Jan 9, 2010
Choosing your payg mobile providers
A good 3G signal which gives you faster mobile internet access, video messaging and downloads and the ability to watch TV on your mobile is essential. Currently 3 www.three.co.uk and Orange www.orange.co.uk have the most extensive coverage across the UK. However, O2 have announced plans to build 1,500 new mobile network sites across the UK in 2010. O2 suggests its focus is also on being number one for customer satisfaction.
However, all pay as you go deals are not created equal and switching can save you money and may provide you with a better service too. PAYG users are often poorly catered for when it comes to advice on choosing between PAYG deals. If you are a low PAYG mobile user (making 5 mins of calls and approx. 15 texts a month) you might save £20 per annum by switching from a big player to a company like Asda who offers a flat PAYG rate of 8p per minute and 4p per text. The most expensive PAYG rates are around 22p for calls and 12p per text. Moderate users (about 40 mins of calls and 40 texts a month) could save £100 a year by switching from the most expensive to the cheapest. If you are a high user (making 300 call minutes and more than 100 texts monthly) it might be worth paying on a monthly contract or Sim-only contract.
PAYG mobile deals change rapidly so its worth shopping around and considering the smaller providers like Tesco (visit www.tesco.co.uk ). They offer calls and texts at half price for five nominated phone numbers which might suit your usage mode. Alternatively, T-Mobile and O2 offer cheaper rates after the first few minutes of a call so useful if you often make long calls. Check out www.t-mobile.co.uk and www.o2.co.uk
If you are a high user and want to stick with PAYG make full use of PAYG incentives. For example, if you top up around£10 O2, T-mobile, Virgin Mobile (visit www.virginmedia.com ) and Vodafone at www.vodafone.co.uk all offer ‘free’ minutes or texts – the more you top up the more free time you will get. Vodafone does some really good free weekend deals so worth checking them out. Remember that if you top up less frequently than once a month many incentives will not be available to you. Tesco has the best top-up incentives as they offer ‘free’ credit in exchange for topping up by a minimum amount a month. A £10 top up will get you £10 free credit while a £15 top up gets you £30 free credit.
Source: www.which.co.uk
