Mobile Network Comparison

About a month ago we covered Three Mobile’s new groundbreaking 321 tariff. They’ve really stepped up their game by bringing out what are easily the UK’s cheapest PAYG rates ever.

Previously, calls used to cost 26p per minute but now you’ll only have to pay a tiny 3p. Texts were also slashed from 11p each down to just 2p each. And data went down the most dramatically from 11p/MB to just 1p/MB.

Unsurprisingly, industry experts and consumers alike have been praising Three’s bold move. This is really set to shake up the mobile market and hopefully will make the existing big players rethink whether they can continue to rip off the British public.

However, although these are easily the best rates currently available, we had to ask whether it’s really the cheapest way to use your phone. Longtime readers are aware that our main mission is to save you, the user, as much cash as possible.

While you won’t do better on standard PAYG, lots of PAYG operators have been offering rolling monthly bundles recently which can offer phenomenal value for money. How much are Three really upping the ante when compared to these deals? In this article, we take a look at the biggest competitor to Three’s new 321 tariff, Giffgaff.

Giffgaff charges quite a bit more than Three on their standard PAYG with calls coming in at 10p/minute and texts costing a comparatively-pricey 8p each. Data is also 1p/MB but only if you use 20 MB per day – after that it explodes to an exorbitant 20p per MB However, they also offer a variety of monthly goodybags ranging from just £5 to £20.

 

The showdown

Let’s start off with the cheapest, the £5 Hokey Cokey goodybag. this comes with 60 included minutes, 300 texts and 20MB of mobile data.

On 321, this would set you back a total of £8. And also bear in mind that you also get additional free minutes on the Hokey Cokey goodybag for every minute someone calls you and to all other Giffgaff customers.

Giffgaff wins

 

Next is the £7.50 goodybag which offers you 200 minutes, unlimited texts and 250 MB of data.

Even if we ignore the unlimited texts, this would cost more on 321 coming in at £8.50 for the same usage. If you use just 150 texts a month it would be £11.50 and if you went up to 300 a month your costs would be a whole £7 more at £14.50.

Giffgaff wins

 

Probably Giffgaff’s most popular goodybag is the £10 goodybag coming with a massive 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of tetherable data.

Taking an extreme example, if you only used half the allowances and didn’t send a single text you’d still have to pay more on 321 with your cost being £12.62 instead of £10. And if you just made 500 minutes of calls and didn’t use any data or SMS you’d have to pay £15 on Three instead. It gets worse – if you use up your full 500 minute and 1GB allowance as well as send about 150 texts, the price on 321 would be over 300% that of Giffgaff coming in at a massive £31.24.

Giffgaff wins

 

The next option is the £12 goodybag which offers 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data.

Again, 321 costs a lot more even if you only use a fraction of your allowance. For example, making 150 minutes of calls, 200 texts and using half a gig of data would be £13.62 on Three compared to £12 on Giffgaff. If you start to make the most of those unlimited allowances and still only make 150 minutes of calls but with 1.5 GB of mobile internet and 400 texts, it’s more than twice as much at £27.86 on 321.

Giffgaff wins

 

The £15 goodybag on Giffgaff gives you 400 minutes as well as the same unlimited texts and data.

Unsurprisingly, this also seems to beat the 321 tariff under reasonable usage conditions. If you manage to get through 300 of your minutes and send 300 texts as well as use half a GB of your data allowance you’ll still pay £15 on Giffgaff but over £20 on Three. If you use the full allowance of 400 minutes as well as send 300 texts and use 1GB of data, your costs on 321 would be almost twice as much as on Giffgaff!

However, to be fair we should also mention Three’s monthly bundle on PAYG which also costs £15. This offers 300 minutes, 3000 texts and 1GB of data. So while it’s not as good value as Giffgaff, it’s certainly a better choice than the 321 tariff if you have this level of usage. In fact, if you used these full amounts on 321, it would set you back a massive £79.24!

Giffgaff and Three draw

 

Finally, we’ve got the £20 goodybag which still comes with unlimited texts and data as well as a massive 1200 minutes.

Even if you completely ignored your unlimited texts and internet access and just made 700 minutes of calls, it would still be more expensive to choose 321 over Giffgaff. And if you wanted to make 1200 minutes of calls and just 300 texts and 1GB of data you’d be looking at over £50 compared to just £20 with a goodybag.

Giffgaff wins

 

Verdict

So there you have it. The final score is pretty obvious: in almost all our examples, Giffgaff turned out to be much cheaper than Three’s new 321 tariff. So make sure you run some calculations before you switch over! If you currently have monthly usage around any of the amounts offered by Giffgaff’s goodybags, you’ll almost certainly be better off than switching to a pure PAYG tariff like 321.

Of course, there are some important caveats to be aware of if you really want to save money. Firstly, it’s only worth getting a goodybag if you will normally use up a decent portion of it. If you spend £10 on a goodybag and only use a fifth of your minutes and, say, 100 texts and 250MB of data, you’ll still be paying but could have spent just £9.06 on Three (even though you could have saved money by going for the £7.50 goodybag instead).

If you are a very low user you will also do better with 321. For example, if you only make about 20 mins of calls and 20 texts a month and don’t user internet at all, your price on Three will be just £1 compared to £3.60 on Giffgaff. So make sure you’ve checked to make sure your choice is the best option for you.

