View Full Version : £10 SIM offer now only 100 mins + 100 texts
Honeymonster
20-06-2007, 11:30
I notice the £10 SIM offer, which was 300 mins + 300 texts, has been downgraded to 100 mins + 100 texts. So what was a good deal is now a pretty poor deal.
I notice the £10 SIM offer, which was 300 mins + 300 texts, has been downgraded to 100 mins + 100 texts. So what was a good deal is now a pretty poor deal.
Cheaper to have a sim than a landline of them with that many minutes.
tybalt21
04-07-2007, 19:31
I wouldn't say it's a bad deal as such, it's still only £10. I think the problem was that the 300 300 was a bloody brilliant offer - 100 100 simply ends up looking less attractive because of that.
willas00
22-07-2007, 01:24
Im still unsure about this offer. I want to get it but i dont. I want it cause the minutes/texts would come in handy. But i dont find its alot. I emailed Virgin Mobile to confirm it and told them id go to another network hoping they would try to keep me. Not the case.! However i was speaking to someone on 3 this evening for about 14 mintues costing £5 (thankfully it was on 1 of the free virgin mobile sim cards) so im thinking it would i still save money in the long run
Can i have some feedback i would like to know what over people think
Thanks :)
It is good value because it is 'Anynet anytime minutes'.
O2 Online Pay and Go offer 'Talk Anytime' where you top up by £10 and they give you 50 minutes only and when you run out of credit, you pay 40p per minute to call other networks which is 5p per minute more expensive than Virgin and you also have to pay 10p per call at all times for voicemail when it is free on Virgin. Oh and O2 customer service cost 20p per minute from your O2 mobile but no more than 8.5p per minute from a BT landline, you'd think it would be cheaper to call from your O2 mobile:confused:
But £10 for 100 mins and texts is good value since 100 texts on pay as you go cost £10 alone, and means that it is £1 per 10 minutes, which means that this tariff is equivalent to 10p per minute for all calls to any network which is good.
However, you can still get cheaper!
Asda Mobile charges 16p for the first 3 minutes of calls each day then 8p per minute after that to call UK landlines and all UK mobiles on all networks! Texts cost 10p for the first 3 messsages a day then 5p thereafter to all UK networks.
Sim packs are free when bought with a £10 top up instore or £4.95 otherwise or online.
Be aware that T-Mobile are raising call costs on the 30th july, new call costs are:
Minimum call charge: 10p
Pay as you go everyone: Rate is increasing from 12p to 15p per minute
Pay as you go mates rates: Rate is increasing from 5p to 8p per minute*
5 day pass: Rate is increasing from £5 per 5 days to £7.50 per 5 days.
*This applies to calls to other T-Mobile phones, texts without 5 day pass are also increasing to 8p per message. The minimum call charge for calling T-Mobile phones will be 8p on the Mates Rates price plan.
The new 10p minimum call charge effects all price plans including Pay as you go standard and Relax pay as you go. Voicemail remains free to Relax pay as you go customers.
Anyone using T-Mobile, I would recommend they switch to Orange speakeasy pay as you go with Bonus text reward where you pay the same rate (15p per minute) but get free texts included.
willas00
22-07-2007, 15:42
See im thinking of taking the offer because if you dont use up your mins/txts they carry over as well so it would save me money in the long run and im allready with Virgin Mobile and have been for many years!
Well in that case, retentions might give you the 300 mins and text deal instead!
The best thing about Virgin,Tesco,Asda and T-Mobile is that they are very simplified. O2 pay and go has way to many confusing tariffs and smallprint! as well as Vodafone free weekends and Orange bonus rewards. And as for mobile world, you even have to pay for the 0800 top up line.
willas00
22-07-2007, 15:56
I find Virgin Mobile are great Ive had problems with them and they allways sort it out for me. There email reply service is quick and they look after me well!
And there cheap. I think im gonna take the offer up!
Cheers for the advice
Your welcome, in the meantime, if you find calling other networks expensive, please take a look at my thread in the Virgin Mobile section of Cable forum. You will find out how to make such calls for just 15p per minute rather than 35p per minute.
Tesco mobile sims are fairly good for pay&go, the 'extra tariff' seems there best offer.
