I’ve got an iPad mini, I want to use the 4G very occasionally. Is pay and go still my best bet? When you buy 20gb of data it only rolls over for a few months.

Wouldn’t it be easier to tether it to your phone when you need to?

yeah but the phone battery just does to quickly with a lot of 4g use

I was looking for the same. In the end, I gave up on PAYG and found a monthly SIM only contract instead.

There were so many complications with PAYG it was too much hassle. Namely: lack of roll over; prohibitive costs over/outside bundle; auto top up shenanigans… etc.

Most will only roll over the unused data if you top up again the following month, so you end up paying every month anyway.

Found a cheap SIM only monthly deal instead. There’s no minimum term, and I can cancel whenever. It’s all of a fiver a month, so not a huge amount per year, and saves the hassle of topping up and / or losing unused data.

Try iD: iD £6 per month 2GB

Cheaper versions and deals are available.

Your regular mobile provider or home broadband provider might offer really good deals if you link to your existing account.

Three have a preloaded data SIM. 24GB for £43, valid for up to 24 months.
So could be good for irregular use.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Mobile-Pay-Broadband-Data-Black/dp/B01M3VJ2B2/

Depends on whether you have any coverage from 3. Seems they are usually cheapest for data.

https://smarty.co.uk/plans/30gb-data

Buy a battery pack for your phone and tether? Something like this, https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VJSGT2A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_F98nEbVQW1JQ5

Those Three 24GB prepaid SIMs lasts 24-months from activation, they can be as cheap as ~£31 like they were around Black Friday and Xmas.

The 12GB variant only lasts 12-months from activation.

Three used to do a deal where you could buy a PAYG SIM with, say £10 on it, register it and get 200Mb/m free after that – not sure if it’s still current though.

GiffGaff might suit?

Thanks all, I’ll probably go with three as I’m with them already. Shame they make it complicated.

Have a look at penny mobile (www.1pmobile.com)

I use this as a backup data source and certainly when I looked these seemed to be the best value option.