PAYG Phone contracts - any differences?

On Lebara here (the family and at work). Monthly, cancel anytime. No complaints. Just works and any enquiries (e.g. accidental extra SIM ordered) dealt with politely and quickly. Went through USwitch to get a better offer.

I just picked up a Smarty sim for internet at work whilst our broadband was playing up for a few weeks. I believe they use Three.
£20/month for unlimited data/calls/text, monthly rolling contract, cancel any time.

I don't think there's any such thing as a PAYG contract. Your choices are SIM-only on a monthly rolling contract, or PAYG which you can make work a bit like a SIM-only contract by buying 'bundles'. In the case of the SIM-only contract, you'll have to give bank/cc details and get credit checked. For PAYG just buy the SIM, pay for a top up via any one of the available methods, and keep topping up when you run out. There are differences in the amount of data you get for your money, but the networks are constantly changing their offers so just pick the one that looks best at the time.

Some of the budget ones don’t support 5G if that is important. VOXI and Smarty do, there is probably others

For 12 months is it not worth just doing a 12 month sim only contract?

Saves messing around with topping up.

giffgaff, can be setup with a rolling monthly purchase on a card.

For 12 months is it not worth just doing a 12 month sim only contract?

For 12 months is it not worth just doing a 12 month sim only contract?

Saves messing around with topping up.

This. My work phone went back so I got a PAYG sim to use in my wife's old phone. Tesco mobile, absolutely fine, easy to top up but got sick of being told about my balance, not being able to ring premium rate lines (utilities, etc) and the data running out at just at the wrong time. Final straw was when we were in France and I couldn't get it to work when the clutch went on our car.

Switched to a SKY contract, which is probably a bit cheaper (£9 pm with 8gb I think?) and takes all the hassle out of it.

For 12 months is it not worth just doing a 12 month sim only contract?

Just done this for my Mum using one of our old phones.

£7.50 pcm with 3-Mobile - it's limited data, but no issue.

My unlimited data/calls/text SIM-only with 3-Mobile is £13 pcm.

You can put a credit limit on of £0 too.

Any that support wifi calling? Giffgaff doesn’t despite using 02 which does.

Smarty is a month-to-month rolling contract. Prices start at £6/month.

If referral codes were allowed, I could give you a code that would net him a discount. But they aren't, so whatever you do don't PM me to ask.

https://help.smarty.co.uk/en/articles/4277679-how-do-i-use-wifi-calling

On Lebara here (the family and at work). Monthly, cancel anytime. No complaints. Just works and any enquiries (e.g. accidental extra SIM ordered) dealt with politely and quickly.

And the do wifi calling.

And we are on 30-day 1p contract at present - unlimited calls and text + 12gb data.

Smarty is a month-to-month rolling contract. Prices start at £6/month.

If referral codes were allowed, I could give you a code that would net him a discount. But they aren’t, so whatever you do don’t PM me to ask.

🙂

just had the annual Three 'your contract is coming to an end' letter with my options.

theyve always been pretty good to me, but these days theres so much choice and looking at MSE there seem to be a plethora of cheaper deals.
now im sure that when i contact them to 'negotiate my termination', theyll maybe offer something better, but im interested in the smarty info above. MSE says that they allow free roaming, which Three have just stopped, so thatd be a saving of £50 per year at the £2 per day that Three will now charge.
id also prefer a rolling monthly contract so i can leave whoever at any time.

i think that Smarty piggyback onto Three dont they? any loss of signal quality? i believe that this was always the case in days gone by wasnt it, that the piggybacks had an inferior signal?

@cougar, does your referral code get you any pennies too? im guessing i cant go through MSE and use an external referral code too, but if its much of a muchness id prefer to help out a fellow stw'er 🙂

any other considerations?

thanks

SMARTY are reselling Three. There is a current promotion for 60GB per month for £10.00. They support Wifi calling 5G and roaming to most countries is allowed.

However, I was in Switzerland almost exactly a year ago and had to add some cash credit to my contract to also myself to send the text message that was required to initiate roaming. Seemed a bit odd at the time, but I now have about £4.50 sat on my account incase it happens again.

I'm sure other users can supply referral codes, if your previous post does not get a response

I knew Three PAYG had increased from 3-2-1 to 10-10-5 (pence per minute call, text, 1MB data) a year or so ago, but the other day I discovered to my horror that prices increased again in summer '22 to 35-15-10! 😮

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/06/thousands-of-three-payg-customers-to-be-hit-by-price-increase-ne/

I'm an incredibly light phone user, it's very much a device for others to contract me while I use my mobile for internet (for which I usually use a separate Three prepaid 24GB over 24 months SIM for ~£30), but it might be time to look at alternatives and this "PAC" code phone number transfer for the first time.

Another smarty user here, for both phone and 5g home broadband. There's no credit check with them as it's a monthly rolling contract.

On Giffgaff here & got bent over for data charges whilst in the isle of man last year, worth knowing if your friend is planning on visiting any of the crown dependencies 🤔

@cougar, does your referral code get you any pennies too?

I think it's something like ten quid to both parties. I'd have to check.

Not that I can send it to you. Obviously.

Gawd knows how many times i've posted this, but full list of all virtual networks showing what 'actual' network they use, and availability of 5G, wifi calling, roaming etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_mobile_virtual_network_operators

sorted with smarty now thanks, and awaiting my sim through the post.

already had a couple of phone calls from Three offering me 'deals' that are nowhere near as good as this one, so no thanks, im gone. shame i didnt look this deeply into it for my wifes contract which we 'renegotiated' a couple of months back, she'll still have to pay roaming charges. unless (thinking aloud) i could let her use my hotspot abroad?

However, I was in Switzerland almost exactly a year ago and had to add some cash credit to my contract to also myself to send the text message that was required to initiate roaming. Seemed a bit odd at the time, but I now have about £4.50 sat on my account incase it happens again.

you couldnt send the text from your unlimited free texts??

full list of all virtual networks showing what ‘actual’ network they use, and availability of 5G, wifi calling, roaming etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_mobile_virtual_network_operators/blockquote >

thanks, i'll be interested to see if theres any drop in coverage/quality, as thats what happened when ive tried these piggybacks before. same phone but giffgaff was never as good as O2 (i think) that it used.

cheers all

 

Three’s roaming is pretty good IME.

A while back they said my monthly deal had finished and “offered” me a big price hike. I asked for a PAC and within a few days had a new deal rather better than when I’d been on previously.