What PAYG SIM?

[Saracen999]

So, I'm finally (perhaps temporarily) and definitely tentatively joining the smartphone world , mainly due to a friend giving me his old phone to tempt me. We'll see how that works.

The phone is an Xperia M2 and, so far, seems decently made and certainly adequate to my needs, but it's locked to Vodaphone. Right now, I'm looking at a PAYG1 sim that means 20p per minute of call, per text or per 5MB of data BUT on any day where you exceed £1, those go up to unlikited minutes unlimited texts and 500MB of data.

And if I don't use anything on a given day, no costs incurred at all. Credit lasts, IIRC about 9 months.

But is there a better PAYG option for someone like me, never likely to be a heavy or regular user, and where the primary use for the phone will be

- emergency use, like car breakdown or
- so family/close friends can get hold of me.


My local phone shop wants £25 for an unlock code but at least they're local, decent reputation and, if there's problems, they know I'll be there in person.

Any non-voda sims sufficiently attractive (given my usage needs) to be worth getting it unlocked?


Thanks in advance

[spacein_vader]

I had to check it wasn't April 1st! Serious advice:

If the phone is out of the initial contract term Vodafone will unlock if FOC, might take a bit longer though: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-...-code-request/

I'd say its worth doing that so that if you decide you don't want it the resale value is higher. Alternatively even if you stay on Voda but change in future (even temporarily such as buying a local PAYG sim while on a foreign holiday,) it'll be ready to go.

Also while it's not officially supported by LineageOS there are several community maintained builds available at https://forum.xda-developers.com/xpe...ig-development if you decide you'd quite like a smartphone but one a bit less... Googly.

[DanceswithUnix]

Get it unlocked and get on a Three Payg SIM.

When you leave the house the phone will check email etc, possibly look up location so it can tell you the weather. Tiny amount of data, but that is 5MB or part thereof so 20p gone. If you leave the house every day that's £6 per month without you actually taking the phone out of your pocket. That forces you to turn mobile data off, losing most of the benefit of a smartphone.

EE are no better.

Vodaphone do have better coverage in some parts of the country.

Three are 1p per MB, so not taking the phone out of your pocket but still getting emails/alerts etc will cost more like 50p. You have to use the sim something like every 3 or 6 months to not lose the number, but credits never expire. They are also pretty good if you go abroad.

When topping up Three do try and get you to convert credits into "addons" which expire after a month. Us light users don't want to touch those.

If I top up £20, it lasts me about 6 months including satnav, chat, email and browsing use. Mainly that's satnav.

Edit: If you aren't transferring a number, or keeping the number secret so it doesn't matter anyway then I would recommend taking your reading glasses to a nearby supermarket and checking the sims they have there. You usually get a bunch of them on display, and the phone number is marked on the packaging but in really small text. You get to choose something easy to remember, with the downside that it costs £1 compared to ordering a SIM for free from the 3 website.

[Kumagoro]

I had a quick review of what is available on the cheap recently and found the following options. I am a pretty low user and £5 would last me three months with light data use (emails, hangouts calls and messages) no browsing the internet unless I needed to know something out and about. Recently though I have been using a bit more data as my daughter wants to play pokemon go.

Three tended to be the best value with 321 payg (3p per call any network, 2p per SMS any network and 1p per) though the signal may not be as great as other networks sometimes. I would actually recommend getting the Three Data Sim. This give you 200 MB a month free every month and it can be used for calls and texts. Three is also good as you can top up just £5.

https://www.three.co.uk/Free_SIM_MBB/Order

I used to have Giffgaff because of the three months free calls to other giffgaff users but calls and texts were more like 10p to other networks. The worst part was that I seemed to be getting hit with a 10p minimum charge every time I used data, so if it kept switching from the WiFi network and back I would get hit with a charge and that is why I ended up moving a year or so ago.

O2 now do a 321 Sim but the minimum top up is £10 and according to their website you need to top up or buy a bundle every 6 months or you will lose your credit and number if you dont. I thought that was a bit risk for me as I am low use. Also O2 charge you 1p per data session not as bad as giffgaff was but I stil dont like it. In comparison Three just require you to either make or receive a call sms or use some data I believe every 6 months and that session charge i believe doesn't exist.

Another cheap one is 1p mobile which is on the EE network. With this you need to top up £10 every 4 months though which for me worked out more expensive.

-

If you find that you end up using it more and want to keep it cheap then I would recommend the 24G 2 year Three Data Sim (which I believe you can also use for calls and texts but check to be sure) Then if you found you suddenly needed to use a lot more data you can rather than a fixed amount a month. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Mobil.../dp/B01M3VJ2B2 currently £41 / £1.70 a month.

Personally, I would rather than putting the money towards an unlock get a new budget phone with dual Sim. Okay it costs a few times more but you will get something better and then you will save in the long run as you could then either use two Three 200 MB free data SIMs or have two networks to get better coverage.

The Xiaomi 6A seems popular not sure if it is dual sim (normally all Xiaomi's are) from three though £60 + top up, might be locked as well I dont know. http://www.three.co.uk/xiaomi/redmi-...&colour=Black#

Having said that you can get an unlock code for £2 from Ebay. I did this before for my Moto G and had no issues. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vodafone-...frcectupt=true

[PC-LAD]

OWO, I used to have an M2. Great Phone at the time for a mid-ranger, if you are feeling it, stick a custom rom on it and get a cheap sd card if you wanna lob some music on it. But +1 to unlocking it and getting a 3 sim. P.S the vodaphone unlock is pretty low hasltle

[watercooled]

Only really repeating what others have already mentioned, but I use a Three PAYG SIM on a spare phone. (As well as a Three contract on my actual phone).
3p/min calls
2p SMS
1p/MB data but you get a 'free' allowance immediately after topping up IIRC. Think it only lasts a few days though. (Just checked, "Free allowance of 150MB for 48 hours with every top-up, then 1p / MB")

TBH I can't say I've had much of an issue with Three's reception and I get great indoor coverage in many areas with their 800MHz LTE band now, even in areas where 2G/3G fail to work reliably on other networks. That's particularly useful given Three don't have a 2G network which is partly why they were seen to have worse coverage in some areas vs other networks. EE and Three share much of their infrastructure so you'll often get a Three signal where there's an EE one, but not always of course - they still maintain their own equipment at those sites and can independently choose what bands to deploy, if any. YMMV as with any network though.

[Saracen999]

I had to check it wasn't April 1st! Serious advice:

....

Not the only one. I've been asking myself, all day, "Who am I, and what have I done with the real me? "

And I've been getting some funny looks from Mrs. S.

I just can't make up my mind if she's perturbed or intrigued.



UPDATE: Got hold of a Vodafone PAYG-1, as described above. £1, plus a few quid topup when I get a chance. It's good for a few days playing.

Longer term, assume the old me doesn't re-emerge, unlocking is the way to go, for all the reasons everybody has given. All recommendations duly noted, and much appreciated.

@spacein_vader ..... looks like Voda do do FOC unlock codes and i think I qualify. zi ran out of time today, though, as a combination of a Firefox upgrade (from a version years old) and a javascript problem stopped the site working. I think the problem was NoScript permissions as it appears to work a bit different with this Firefox, but I ran out of time to test to be sure. Hence the Voda PAYG-1 Sim for now. But next week .... won't get a chance over the bank-hol ..... Unlock City, here I come.


Of course the next thing is optimum firewall/AV etc, and 'necessary' apps .... like a music player. Last time I looked, WinAmp was still in-vogue ..... and Noah was loading his Ark.