[Closed] SIM card for intermittent data usage

See if there's anything on GiffGaff that might suit your needs. If so pm me your details and we can both get £5 free credit.
Steve.

bump for daytime crowd

If you're looking at PAYG, all top ups will be limited to a month, meaning that you'll need to top up monthly regardless of how much you actually use.

That said you can get a Three top up for £70 which lasts for a year...although that's no different to signing up for a cheap 12 month contract in effect.

giff gaff is really poor in rural areas IME and so is the slot in my laptop

4G dongles are ace[ just got 25 mb out of mine on a speed test for example] IME but I cannot help you in this respect [ I dont pay the bill or even see it] but I suspect Pay as you go is very pricey/not worth bothering with

FWIW when you do this with the sim you get the full website and not the mobile version it may be worth tricking the computer into giving you the mobile version

[quote=peterfile ]If you're looking at PAYG, all top ups will be limited to a month, meaning that you'll need to top up monthly regardless of how much you actually use.

Surely only if I buy a bundle? It is still possible to actually PAYG rather than have a pseudo contract isn't it? Though presumably that would be more expensive for anything more than minimal use, so my best option if I want more than minimal is presumably to buy a bundle when I need it.

Or are there any alternatives - which is where I came in?

Three has a payg contract charging 1p per MB. I don't use three, so no idea on coverage.

Three has a payg contract charging 1p per MB

Only for phone use.

And yes, they could tell the difference, if they do or not I don't know,

i used 3 payg as a wifi hotspot. I don't think it is supposed to work (though it's not physically tethering, maybe that matters) but it does. 1p/MB or 20 quid for a month unlimited. Used to be 15 but just went up. Also has a 50p/day internet thing but that is not unlimited.

Is that with a phone or some other HW? Seems like the perfect option if it can be made to work.

I use a phone, in particular a galaxy y. Just bought a second one off ebay so my wife can have the same system when we are in different places. less than 25 quid unlocked, sim for free, 20 quid add-on bundle and she's got free data while in the USA on a trip (actually the data is not unlimited abroad, I think there was some small print saying it's "only" 25gb). Oh, the 20 quid bundle includes 300 mins and 3000 texts, and there is no extra costs for being overseas.

I know I sound like an advert but I'm amazed at what a good deal this is when you consider what mobiles used to cost (and still do on some contracts). The standard PAYG is already cheap as chips for occasional "here I am" texts and calls anyway and the unlimited 20 quid option means we can have proper internet whenever we travel, which is quite often. It's not always quite up to streaming video but we don't do a lot of that anyway.

You could also get a 4G Mifi device for £20. I've got one on three for hooking up to a remote RaspberryPi and it's great.

But...rereading your OP...

New (to me) laptop has a SIM slot and 3G module. Would be handy to be able to get data when out and about (without having to hotspot my phone), but it's not something I'd use very often. So what is the best deal for something for occasional 10MB to ~200MB data usage?

The easiest and cheapest way for occasional use is definitely just using your existing phone as a hotspot. 🙂

I tether to my phone all the time with no problems, three are good that way. Plus as mentioned above, I also get free data and calls in loads of countries all over the world.

giff gaff is really poor in rural areas IME

that rules out O2 then

Considered all this earlier this year prior to going on holidays to France (this was back in March).

I ended up buying a Three MiFi thing which worked very well and was no probs to use on the FeelAtHome thing that Three run in Europe. It'll pick up 4G but only had 3G in the mountains in France. It's about the size of a credit card and maybe 10mm-ish thick? The only thing for us was that it was an extra cable to drag round as we're both on iPhones and it charges via micro USB (so if you're on an Android device, you might already be using the same cable). It was quite handy as we could both sit in the cafés and restaurants and hook up to it and tweet/facebook/stw instead of actually having to talk to one another - that was where it really came into its own.

PAYG credit only rolls over with calls. Data credit now expires each month or every few months.

Vodafone used to do one that was perfect for this with non expiring data credit. Top up £10 and it would last a year or more on my broadband dongle that I'd only use very occasionally for small amounts of data.

That ran for years until they finally decided to screw existing customers and expire the credit despite at one time stating they'd never do that, only for new customers.

Anyway, rural areas you're better off for reception with EE. They suck for everything else though.