Dare to Share

If you only really use your mobile phone for emergencies and for the odd call every now and again then you’re best to go down the Pay as you go (PAYG) route. I would ask you though to make sure you keep track on exactly how much you spend each month - the reason I say that is that contract deals or SIM only deals can be a lot cheaper than the PAYG option so if you’re regularly paying £10+ a month then it may be time to change over.

The mobile phone tariff market is an absolute minefield with different offers, different network providers, free texts at the weekend if you spend so much during the week, half price calls to your favourite numbers. The list goes can go on and on.

Although the offers available may sound good i.e. spend £5 during the week topping up and then you get free texts and free calls at the weekend this does mean you’ll be spending £20 a month and there’s a lot of pay monthly or SIM only tariffs available at that price.

I have therefore gone straight in with the two cheapest providers and by cheapest providers I mean the per minute and per text cost. They are Asda Mobile and Tesco Mobile. Yes, along with selling food, clothes and electrical goods they have both gone into the mobile phone market.

Asda Mobile use the Vodafone network for their calls and charge 8p per minute and 4p per text which is by far the cheapest option.

Tesco Mobile charge 20p per minute and 10p per text but they do offer half price on your favourite 5 numbers therefore bring that cost down to 10p and 5p respectively. Tesco use the o2 network for their calls. The draw for me with Tesco Mobile is that you get free credit whenever you top up a certain amount each month i.e. If you top up £10 then you also receive a further £10 for that month and if you top up £15 you will receive an extra £30.

Useful TIp

Get a cheap phone: The PAYG option should be for those not wanting to spend much therefore I would suggest buying a second-hand or cheap phone and get it unlocked, so you can use it on any network. There are some classic Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets to be had for under £20 on eBay. I’ll be discussing buying a cheap phone in a later post.

Just because you’re on PAYG this doesn’t mean you are not entitled to keep your existing phone number. Do this by calling your existing provider and requesting a PAC code… It’s free.