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Here we try to bring you articles, news, tools, videos, tips and hints - to help you get the most out of your mobile phone and the benefits you get from your mobile life.
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You have many choices for where to find and buy your next Pay As You Go SIM card.
Deciding on your next contract mobile phone can be a minefield - trying to decipher confusing tariffs, lengthy contracts and hidden charges.
With Pay As You Go - you simply start and stop as you like - your calls, texts, and data-usage are all paid for in advance - with amounts you can afford as you can afford them.
Quite often though - to "protect" your remaining credit, and indeed your mobile phone number, you will need to either: make one chargeable phone call or send one chargeable text message per 180 days.
Failure to do either of the above could mean you lose your remaining credit - and potentially your mobile phone number could be assigned to another user.
Why ?
Not making at least one chargeable call or sending one chargeable text message every 180 days the network could assume your number (and associated remaining credit) is no longer used or needed.
While with Pay As You Go - you will have to buy your mobile phone handset upfront, if all you want to do is make a few calls and send a few texts - a basic Pay As You Go handset can be bought for as little as £10 or £15.
If you are interested in an entry-level smartphone - these can be bought outright for around £100 - £300
If you want much more from your handset - be ready to spend much more - a high-end smartphone bought outright could be in excess of £500. Even going to over £1000.
Similarly, with SIM-only (SIMO) and PAYG plans - the more texts, calls, and data you require per month the higher the cost of the plan. Though, with such high competition between networks you can quite often find some very competitive deals.
There is good news though:
In these times of austerity-measures, more and more manufacturers and network providers are vying for your Pay As You Go business.
Mobile phone technology is moving fast, better mobile phone handsets are becoming cheaper and more easily available and "common-place" – search around and you will find fully-featured smartphones with all the bells-and-whistles at surprisingly affordable prices.
Have a browse through the "Mobile Phone Handsets" article category within the "Articles" tab on the main-menu here on SIMsurprise.co.uk - there is a wide range of mobile phones from basic - to more advanced.
Why Use Pay As You Go (PAYG)?
Pay As You Go - sometimes abbreviated to P A Y G is a pre-payment way of obtaining talk time, and credit to send text messages. Just Top-up when you can afford it, with an amount you can afford. When you make a call, or send a text, the cost of the call or text is deducted from your pre-paid credit.
Pay As You Go (PAYG) Allows You to:
- Stick to a budget;
- Pay for the usage (calls and texts) as you go;
- Not commit to a fixed term contract;
- Not receive a big bill at the end of the month.
There are many great value SIM only deals - and you are not committed to a contract.
If you see a better deal simply change to that deal. If later you find a better deal on contract you can change to that without changing SIM card subject to a notice period of typically 30 days.
Tip:
If you want to compare current SIM only deals, you might want to take a look at our article Compare SIM only deals
With so much competition within the Mobile industry these days, all of the network providers want you to "be" with them - to be the network with the most users - they want to get you and your friends to join their network.
How do they do this ?
Many network providers have special offers subject to top-up amount - for example top-up with £10.00p and receive a free bonus of £1.00p (that is for £10.00p you get £11.00p credit) or, top-up with £20.00p and receive an extra £2.00p free and everyone likes something for free !
Some networks have an offer for free calls to other mobiles connected to the same network, although this might only apply to a set number of minutes per call, or per month. The same can sometimes apply to text messages sent to a mobile connected to the same network - this often is attached to a fair usage policy.
If you adhere to the Fair Usage policy of the network provider - it can only be good - after all if a call, or text, is free that can only be good.
If you already have a phone that you like but want to change network - simply buy a SIM only package - although this might involve having your handset unlocked - the cost of this is typically £5.00 - £10.00p although sometimes it can be done for free.
Also, with your SIM card you can choose to store information (data) as well as, or instead of, on your handset.
The advantages of this are that should your handset become damaged you can simply move your SIM card from one handset to another, and SIM cards can be copied so if you lose your phone and/or SIM card you have a spare SIM card with your important data on it.
Here we also like to offer you as balanced a view as possible between PAYG and Contract.
We do this through our articles - found under the Articles tab on the main-menu near the top of most pages, as well as bringing you a combination of Pay As you Go and Contract handset and service deals which we think might be of interest to site visitors.
