UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45
Mobile phone sim-only deals - what do you recommend?
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I thought I'd get up to speed and and invest in a monthly sim-only deal for my iPhone SE, having been a tightwad on PAYG for years. Turns out that if you go directly to the main operators (EE, O2, 3, Vodafone) the deals are incredibly expensive and you need to get a deal via one of the compare sites (Money Saving Expert, uSwitch, etc).
So I found a cheap monthly contract (3gb data, unlimited calls and text) with LycaMobile for a silly price (49p for first 6 months, then £4.95 a month). Signed up and transferred number and all seemed good. But last week Lycamobile apparently got hacked and their services have been down for a week, users can't access the web portal and no-one can get PAC codes to leave. See this for example -
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lycamobile.co.uk?sort=recency
When I can get a PAC I'm leaving them and signing up for a new monthly contract.
But all these providers seem dodgy. What have your experiences been like? I need a provider that runs off of, ideally, EE or 3, or O2 at a pinch. Can't get good Vodafone where I live.
Ideally I'd like around 3-5gb of data, unlimited minutes and texts for up to £6 a month.
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is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?
That was my conundrum.. the sceptic in me thinks not so I incrementally moved us away.. one SIM at a time.. with the highest data user last.. the package with ID was simply better value.. and whilst the speeds might not be the same.. it does work well enough for everyday use.
is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?
https://speakerimpedance.co.uk/?act=two_parallel&page=calculator
Seems counter intuitive to me.
If you are with BT, it is quite reliable but when you try to leave them, their incompetence makes it really hard.
So I had Halo 2 and a land line from them, I was paying like £50 a month for it and the price was going to go up. So I called up to cancel the Halo 2 and repeatedly, at every turn, to reaffirm, that i want to keep the landline.
So, yes, you can see where i am going. They cut off my landline, and i spent hours on the phone, with several operator to get it back. When they first reconnected me, they gave me a totally different number, and then charged me £80 for the pleasure of doing so!
I had to call up again to get my old number back, thankfully it hasn't been reassigned to someone else in that down time, and then took more calls to get that £80 refunded to put it back on my account. But when i sign into their website, it shows I have 2 separate accounts with them, my old one with Halo2 and landline and a new one with just the landline.
Oh, yes, they kept chasing me for the returned equipment!!!!
I sent both the router and the box on the wall back. And when i called up to check if they have received it or not, I asked for another bag, which I put a random 10 year old BT router (not fibre) in there for them. They only "cleared" the account after I gave them the tracking number and the guy manually changed the status for me.
I went with Zzoomm for my internet in the end, £25 a month over 2 years contract, 3x the speed as BT. The landline cost me £11 a month. Zzoomm has been fine the last 6 months, i think it only went down once all that time and it was from like midnight to 8am.
My wife left Vodaphone because of cost. We went to Sky and she had no signal in work & barely 3G outdoors in town. So I switched her to Lebara (piggybacks onto Vodaphone) & now all's weel at a fraction of the cost.
I use ID - which uses 3 network. So if there's any issues one of our phones will hopefully work!
Money Saving Expert has a list of who uses what networks and the latest deals
Their £6 a month unlimited calls 5GB of data fits the bill. Personally I'm on a £10 a month 60GB monthly.
Been with them for 2 years on a monthly rolling thing - zero complaints and not had a single issue.
I like that they include roaming so when i go abroad i don't have any extra charges (unlike Mrs Gubble who is with EE).
On 4G i get a fantastic 80MBPS download speed.
Previously with Vodafone who for a similar deal wanted £20 a month !
I reduced mine from £12.50 as I very rarely used the data even when travelling. Roaming included. Handy with EU travel.
been with them for a few years
I don't use much data so I have the lowest rate, and it includes roaming abroad (EU at least) so I didn't have to pay anything extra for two weeks in Cyprus.
Our Maud, who is with Vodafone, had to pay £15 quid for roaming for that two weeks.