And don’t forget that Giffgaff also has other ways to save money such as free calls, texts and video chats to all other Giffgaff users which can be a real money saver if you know lots of people who also use the network.

How much money can you save by switching PAYG provider? Let us know who you’re choosing and why.

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This is a question we’re often asked – do we need a top-down shake up in the mobile phone industry? Many would say yes we do – here’s part one in our new series by looking at what exactly is happening right now, along with some of our opinions as to how improvements could be made in the industry.

Before you start, don’t forget to check out all the articles in the series:

• Part 1: Does the mobile phone industry in the UK need a top-down shakeup? – Contracts and new phones
• Part 2: Does the mobile phone industry in the UK need a top-down shakeup? – Repairs and unlocking
• Part3: Does the mobile phone industry in the UK need a top-down shakeup? – Roaming on holiday
• Part 4: Does the mobile phone industry in the UK need a top-down shakeup? – 4G and mobile data

Contract or Pay As You Go?

When you buy a mobile phone from a store the chances are that the sales person is just there to sell, and they won’t have any knowledge about the phones they are selling, unless they have the phone themselves. The sales person would probably be equally at home selling double glazing. They have very limited knowledge if any at all; they are supposed to go on an extensive training course which includes product knowledge when they’re recruited by the retail store they applied to work for.

There are two ways of paying for your mobile services; one is with a lock-in Contract and the other is Pay As You Go. Contract allows you to get a handset with a tariff that gives you an allowance of calls, texts and sometimes data. The handset is normally free unless it’s the very latest model in which case you may have to pay a one off upfront cost. The contract length is normally 24 months (2 years). Most networks make contracts 24 months or longer to absorb the high cost of the handset – some handsets can cost up to £700 if they were bought outright. To get a contract you have to be over 18 and pass a standard credit check; remember that you are actually signing up to a credit agreement. You may have to pay a small fee as a deposit which is separate from the upfront payment for the handset as sometime networks ask for this if you’ve had no credit or a bad credit history. What you are signing up to is an agreement that will pay a certain amount per month for the duration of the contract. In return, you receive a given number of minutes, texts and a certain amount of data. You may sometimes get some extras thrown in, such as music downloads; again this depends on the terms and conditions of the contract.

Another type of deal is SIM only. This is where you already have the handset (you’ve bought outright, or you own it already). SIM only deals are cheaper than the contracts with phones. You can get sSIM only contracts from as little as 30 days rising to 24 months. The longer you are prepared to commit, the better the deal you are likely to get.This means you receive better allowances, such as more minutes, texts, etc. These deals are particularly useful for people with a poor credit history, or no credit history at all, as they allow you to rebuild your history, or establish a history from scratch. This may allow you to move up to a full contract, with a phone included, further down the line. You still have to pass a credit check to get SIM only deals though.

PAYG is a different deal altogether; you can get a SIM for free and just top up maybe every 30 days, or whenever you wish to do so. Sometimes you have to buy calls, text and data separately. For example, you can top up with £10 and then buy the services (calls, text, and data bundles) from that £10. Some people top up with £10 per week; that equates to £40-£50 per month. It would actually be better value to get a contract with a pretty good handset for £40-£50 per month. There may be a reason why they may not be able to get a contract as they may have a bad credit history; this could be why they go down the PAYG route.

The other PAYG method is where you get a phone and SIM card where you have to typically buy an extra £10 top up voucher to buy the phone at the subsidised price; but if you have a SIM card on that network you don’t actually have to top up to get the phone at that price. For example, the phone may cost £80, plus £10 top up – making a total of £90. The handsets are often locked to the network and cost upwards of about £20 to get them unlocked, sometimes the network will unlock it for free if you’ve topped up regularly enough for a given period. The network will have recouped the cost of the handset, which they have sold to you at a subsidised price.

New phone Sir? That’ll do nicely

How many times have we signed the contract or bought a PAYG handset before bringing the phone home to put it through its paces? Quite a few times I would imagine – but how many people really know what they are actually signing up to? Do we read the small print, scrutinise the terms and conditions? Not many people do I can tell you. The worst thing you can do is get a contract over the phone; after you’ve been cold called. As we all know mobile phone networks like to sell your information to third parties. The way to tell is when the sales person calls you and says they are phoning on behalf of said network. The clue in there is “on behalf of”; if the sales person says this it’s a third party company.

I don’t really want a 24 month contract – can I cancel it?

We see this question crop up on almost a daily basis. There’s not really a straightforward “yes” or ”no” answer to this one. It all depends on the circumstances; for example you can cancel within the first 7 days if the handset was purchased in store. The timescale is 14 days if bought online or over the phone, this is called “distance selling” and is covered by the Distance Selling Act. Some networks or stores may allow you to return the handset outside of the cooling off period, but that is at their discretion. Networks have very strict criteria with regards to returns – for example if you have simply changed your mind, as long as you haven’t activated the SIM card or switched the phone on then you should be able to return it for a full refund as long as the return is done within the timescale. All items that were included with the phone would have to be returned to, including cables, accessories and any free gifts, to be eligible for a refund or a cancellation.

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