitely be best coverage and reliability wise.
 
MrRockliffe said:
When you say no difference, can you categorically say that they don’t do any network prioritisation based on whether the customer is a direct one or with an MVNO?


In my (limited) experience, I’ve found every MVNO to be worse than going direct in busy, peak areas, but I couldn’t say with certainty that it is due to any prioritisation or just more busy than usual.


Edit: not provoking, genuinely curious if you happen to know :)
Click to expand...

As far as I'm aware there isn't a realistic difference or at least there shouldn't be.
Even our bosses have not said there is a priority system.
 
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