UKC

I want a 3g sim card for a tablet. I'm unlikely to use vast amounts of data so I want to avoid monthly contracts and go for a simple PAYG. Can anyone advise me please?

Thanks.

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In reply to mypyrex:

giffgaff may be your best option. You can have PAYG, or buy 'gigabags' for bundles of data, or can have a monthly 'goodybag' - like a contract, but can be bought whenever you want, month by month, and there's no commitment to buying more.

Posting a link to their site gets you auto-banned from the forums due to too many people doing so trying to get 'payback', so I'll let you google it!

They use the O2 network, so don't choose them if O2 coverage is poor where you'll be using it.

Also, they don't offer support over the phone - if that's a problem to you, look elsewhere.

In reply to skog:

Thanks for that, I'll do a Google. I enquired with O2(my phone server) but as far as I could see I would be paying £10 a month even if I didn't use data and they tried to tell me it was a PAYG scheme.
A mobile phone repair chap gave me an Orange SIM card and said I would be able to use that for data in the tablet. I put it in and got a message via gmail assigning me a phone number. However I can seem to be able to top it up and I can't get any sense out of the Orange web site.

In reply to mypyrex:
Giffgaff is very flexible for this sort of thing if O2 network suits your location, or have you considered a mifi dongle linking to a mobile and it's contract?
Payg now tends to be a monthly contract with a monthly limit, but with Giffgaff there is no tie in to renew or even have a gigabag. Would be costly but you can run on Payg with credit on account. Goodybags are for mobile contracts so not suitable for a tablet only (except via mifi where permitted).

In reply to mypyrex:

Have a look on ebay for Three pre-paid cards. usually have 3G (or 90 days usage) for about £15. I buy a few at a time. Generally works out at about £5/month for me.

In reply to mypyrex:
Unless it is one of the older ones on Payg (usage based) I would think you now have to buy a monthly plan? Maybe need to phone them to find out (a stressful event in my experience!). I have one of orange's older sims which is only charged on Payg usage. Some months when I'm rarely away to use it, I use only 50p! Great for the occasional access, so if you have one of these it's very flexible.

I've looked at Giffgaff and it still seems that, on the Goodybag deal, you have to pay £7.50 a month. So what happens if, within a given month, I have not used all of my data allowance? What am I getting for that £7.50? I used to have a PAYG phone whereby I topped up with, say, £10 and I could make £10 worth of calls at any time, even six months later if I wanted to. That's really all I need.

In reply to mypyrex:

I use giffgaff for my smart phone and tether my tablet to it as well I never pay more than £10 a month for everything. Even if I ran out of mins on calls I just phone using data

In reply to mypyrex:


You lose the rest. You get the allowances they list, with 30 days to use them.

Have a look at their gigabags, though - I think they're better for data only.

And you don't have to use either - you can just top up credit and use it PAYG, which may be best for really light, occasional use.

In reply to skog:

Sorry to be so obtuse about this. If I get a card from Giffgaff and activate it and top it up with, say, but don't pay a set amount(£5, £7.50...etc) per month, what happens?
As I say, sorry to sound so thick about this.

In reply to mypyrex:

If you do that, it works as PAYG - which I think may be what you want. Their rates are quite good; they show them under Our Offer - Prices.
Relevant to you: "Mobile Internet (up to 20MB) 20p per day"

You can do this -and- have a goodybag or gigabag if you need, so, say you want PAYG but have a month you know you'll be using it lots, keep it in credit and buy the relevant bag just for that month.

If you go over your limits with a bag, it starts coming out of your credit total (so, back to PAYG).

If your credit runs out and you don't have an active bag, you can't use it until you top up or buy a bag - you can't spend what you don't have on it.

It's kind of a hybrid - PAYG, with the option to add mini-contracts on top as and when you want.

In reply to mypyrex:



Nothing if you don't use it, but you can use payg data. 20p for up to 20mb per day pro rata then 20p per mb for rest of the day.

In reply to skog:







Think I understand that now. I can get a card from Giffgaff without necessarily paying a set amount each month but just use the card as a PAYG by topping up when it suits me.

In reply to mypyrex:

If it is a tablet you do not want a goodybag - that's for mobiles. For tablets you either need a gigabag or Payg (unless your are thinking about tethering? to a mobile). If so watch out that some goodybags ban this (the unlimited data ones).
If you know you will be using a lot of data buy a gigabag, if not then opt for Payg.

In reply to mypyrex:

Yup, that's right.

In reply to skog:


Thanks. Presumably I activate and away I go.

In reply to mypyrex:


Just FYI, you can do this with Vodafone as well, although their rates are probably higher than giffgaff's eg mobile data costs £1 a day for up to 25MB, or 250MB for 30days is £5.

I only mention it as an alternative in case O2 isn't ideal for you because of coverage. There definitie downsides to Vodafone beyond the higher cost. For example, Vodafone's PAYG web site is a PITA to navigate and it's often entirely unobvious how to get the tariff or add-on that you want. Plus they have an annoying tendency to chop and change the add-ons and packs that are available with zero notice, so that when you are coming to the end of one pack and want to buy another one, far too often that option will have disappeared and you'll have to read the Ts and Cs of the ones that appear to have replaced to work out which one gives you what you want this time.

If giffgaff wasn't on O2 I'd seriously consider switching to it but unfortunately I'm pretty much tied to Vodafone for coverage reasons.

In reply to mypyrex:

Yup. You might have to set a few settings, but they'll give you the details if you sign up.

In reply to mypyrex:

If it's a tablet and you want wi-fi connection rather than mobile coverage you can buy various time lengths of btopenzone. You can get a connection almost anywhere there are houses. The daily rate is a bit high but oddly the annual seems very good value.