Re: Cheapest PAYG Mobile? 1p
Originally Posted by
Zaphod
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I was talking about "
For low users", in response to shropshiregirl's post.
So perhaps you could explain how £30 per year is less than the £5 (or maybe even less) that Three's 1-2-3 would cost if you only use the service rarely as shropshiregirl's post would suggest?
ShropshireGirl's situation came in 2 parts.
Firstly she wants to renew her own phone which is currently contract. Secondly her husband is thinking of not having a phone at all and sharing the one phone with ShropshireGirl.
Taking the first of these. ShropshireGirl says she loves to text and is pleased to get loads of "free" texts with her current contract. Of course they are not in the least bit free as she is paying a lot of money for the overall contract.
1pMobile, charging just 1p per text, 1p per min for calls would be the cheapest PAYG offering for her imo. THREE charge twice that amount for texts and three times as much for calls. As a heavy text user she would pay far more with THREE than she would with the 1pMobile minimum
yearly topup of £30.
Alongside that is the core issue of THREE's coverage which for me has always been dire. I remember buying a THREE dongle for my laptop some years ago and I had to return it fairly quickly as the network coverage was just so useless.
I recently bought a THREE PAYG sim for my phone (before I learned about 1pMobile) and again the network coverage was dire. I have a dual sim phone and have kept my old Vodafone PAYG sim in there and my wife was having to send texts on that sim because they often wouldn't get through on the THREE number.
I ditched the THREE sim as soon as I took receipt of my 1pMobile sim. I get 3-4 bars of signal strength with 1pMobile (EE network) whereas I get 0-1 with the THREE network.
It's a no brainer for me with the cheaper 1pMobile tariff.
On the second issue, ShropshireGirl's husband we appear to be talking about an emergency phone that would hardly ever get used (though in practice I'm doubtful whether that would really be the case)
But if so, I would say that he should get a Vodafone PAYG sim for that. The costs to text are hugely more expensive at 14p per text but provided you're never going to use that facility except in emergency then it doesn't matter. What
does matter is the coverage. You will simply not beat Vodafone's hugely strong and widespread signal giving you 4 bars of signal even in buildings and car parks.
For an emergency phone, that would be the highest consideration.
Overall for ShropshireGirl herself, as you already highlighted, it's difficult to assess without understanding exactly what her phone usage habits are. I assume she has a smart phone so she may be best with a contract if she intends on using a lot of data for apps and GPS related stuff like maps.
I recommend 1pMobile for those people who want to stay simple, with a non-smart phone and who just want to call and text very cheaply.