10p calls, 5p texts, but you have to top up £15 a month.
http://www.tesco.com/mobilenetwork/shop/?page=tariffinfo
or if you ring 1 number regular, try the o2 offer, send a text with the word 'ONE' and the number you wish to ring (must be another o2 number) to 21300 and you get 500mins a month free to that number, and 300 free texts when u top up £10 a month, it says this offer only lasts 3 months, i took this offer when it first started 3months ago, now i got another sim card and did it again, so im gettin 6months :D:D
I wouldn't know how good Virgin mobile are because along with a lot of other people they wont let me have it
I wouldn't know how good Virgin mobile are because along with a lot of other people they wont let me have it
Why not?
I'm on Virgin mobile paygo along with my wife, 15p for first 3 mins then 3p after, has this changed, i very rare use the text, i can do it online for free.
No they have had the same tariff for nearly 8 years and hasn't changed that much!
This is the current tariff:
Calls to Virgin Mobiles,landlines which begin 01,02 and the new 03 national numbers cost 15p per minute for the first 5 minutes of calls each day then 5p per minute after that.
Calls to voicemail: Free at all times
Calls to 0500,0800 and 0808 numbers cost 10p per minute at all times.
Calls to all other 08 numbers are charged at 15p per minute
Texts to other Virgin Mobiles are 3p per message at all times.
Texts to landlines and other UK networks are 10p per message at all times.
Texts to international mobiles: 20p per message
Calls to Europe and USA dialled directly: 20p per minute
Calls to New Zealand and Austrailia cost 40p per minute.
Customer services when you are in credit: 10p per call or free without credit
The new minimum call charge for calls is 10p.
The virgin mobile offer offering 3p per minute calls to call other Virgin Mobile phones was a lengthy promotion and ended on the 31st March 2007, however when I contacted Virgin Mobile last week, they said they had plans for a similar offer starting again this Autumn.
However until end of September texts sent to other Virgin Mobiles between 9pm and 10pm when every Friday night are free because of the Big Brother sponsorship. Its called the 'Happy hour'.
Hope this helps!
ian@huth
23-07-2007, 11:23
A lot of mobile networks seem to be increasing their costs at the moment to compensate for the lowering of roaming charges.:mad:
Why not?
They say because of my credit rating, strange thing is it has happened to a lot of other people even though they have no problems getting credit else were, I also know some one that has really bad credit yet they were given a Virgin phone on contract!
Well the mobile phone business is not as profitable as it may seem in the UK.
Firstly,mobile network operators have to pay business rates (similar to council tax) plus rent which are both high cost for each mast and any outdoor equipment they have. Then there is VAT on top of the calls we make,plus network improvements,3G licence fees to pay for and retail costs plus all the marketing and this is expensive especially when they send out loads of free sim cards and then there is the reduction termination rates and reduction in roaming costs. And most importantly, employee wages and indian call centre schemes.
How do some of the above problems effect virtual network operators like Virgin?
Well, T-Mobile obviously raises its cost of leasing out its network to help subsidise such costs and therefore Virgin have to raise costs to in order to stay in business.
You may have noticed that landline companies have also raised costs too, below is a summary:
BT:
Replaced 5p minimum call charge with 3p connection charge
Introduced 6p fee everytime you press 3 to return calls on 1471 and then add on 3p when the call is connected.
Raised cost of using anonymous caller rejection to £4 per month
Increased cost of using BT callminder to £2.50 from £2 per month
Increased cost of using calling features by 25p (From £1.50 to £1.75)
Increased line rental by £1 during 2006
Increased non-direct debit admin by £3 meaning it now costs £4
BT has increased minimum call charge to 40p on its payphones, but 40p does give you 20 minutes calltime to 01,02 and new 03 national numbers.
BT increase cost of installing new lines or replacement master sockets from £74.99 to £99.99 and then to a whopping £124.99 and for those paying in £27 installments to £137!!!
NTL/Telewest:
In 2003, they offered calling features and advanced voicemail for £1 each, now they are £1.75 per month, but anonymous caller rejection is also £1.75 which is so much cheaper than BT and TalkTalk. The calling features pack costs just £3.75 where with BT its costs £1 more and doesn't even include advanced voicemail/BT callmider.
5p call connection went up to 6p for calls to 01,02,0845,0870 and mobile calls. Premium rate calls can incurr connecton charges of up to 50p per call. 0844 and 0871 numbers have a 10p connection charge.
NTL and Telewest scrapped 6p an hour evening calls to local cable phone customers.
