Three PAYG price hike on calls, texts, and data. Alternative punting PAYG SIM?

[The_Don]

Those are indeed great rates but what happens if does not top up £10 every 120 days? Would I lose whatever amount of credit I have left?

With the Asda payg sim, as long as you send one text or make a call every six months, your number stays active and you don't lose your balance/credit.


P.s. I'll now re-read the entire thread to refresh my memory and since it's probably already been answered.

And yep,  £10 every 4 months just seen it.

Can you top up in shops with cash with 1p mobile? I'm clueless.

If you don't top up after 120 day

Yes, you should be able to receive both calls and texts, even if your credit is zero. However, in order to remain a 1pMobile customer, you must top-up your phone by your next top-up due date. If you fail to do so, we will close your 1pMobile account, all unused credit will be lost, and your mobile number will be disconnected.

When you join you will pay £10 to initially add credit to your account and we will send you a free SIM card. Each SIM has a new phone number. 1pMobile is not available in stores.

External Link/Members Only


My understanding is you sign up online and pay £10.


Also to note they do

Unlimited calls & texts
plus 250MB of data per month
Just £36 for a whole year

External Link/Members Only

[FiveKnuckles]

Do a search for 'RWG', I mentioned in a off topic thread.

Their PAYG is 5p/5p/1p. £5 minimum top up and you need to make 1 call/text every 90 days to keep the line active.  It's useful for a punt SIM.

You can buy 1yr/2yr plans starting £20 for a set amount of call/text/data each month.  Once the plan ends you're reverted to PAYG unless you buy another fixed term plan.

- Coverage is ok on EE backbone.
- support is pre-historic through email. 
- top-up through website (debit card).
- app =dogshite.
- calls to busy number gets dropped without any indication  so I'm thinking WTF just happened.

Overall worthy an irregular punt SIM.  Best to get a geobank account to top up so OH don't see transaction.

[summernirvana]

Both 1p and RWG seem to be two very good options for punters.

The trade off I was able to get with the Asda sim is anonymity and cash payment top-ups in shops.

I was annoyed at the preposterous price hikes. 35p a text up from 6p was absurd.

But now at 10p text, 15p min, 10p mb data, especially finding out yesterday only the rates had lowered, I feel better about it.

I've now downloaded Whatsapp on my punting phone and am able to inquire and set up punts through it reducing the usage of my sim's balance.
That's been another plus.

So there are 3 options for us gents out there.

[FiveKnuckles]

The trade off I was able to get with the Asda sim is anonymity and cash payment top-ups in shops.
I was annoyed at the preposterous price hikes. 35p a text up from 6p was absurd.
But now at 10p text, 15p min, 10p mb data, especially finding out yesterday only the rates had lowered, I feel better about it.

I've now downloaded Whatsapp on my punting phone and am able to inquire and set up punts through it reducing the usage of my sim's balance.  That's been another plus.

So there are 3 options for us gents out there.

Unless you catch WiFi on punt day, you'll be overpaying for data.  All swings and roundabouts.   Not all SPs use WApp so also limiting.


The O2 classic 3-2-1 is another good option.  Buy a top-up voucher from some newsagents to retain anonymity.
Top up is £10 every 180 days, so you may potentially end up with a large amount of credit.  Better put a date in some diary when to next top up as you could end with a de-activated sim and loss of credit.

RWG with only a 90day call/text requirement is a no brainer.  Just top up £5 with no pressure to buy further credit.


There's no best Sim.  All depends how frequently you punt.  Get a sim from each operator for a spin and drop the one that doesn't work for you.

[summernirvana]

Unless you catch WiFi on punt day, you'll be overpaying for data.  All swings and roundabouts.   Not all SPs use WApp so also limiting.

I've been wondering about that.  How much do they actually charge for data usage?

1mb data is 10p with my Asda sim.

A single message on whatsapp is like 33kb or something, 1mb = 1000kb, so it's insignificant.

But do they charge me 1mb fully despite the fact I've only used a small fraction of it, or do they charge me 1mb per day...it's confusing.

I contemplated using my real phone as a hotspot - for my punting phone - when I'm out so I can use whatsapp free of cost.

Also my plan is to use whatsapp at home to set up the punt: ask for availability, address, booking, etc. And yes, I think about half of WGs are on whatsapp, so it won't work all the time.

Yesterday for instance I used whatsapp to text a WG if she's moving to a specific area (nearby) any time soon since she's one of those Brazilians that hop around week after week to different places and I know for a fact she's been in my area before.
She said 'no' but that's a case I would never have used up my credit for, but on whatsapp on my home wifi, it was free.

Then text once I'm at the location to just get the door number basically.

It's a bit of  a puzzle, but if other people are also after a solution for their punting phone, there's a few ideas here.

[tynetunnel]

But do they charge me 1mb fully despite the fact I've only used a small fraction of it, or do they charge me 1mb per day...it's confusing.

To be fair, it’s 10p either way! 

[summernirvana]

To be fair, it’s 10p either way! 

It is but my punting phone went from £1.79 to 79p credit the other day minutes after I turned on mobile data somehow. I've no idea how that happened since I wasn't even using it. Perhaps the phone auto updated some software - eating up data - without me realising it or something.

I've since topped it up and used whatsapp on mobile data - as an experiment - and it charged me 1p. And I sent over a dozen messages.
I've used whatsapp on my home wifi and it predictably charged me nothing.

Whatever happens, I top-up a fiver here and there and it's no problem - and I'm happy the rates are lower now and I've got the option of Whatsapp for the WGs that use it.

[rockharders]

RWG mobile (on EE) do a one off charge £35 2 year sim, you get two years of 250txt, 250min calls and 2gb data p/m. that works out about £1.40 a month.

[time2play]

I'm trying out cmlink (china mobile) uk payg offering.

Calls are 8p/min and texts 6p.

Can't remember when you have to top up and can't find it on their site. I remember it being 180 days or something.

[Captainhowdy666]

RWG mobile (on EE) do a one off charge £35 2 year sim, you get two years of 250txt, 250min calls and 2gb data p/m. that works out about £1.40 a month.

Best of the bunch methinks.
1p take the Micky wanting £10 when you barely use it.