Pete-B Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Hi all, Mind if I ask a question off topic? My mobile phone plan with TalkTalk has come to an end and I would like to change supplier. My son passed his old Apple I6 on to me so I'm looking for a sim only deal. We've always been with TalkTalk who've now passed their business onto O2 so we have no experience of other providers. Virgin seem to be doing some good offers in their sale at the moment which would really suit me but, are they reliable? I don't need a lot of data, something like 3 or 4gb would be enough per month and I'm looking to spend under £10 month on a 12 month contract perhaps. If anyone could recommend a good supplier I would very much appreciate that. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will86 Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Why not pay as you go ? I don't get involved in contracts. That's an added extra surely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Hi Pete We also have had an Iphone 7 passed to us from son. Just been to our local Tesco and had OH old phone transferred. He is with tesco mobile. £ 5. per month some free text , not sure how many. Is a good deal, and does work abroad.They gave the new sim card free!, and transferred the number etc. We are with Virgin for TV and Broadband. Yes the do offer some good deals, BUT not better than the Tesco IMO. We do not use mobiles a great deal, in fact Vodafone sent me a text saying if I don.t use it within 90 days they will cancel my contract!! I only keep mine for emergencies, so will have to use it occasionally , but as we get free calls on our home phone not used much. Have a shop around. We have found Tesco very helpful, and they will always help you in the shop. A lot of the students they employ, are real wizz kids, when it comes to sorting problems!! PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Our home phone/broadband supplier wouldn't allow us to continue with our contract when it was expiring and offered new, more expensive terms, including charges for phone calls which had previously been free. The broadband was still cheap and we get free calls and texts with our mobile sim-only contract at £15 pcm, so we have simply switched over to making all calls on the mobiles. Shopping around gets more and more complicated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Just on Virgin, I'd suggest you check the coverage, as it seems a bit patchy to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Are you still a TalkTalk broadband customer? If so some of the O2 offers are quite good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 With the requirements you have, I'd take a look at GiffGaff. They use the O2 Network (which I think was the last one TalkTalk piggybacked on). Sim-Only Monthly "goodybags" with no contractual commitment mean you can vary your commitment as and when you wish. £7.50 will by you 2GB in a month, plus unlimited texts and 250 minutes of calls. £10 will buy you 3GB in a month (rising to 4GB on third renewal) and unlimited texts and calls. You can stop and start these when you wish (and when one isn't active, you are simply Pay and Go), and, if you underestimate and use your data up, you can simply buy another "goodybag" as and when. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 I'm on Plusnet (EE) on a monthly rolling contract, which is what PAYG seems to have evolved into. As an existing customer, I got a deal with 8GB data, unlimited calls and texts for £9 a month. Their current deals for new mobile customers include 4,5GB plus unlimited calls and texts for £9.50 a month, plus other cheaper or more expensive deals for less/more data. They are SIM only, so you need an unlocked phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 I have a pay as you go sim with Three - calls 3p/minute, texts 2p and data 1p/mb. Just checked my account and I seem to have spent £3.69 in the last 21 months so I guess I am not really qualified to provide any useful advice on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Don636 - 2018-12-29 5:30 PM I have a pay as you go sim with Three - calls 3p/minute, texts 2p and data 1p/mb. Just checked my account and I seem to have spent £3.69 in the last 21 months so I guess I am not really qualified to provide any useful advice on this. My mobile costs used to be pretty similar for calls and texts, but I used to buy "unlimited" (subject to fair usage policy) data boosters for £20 a year as it worked out cheaper for the amount of data I used. Now we both have unlimited calls though, we make all our calls by mobile and never use the landline which works out even cheaper. I just pay line rental for broadband. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickt Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Just got a sim only contract from 3mobile, unlimited minutes,unlimited text and 4g of data for £9pm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 We are both with GiffGaff and have never had a problem with them. Martin has the £5 per month as he doesn't use data and I usually have £7.50 per month which gives you 3gb of data I think, (they have recently changed it so I may be wrong) If I haven't used much data then the following month I drop it to £5. I have a 12gb data sim from MyMemory which lasts for 12 months in my iPad so don't use a lot of data on my phone. By the way calls between GiffGaff phones are free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete-B Posted December 29, 2018 Author Share Posted December 29, 2018 What a great crowd you lot are, thank you very much for your help and advice. Much to think comprehend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Another big plus for Giff Gaff from me At present all calls in Europe are part of your Goodybag package so you can use the phone freely with no additional charges. I have the £7.50 per month Goodybag, 2GB, 250 mins and unlimited texts. You can easily transport your existing number to them. Details here https://tinyurl.com/y995pptr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1951Pete Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 I was on Three