NTL and Telewest increased cost of calling mobiles directly during 2004
NTL and Telewest raise non-direct debit admin fee to £5 in summer 2006
Telewest introduced a fair usage policy on Talk anywhere plans during summer 2006 for those calling mobiles and international numbers as well as 0870 numbers but not 01,02 or 0845 numbers as these are low cost.
Virgin Media scrap free calls to Broadband helpline via 151 and scrap access via the 0845 number and introduced 25p per minute premium rate number in its place.
Virgin Media lower L and XL calling plan costs and decided to keep free weekend calls on M plan during the review which is good news.
Vodafone:
Vodafone scrap unlimited calls to mobiles on different networks on the free weekends scheme and replace it with 60 minutes per weekend instead. Calls to landlines and Vodafone mobiles remain unlimited.
Vodafone raised minimum call charges around 2 years ago way before roaming charges reduced.
---------- Post added at 18:15 ---------- Previous post was at 18:12 ----------
They say because of my credit rating, strange thing is it has happened to a lot of other people even though they have no problems getting credit else were, I also know some one that has really bad credit yet they were given a Virgin phone on contract!
Try and find out whats in your credit hsitory from Experian, I think it costs £12 but you may get a discount if its your first time.
Try and find out whats in your credit hsitory from Experian, I think it costs £12 but you may get a discount if its your first time.
£2
http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/orderPaperReport.html
And you need to to Equifax and Call Credit as I'm unsure which Virgin use.
etccarmageddon
23-07-2007, 20:50
that 100 texts and 100 mins for £10 isn't very good.
orange pay as you go will give you 66 minutes for your £10 (calls to any network at 15p a min) plus 300 'free' texts and free evening wap/internet browsing if you top up by £20 a month in which case your 300 free texts increases to 600.
http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/simoffer?WT.mc_id=ConAprHoFre_1248
and also they have a crap indian call centre.
Is the Virgin Mobile call centre in the UK or India?
Ive rung 3 times in the last 6months and have always got a English person.
etccarmageddon
24-07-2007, 12:42
Orange customer service is non existant so it's ok in terms of the deal they offer but if things go wrong dont even bother ringing them.
Orange customer service is non existant so it's ok in terms of the deal they offer but if things go wrong dont even bother ringing them.
Seconded. Orange lost my custom due to shoddy customer service.
I've been with Orange since i've had a phone, around 8 years and i've always found their customer service to be spot on.
Seconded. Orange lost my custom due to shoddy customer service.
Orange refused to fix, refund or replace a faulty phone (Capital One refunded it eventually :tu: to them). :wavey: to Orange
Orange works out expensive because:
calls to 08 numbers: 25p per minute(Virgin is 10p per minute cheaper)
Calls to Voicemail: 10p per minute (Its free on Virgin)
Calls to customer services: 25p per call (Its 10p on virgin and free if you have no credit)
And whatsmore, you don't get call hold on Orange.
And thats another thing when phones break down, they don't want to know!
Oh and most of the time, calls to customer services end up in India with Orange.
AndyCambs
24-07-2007, 20:03
that 100 texts and 100 mins for £10 isn't very good.
orange pay as you go will give you 66 minutes for your £10 (calls to any network at 15p a min) plus 300 'free' texts and free evening wap/internet browsing if you top up by £20 a month in which case your 300 free texts increases to 600.
http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/simoffer?WT.mc_id=ConAprHoFre_1248
and also they have a crap indian call centre.
Not quite sure on the logic here.
Virgin Mobile tariff = £10 for 100mins and 100 texts
Orange tariff = £10 for 66 mins (that's 34mins less and no texts unless you pay double...)
Am I missing something in the maths?
I think basically, if your a texter, get on Orange. The website allows you to sign up to the 'Free text top up tariff' which gives you 300 free texts when you top up by £10 and 600 for £20 but the calls are more expensive.
But if you like calling at off-peak times, then O2 pay and go online 'Talk off-peak' is for you, it offers 100 off-peak minutes per month when you top up by £10.
Alternatively if you don't have a landline and usually call landlines or O2 mobiles, try O2 online pay and go 'Favourite place', where you type in a post code where you mostly use your phone such as home or work and receive 500 minutes to call landlines and O2 mobiles, voicemail costs 10p per call.
Asda mobile is also good it offers calls to landlines and all networks cost 16p per minute for the first 3 minutes of calls each day then 8p per minute thereafter. Texts cost 10p per text for the first 3 texts then 5p per text thereafter.
etccarmageddon
24-07-2007, 20:54
I've been with Orange since i've had a phone, around 8 years and i've always found their customer service to be spot on.examples of how crap they are:-
1.see this link here:-
http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/index?WT.hplink=AHh
200 mins and 1000 texts if you top up by £30 a month.
click on it and see what happens! ring 'em and ask for it!
