Mobile SIM Only Contracts

[GE90]

I’ve been shocked by the price!

Changed to O2, 4 x SIM only, 15GB, unlimited calls etc, £7.99 each. However, unfortunately call phone signal poor and general signal much worse than when we were with Plusnet (EE).

No problem I thought, knowing EE is good for the areas we need it to be, I’ll find something similar. How wrong was I! £20 - £30 plus each for about the same data, More for up to 100mbps, unlimited speed even more! Times a family of 4, it’s suddenly expensive. And to top it off, no roaming included, and 24m contract, so 2 rounds of increases!

Am I missing something, or it is really going to be this sort of increase to join EE? Cannot seem to find any discounts.

Cheers.

[Mezzanine]

I recently went through similar, couldn’t believe the prices for SIM only from the major networks.

Ended up picking the network I wanted (O2) and going with a cheaper provider that uses O2’s network (giffgaff).

[pokethepope]

I'm in the process of moving over to Lyca so I can use EE's network. 15GB of data costs the equivalent of £5.25 / month if you go via Money Saving Expert (£2 for first 6 months, then £8.50 after).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-fin...

[GE90]

pokethepope said:

I'm in the process of moving over to Lyca so I can use EE's network. 15GB of data costs the equivalent of £5.25 / month if you go via Money Saving Expert (£2 for first 6 months, then £8.50 after).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-fin...

Thanks very much. What’s the catch?! I guess there must be a difference to the EE offering?

[Drive Blind]

its been a while since I hunted about but generally speaking EE are considered the best and you extra pay for it.

colleagues at work who are heavy phone users will only consider EE and pay the extra.

i'm on iD mobile which uses the Three network.

[r3g]

GE90 said:

I’ve been shocked by the price!

Changed to O2, 4 x SIM only, 15GB, unlimited calls etc, £7.99 each. However, unfortunately call phone signal poor and general signal much worse than when we were with Plusnet (EE).

No problem I thought, knowing EE is good for the areas we need it to be, I’ll find something similar. How wrong was I! £20 - £30 plus each for about the same data, More for up to 100mbps, unlimited speed even more! Times a family of 4, it’s suddenly expensive. And to top it off, no roaming included, and 24m contract, so 2 rounds of increases!

Am I missing something, or it is really going to be this sort of increase to join EE? Cannot seem to find any discounts.

Cheers.

You''ve answered your question in your 3rd sentence. All the other networks are cheap as chips because they are st and don't work properly.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

I think it is generally accepted that the EE network is pretty much the best out there. I'm actually with BT Mobile which is essentially EE nowadays. My work phone is 02.

Like everything, the best stuff comes at the higher price.

[ARHarh]

pokethepope said:

I'm in the process of moving over to Lyca so I can use EE's network. 15GB of data costs the equivalent of £5.25 / month if you go via Money Saving Expert (£2 for first 6 months, then £8.50 after).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-fin...

Are you sure it uses EE as on the website it says it Lyca uses 02

[Benjy911]

I use Smarty, which uses the '3' network.

https://smarty.co.uk/#plans

Speed/coverage has been good for me and the free EU roaming is a bonus.

If you're getting more than one, you can also save on the group plan.

Given there's no contract, it'd be worth a try.

PM me if you want a referral code.

[LeeM135i]

We have a couple of Vodafone SIM only plans, unlimited calls, texts and 5G data for £22.88 a month. Not as cheap as some but I do hammer the data to get the most out of it.

[Percy.]

Voxi (part of Vodafone)

Unlimited calls, texts, social media data (Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter etc etc) and 30GB of non-social media data usage for £10 per month and cancel any time.

https://www.voxi.co.uk/sim-only-plans

[somouk]

Check out 1p mobile, they use EE.

EE are very expensive compared to most of the others but for a reason, their network is generally the best.

[nordboy]

I'm looking at moving from my old and expensive Three sim only. My lad is going to take his contract off me, leaving me to find a new one for myself and my daughter.

Not sure whether to stay with Three, albeit using Smarty or iDmobile, as they seem cheaper, or to move to one that uses the EE network?

I haven't changed networks in many years, once you ask for your PAC code, does this automatically cancel your previous contract? (like doing the bank switch closes the previous account) Or do you have to contact them?

[Alickadoo]

On my old Nokia spare phone, I had a Tesco Lite PAYG thingy. No data, top it up once in a blue moon.

Now I want to use an old iPhone as a spare, emergencies only phone. Does anybody do something similar to the Tesco Lite with data on it?

[LimmerickLad]

Benjy911 said:

I use Smarty, which uses the '3' network.

https://smarty.co.uk/#plans

Speed/coverage has been good for me and the free EU roaming is a bonus.

If you're getting more than one, you can also save on the group plan.

Given there's no contract, it'd be worth a try.

PM me if you want a referral code.

This ^^^^^

[p4cks]

iD mobile - £16 a month for unlimited everything, on the EE network.

Been with O2 for years but their prices were going up, so thought it were time to move.

[wyson]

iD Mobile use 3.

[mcflurry]

ARHarh said:

pokethepope said:

I'm in the process of moving over to Lyca so I can use EE's network. 15GB of data costs the equivalent of £5.25 / month if you go via Money Saving Expert (£2 for first 6 months, then £8.50 after).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-fin...

Are you sure it uses EE as on the website it says it Lyca uses 02

Lyca are in the process of migrating their users from O2 to EE..

https://newsroom.bt.com/lyca-mobile-partners-with-...

Alternatively, RWG, 1pmobile and Now Mobile use various EE backbones for their services

[megaphone]

I pay £6/m on EE for 20GB and unlimited.

[HotJambalaya]

I've been with EE for years now after jumping around between the other networks. Prices were ok, though they kept increasing them by £1 here and there which soon added up.
The big jump came for me when i moved to 5G, i'd seen prices were fairly good for the 5g plans, but by the time I changed phone they'd been drastically increased.

I think I'm around £32 a month now, sim only! But I stick with them, because while free eu roaming is important to me, even more important is free USA and Mexico roaming. Though worth pointing out that I get that via one of the add ons.

Edited by HotJambalaya on Friday 30th June 12:40