but have recently changed to GiffGaff. So far everything is great and my Goodybag is £10 per month for 3Gb of data. This month I have used most of it quite quickly and they have added an extra 1Gb free. Best of all is that they email me before my Goodybag renews with my usage and their recommendation for my next bag. Good service and coverage. Only downside is that there is no customer phone contact. You have to email their customer service but they usually reply within a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 We too use GiffGaff in the UK and Europe without any problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alanb Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 May I suggest looking at mobilenetworkcomparison.org.uk. For casual use, 3 seems to be about the cheapest, and the UK coverage is reasonable. For better coverage EE is the leader, and since ASDA Mobile uses the EE network, it could be worth considering. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 I have read that providers who piggyback onto the main networks do not always enjoy the same coverage as the main network customers, with bandwidth or reception restricted or less prioritised in certain situations. I don't know the truth of that, but whilst my wife and I are both on EE, she is with Orange and I am with Plusnet. In remoter areas we often find that one of us has a signal but the other has none, and when roaming our phones sometimes connect to different networks. This can obviously work to our advantage, but if you only have one phone it might be something to bear in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weldted Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Three, SIM only unlimited mins & texts, 4 GB data £9.90 per month, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCC Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 A word of warning about O2. I switched to Tesco (on O2) from EE earlier in the year when EE shut down my local mast without having a replacement working. My partner is still on EE. We find that there are areas where one or the other of us struggles for a signal and, other than at home, I think EE have the upper hand on coverage. What really annoys with O2 is that there is a much longer gap between someone calling my number and the phone starting to ring. It means that I have had to switch off voicemail because it generally cut in before the phone rang! On EE I seem to remember you could adjust the number of rings before voicemail cut in but I haven't found this facility on O2/Tesco. Also, EE sell packages for roaming, for example you can add on the USA for £5, but O2 don't have these deals. Will probably switch back to EE when/if their new mast is working but having assured us it will be functional by August we are still waiting for it to work properly. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 I've used O2, EE, and Vodaphone, very little difference between them. A friend however uses Talkmobile which IIRC piggybacks off Vodaphone, texts from her can sometimes take days to come through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 PCC - 2018-12-30 10:20 AM What really annoys with O2 is that there is a much longer gap between someone calling my number and the phone starting to ring. It means that I have had to switch off voicemail because it generally cut in before the phone rang! On EE I seem to remember you could adjust the number of rings before voicemail cut in but I haven't found this facility on O2/Tesco. You can adjust the time before call diverts by sending a text message containing a specific set of characters, which vary by provider. Google is your friend here, or your phone operator's help forums. A quick search suggests these are the codes for O2 and Tesco. Replace XX with the time delay in seconds that you require. These are normally accepted as increments of 5 seconds up to a maximum of 30 seconds. O2 - **61*901*11*XX# Tesco - **61*905*11*XX# Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Alanb - 2018-12-29 9:37 PM May I suggest looking at mobilenetworkcomparison.org.uk. For casual use, 3 seems to be about the cheapest, and the UK coverage is reasonable. For better coverage EE is the leader, and since ASDA Mobile uses the EE network, it could be worth considering. Alan Don't forget that all these comparison sites get commission for each one that results in a purchase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will86 Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Interesting to read all the comments ... but it reminds me when going through a Shopping Mall yesterday that all the 'offers' are simply another way to draw in 'another' customer regardless whether they really need the offer. I see it like those who think its the 'in thing' to borrow and be in debt I have a daughter of that ilk. Its obvious I'm not a big gadget user as I prefer to use my brain and not be drawn into being told what I should do, which as I see it is the future for so many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 I'm with you Will. These sale offers of 20% off still mean that you have been suckered into spending 80% on something you probably don't really need and could do without. Like you I am not big into tech and can't understand why people need to use so much data on their phones - what on earth all you all doing with it? My daughter is really into her mobile phone and the data seems to be largely used for social media, which seems to be mostly inane drivel, and playing around with various daft apps. I have an old I-phone 4 that I took with me from work when I retired but it is hardly ever switched on never mind used. I was in a cafe the other day and at the table next to me were a mother with a small boy and two older women who I took to be her mother and perhaps an older friend. All three women were on their phones constantly with no one really paying any attention to the little boy who was mostly crawling around under the table and who never touched his plate of food. What is happening to the world? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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