New Pay Monthly Phone Contract

[BFCIT]

Hi All,

 

My contract with o2 finishes this month. I am happy with the phone I still have, it works fine and I don't see the need to upgrade at this point in time.

 

As such I was wondering if any of you have any experience with SIM only deals and can comment on the networks, signal, reliability etc. I have noticed quite a few such as Life and TPO that piggyback on to the EE network.

 

I probably use around 1000 minutes a month talktime, unlimited texts is handy and around 2-3GB a month of data (more is always welcomed) but not at ridiculous cost.

 

Do you have any recommendations or suggestions on who are the best providers, and reasons perhaps not to go with Life and TPO?

 

Thank you..

[abillybob]

Three.. Why?

 

They have the most reliable and fastest (IMO) 3G connection.

They are reasonably cheap.

Signal is very good (for me anyway)

[elsiegee40]

I'm on SIM only with three too. I worked out it's cheaper to buy the phone and go SIM only. Three's 'feel at home' deal for travel is useful as we go to France regularly.

 

My cousin swears by GigffGaff. You will probably need to get your phone unlocked if you switch provider.

[DJ-1701]

I use a Three SIM only contract as well with all you can eat data (though tethering now as a 12GB cap on my contract).

 

I was looking at this a while ago when Three hiked their long standing contracts, and my other thoughts were going with GiffGaff (O2 piggyback) as their prices seemed reasonable.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

I'm on SIM only with three too. I worked out it's cheaper to buy the phone and go SIM only. Three's 'feel at home' deal for travel is useful as we go to France regularly.

 

My cousin swears by GigffGaff. You will probably need to get your phone unlocked if you switch provider.

 

Yes, forgot about that, feel at home is so very useful!

[twin--turbo]

Tesco was the same price with or without a phone for my son.

[jonnykewell1]

I'm currently in the same boat and I'm torn between 3 and Giffgaff. I think i'm edging more towards 3 though but if anyone else has any suggestions i'm all ears. I say i'm happy with my phone but no doubt i'll see something shiny soon and want it. The S7 edge looks nice

[difinity]

GiffGaff uses the o2 network so might not need unlocking. o2 phones didn't used to come locked anyway.

Check out Virgin's SIM only deals if you are with them for broadband, you get a fiver off. 30 day rolling contract.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

My wife got this from mobiles.co.uk this week

 

Apple iPhone 6 16GB Space Grey - Best Contract Mobile Phone Deals on Ee

 

She ordered on Sunday night, phone was delivered tuesday morning

[dry]

Have been on GiffGaff since before it was cool.

 

It's been ok. Have had probably 3 or 4 outages over the 5 or 6 years I've been with them. Generally service has been restored in a matter of hours and it's normally been one element- either texts, calls or data and not all three that have gone down for everyone.

 

Now that customer levels have exploded, I'm sure their systems are a bit more resilient than they used to be.

 

The one thing that annoys me with GiffGaff is that their customer's data traffic priority seems to be far down the queue compared to o2's. At very busy places like football matches and festivals, you've got pretty much no chance of getting access to mobile data. I'm not sure how well other networks cope with it but it does get annoying at times.

 

On the plus side, there's free GiffGaff to GiffGaff calls and texts!

[rad]

I'm with EE and wont change purely because the phone works where I live and over at my parents/in-laws so is handy.

I'm SIM only and have been for a while now, I'm just rolling as there is nothign better for me at the same price. I will upgrade to the new iphone when it releases, its cheaper to fork out than it is to pay a contract.

[Sagima]

I've been sim only for a long time - firstly with giffgaff and then with virgin. Giffgaff had two outages while I was with them (between 2010 and 2014 I think) and virgin have had none and were slightly cheaper (I have their broadband). My husband also has a sim only virgin deal - he does the £5/month one as he doesn't use his phone much.

Signal didn't seem to be any different when I moved from o2 (contract) to vodafone (contract) to giffgaff (monthly sim) to virgin (monthly sim) - I think this place is pretty evenly covered by the three main carriers.

[Achandler]

ID Mobile is run by Carphone Warehouse and is on Three (but usually cheaper). They are new to the game though, been fine for me though (3 months in), personaly I find 3's coverage lacking comapred to EE (was on it through Virgin) though.

 

A lot of Virtual Network don't offer 4G so read the small print, Virgin for example don't or do Life and The People's Network when I checked.

[BFCIT]

Thanks for all the input guys and girls, appreciate it. Yet to make a decision, my main concern is the traffic priority for 3G when using an MVNO, so it may be worth paying a couple of quid more a month just to go with the main players. hmm decisions decisions!