I’m looking to move to pay as you go from my current 30 day £14 per month contract.

Looking at various providers it appears that they all offer various ‘bundles’ that last 30 days and then expire unless you top them up again – this isn’t my view of what pay as you go should be and looks suspiciously like what I’ve already got – a 30 day contract.

There’s very little information that I’ve been able to find on what I would call true pay as you go – where you top up your account and it lasts until you’ve used it up, and that could be well over 30 days.

Am I misunderstanding the bundles thing? Is traditional pay as you go still available?

Yup there are a lot of 30-day contracts disguised as payg

We’re with three 3-2-1 and Tesco poverty spec payg and they are both payg in the traditional sense. Topped up my Tesco £20 in April still have £4 left

GiffGaffs offering is basically traditional payg.

You can cancel the packages that give you X if you top up £X each month.
Then you do just have credit to spend on what you wish. Classic PAYG

Most are traditional payg with the option for monthly deals. You put some money in you account and that is used for calls, text, etc until it is gone, you can then buy a deal which is closer to monthly contract but without any tie ins. Just need to work out which is more cost effective for your use.

Giffgaff’s bundles all expire after 30 days – it’s stated clearly in their terms and conditions. No credit will roll over to the next month. Same goes for Vodafone.

I can’t see that either offer traditional PAYG options!

You don’t have to buy a bundle. Just put some money in your account and use that until it runs out. Costs here https://www.giffgaff.com/compare-pay-as-you-go-tariffs

As above. Pay ten quid when you get the phone, you’ll get a monthly “bundle” which will run out at the end of the month. You’ll still have your ten quids worth of credit to do as you please with though.

Ahhh, right. Ok, I get it now. The add ons expire, but the credit remains. Many thanks all.

I only pay £15 on a sim-only deal with 3.

Has everything I need and haven’t caused me any issues over the last 2-3 years of smartphone usage.

The add ons expire, but the credit remains. Many thanks all.

Not quite. Not sure what David is talking about 🙂 . You either buy a bundle which is loads of use but time limited or use credit which won’t run out, it just goes down every time you use the phone. Heavy user the bundles will be cheaper, light user then just use credit. The beauty of payg is that you can just flip between the two options.

Three’s 3-2-1 bundle appears to be a lot better value than others if doing traditional PAYG – I’d just been looking into this, as checking out my usage it seems I’d probably only pay £2 to £3 a month on that, so a lot less than my current cheap contract.

The only question is what the coverage is like – where I live and where I use my phone often doesn’t have great coverage. Currently on Virgin on EE which I think has the best coverage, how does Three compare? (alternatively I’m thinking of switching to the Post Office which seems the best value cheap 30 day package on EE network)

Not sure what David is talking about

😀 Neither do I; just typin’

I’ve got an old PAYG from O2 that sort of works like David is talking about. Bundle of text and data that runs for a month from whenever I pay (min £10 payment). Credit is used for any calls and then remainder gets used for texts / data after the 30 days expires. Works out about £5 a month or less.

Occasionally offers where a £15 top-up also gives 2 weeks of free calls – sometimes use this tactically if I’m working away etc and might want to make more calls (the £15 is still there after the free period).

The Wife does EE at £1 per week for 25 minutes and 50 texts. Boy2 was on the same but we cancelled it at the beginning of the school holidays and haven’t started it again, it just uses some credit if he calls us. So basically old fashioned Pay-as-you-go.

Three 3-2-1 here – last topped up about 6 months ago. Network coverage is OK in UK, but roaming abroad is a bit limited.

BT are doing a sim only deal which seems pretty good – calls, sms and 500mb 4g data for £5/month.
My limited experience with PAYG is that it’s usually overly complicated to extract more money from you.
5 x Tesco monthly contracts here now 🙁

why the sad face, sharkbait? don’t like Tesco, but it’s the only one that does what you want?

Another who’s on Three 321. Only problem I’ve had with it is traveling abroad, seems to take ages to change onto another network, which caused me major problems at the airport.

why the sad face, sharkbait?

I have to pay for everybody’s phone contract 🙁

Tesco have been fine although I am wondering about changing to EE or maybe BT. My 3 girls basically only want data and lots of it, the EE data sim might work as it gives 1Gb, 50 text and 50 ins but for £10 I’d be wanting more data or less cost.