They also advertised the above in the daily star about a month ago with a link which when you clicked on it didn't work. shoddy.
2. check out the terms and conditions for "PAY AS YOU GO Free Text Trigger"
condition 11 states "The Reward is not available in conjunction with any other reward or promotion, except the Free Evening Calls Promotion and Text Extras, unless otherwise specified"
So I rang them up and asked for it - they said it wasn't possible as I have the evening calls promotion - I wrote a letter of complaint 2 months ago and got a reply stating that it was an error on the web site - despite this they are still misleading customers with incorrect terms and conditions. shoddy.
---------- Post added at 20:54 ---------- Previous post was at 20:52 ----------
Not quite sure on the logic here.
Virgin Mobile tariff = £10 for 100mins and 100 texts
Orange tariff = £10 for 66 mins (that's 34mins less and no texts unless you pay double...)
Am I missing something in the maths?yeah you are - you get 300 texts if you top up by £10 or 600 if you top up by £20. for your £10 you get 3 times the number of texts compared to virgin with the loss of 34 mins talk time.
Out of interest - does anyone know if O2 treat calls to Tesco mobiles as on-net calls? - They say they're 50% owners so I just wondered. :)
Thats what i've been trying to find out,i've sent O2 two emails through their website and got no response, so I called Tesco Mobile and got through to some woman that didn't know the difference between her ancles and her elbows, she said 'I'm not sure really err' They might be',so I said can't you do your job properly and find out and the call just cut off, and she sounded like she was stuffing her face! Some people are soooooo lazy:dozey:
However, the same situation applies to T-Mobile and Virgin as Virgin Mobile is 50% owned by T-Mobile UK and the other is half is Virgin Media. Both charge off-net prices when calling between the two brands. Yet when I had the T-Mobile mates rates 5 day pass, I was able to use the free call allowance to call Mobile World users.
And another thing, the two companies are ripping is off really because T-Mobile does not charge termination rates to Virgin, so they have no excuse to charge 35p per minute and T-Mobile has no right to charge 40p per minute.
Same applies to Hutchison 3G(3-Mobile) when you go out of 3G coverage, it automatically choose the O2 or Orange 2G network as a backup, but the companies still charge the off-net rates.
I am glad i took the 300mins+300text, i cancelled my land line,i get no sales crap no more,peace at last,not bad for a tenner.
Ok im on the virgin media mobile phone service, im not aware of the 300 texts and calls being reduced. Does this mean my next renewal will only give me 100 texts and minutes? If so im going back to o2 £10 a month top-up works out you get more :dozey:
They may keep the 300 mins and texts for existing users. If not then ask retentions and if they say no, then leave. But its worth asking during your last month.
Ok, thanks. Fingers crossed.
I am glad i took the 300mins+300text, i cancelled my land line,i get no sales crap no more,peace at last,not bad for a tenner.
However, when applying for a job or obtaining credit, they prefer landline telephone numbers so becareful. You can get a telephone line at no extra cost when you subscribe to the TV service with free weekend calls.Tips on dealing with sales calls:Register your landline number and your mobile number with the TPS(Telephone preference service) which is a free service which lasts for 5 years and de-lists your numbers from tele-marketing lists making it illegal for sales and marketing firms to advertise products and services.www.tps-online.org.uk or via the automated service on freephone number: 0800-398-893Alternatively, get the phone line and just take advantage of the free weekend calls and add incomming call baring which you can remove at anytime and switch back on at anytime. Or if you have broadband connection, just sign up to Vonage which offers unlimited calls for £7.99 plus free equipment and you get to choose your telephone number and the choice of STD area code for example if you live in Birmingham but want a Tamworth-01827 number, you can have it!
etccarmageddon
25-07-2007, 18:58
sign up to sipgate if you just want a landline number which you'll never use as there is no monthly charge.
tybalt21
16-08-2007, 22:01
Is the Virgin Mobile call centre in the UK or India?
Ive rung 3 times in the last 6months and have always got a English person.
The call centres are UK based mainly, I believe they also have one in Johannesburg but it's very rare that you wouldn't get through to the UK centres, well, I've always got through to the UK ones anyway..
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