Question about the £10 SIM for Virgin Media customers

[Scooby52]

Hi,

I am an existing Virgin Media customer (BB, V+, Phone), and my wife is already on Virgin Mobile PAYG. I am now looking for a mobile, and the cheap rates for calls to same mobile network means it makes sense to get a Virgin Mobile. There is an offer for Virgin Media customers to get a SIM only for £10, either on Pay Monthly or PAYG. I will be a light user so PAYG seems best, and then I can choose a small handset to use it in.

However, the web page for the offer is confusing:

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/bundles/virginmobileoffer_payg.html

This is the Pay As You Go tab, and the only option says "Monthly Cost £10, Minutes 200, Text 200, SIM £10"? Why a Monthly Cost? Surely the whole point of PAYG is that there is no monthly cost? If I look on the Virgin Mobile pages, I can see standard PAYG options (Top Up cards etc), so am confused by this offer page that implies a monthly cost.

So, I rang Virgin Media, who said I had to talk to Virgin Mobile sales, and although the lady at VMobile tried to explain it to me, I am not convinced she really understood what I was asking.

Her answer was that the 200 minutes & 200 text were included in the first £10 payment, and would be lost at the end of the 1st month, from then on it's just a standard top-up. She also said the single £10 payment included the SIM card.

Anyone here know if this is correct? Or has she described a 'standard' Virgin Mobile offer, rather than the offer for Virgin Media customers?

[werdna12]

With this offer you need to setup a direct debit and virgin mobile will take out £10 from your account each month. If you use up all the 200 minutes or texts you will then go onto Virgins standard rate, however you do not have to worry about topping up your phone as they will automatically increase your direct debit to cover the call / text costs upto a maximum amount agreed with you.

[Scooby52]

Thanks for your reply, but I am puzzled by why this is called Pay As You Go if you have to pay £10 per month? How is this different from Pay Monthly?

I expect to be a very light user, no-where near £10 per month - more like £1 per month, hence interested in a 'Pay As You Go' tariff, and not a 'Pay a regular amount each month' tariff.

Am I missing something?

Maybe this offer is no good for me, and I just need to buy a standard Virgin PAYG SIM from Carphone Warehouse.

[whydoIneedatech]

Thanks for your reply, but I am puzzled by why this is called Pay As You Go if you have to pay £10 per month? How is this different from Pay Monthly?

I expect to be a very light user, no-where near £10 per month - more like £1 per month, hence interested in a 'Pay As You Go' tariff, and not a 'Pay a regular amount each month' tariff.

Am I missing something?

Maybe this offer is no good for me, and I just need to buy a standard Virgin PAYG SIM from Carphone Warehouse.

You will be better with just the SIM if such a low user.;)

[m419]

Thanks for your reply, but I am puzzled by why this is called Pay As You Go if you have to pay £10 per month? How is this different from Pay Monthly?

I expect to be a very light user, no-where near £10 per month - more like £1 per month, hence interested in a 'Pay As You Go' tariff, and not a 'Pay a regular amount each month' tariff.

Am I missing something?

Maybe this offer is no good for me, and I just need to buy a standard Virgin PAYG SIM from Carphone Warehouse.

Never get it from Carphone warehouse, its too expensive!

Either get it online or from a Zavvi store(Virgin Megastore)

The £10 sim offers 200 minutes and 200 texts every month, you need to set up a direct debit to open the account, you can cancel the direct debit after and pay using cash with an e-top up card which can be used for making payments towards your account.

If your order is successful,you will get the sim card on the next working day, when you run out of minutes or texts or both, you will revert to the standard pricing, however, you will go into arrears and you will need to pay it back on the usual billing date.

So if you are on the £10 offer and your bill date is the 10th of every month and you run out of minutes and have run up a bill of call charges of say £12.50, you will need to pay £22.50 to cover the previous months call charges and the £10 monthly rental fee.

I hope this has been a bit more clearer for you.

If you decide to use Pay as You Go instead here are the two tariffs available:

Standard Tariff:


Calls to UK landlines and other Virgin Mobile phones: 15p per minute for the first 5 minutes of calls each day then 5p per minute after that.


Calls to 08 numbers: 15p per minute at all times.

Calls to other UK Mobile networks: 40p per minute.

Texts to other UK networks: 12p per message.

Texts to other Virgin Mobiles: 5p.

Calls to Voicemail: Free.
Daily Bonus Tariff:


Calls to UK landlines,Other UK networks,other Virgin Mobiles and 08 numbers cost 15p per minute at all times.

After the first 5 minutes of calls, you will recieve 5 minutes of free calls, send 5 texts and get the next 5 free. This free allowance can be used to call/text any UK network including landlines.

Texts to other Virgin Mobile phones: 5p per text

Texts to other UK networks and landlines: 10p per text

Voicemail: FreeThere is a minimum call charge of 15p for all UK calls

Calls to customer services cost 10p per call,listening to recorded info on 789 i free.

If you buy a sim card and find you are on the standard pay as you go tariff and want the Daily Bonus Tariff instead just text the word 'Bonus' to 789050 for free or call 789 and select option 4.

[BenMcr]

Really the whole point for the PAYG SIM offer is for those people who fail a credit check for the monthly d/d one.

All that it means is that you HAVE to top by £10 per month to get the 200/200. If you don't it is no different than a standard PAYG SIM

[Scooby52]

Thanks to M419 and BenMcr for their explanations. As suggested, this does not seem to be the right deal for me, which is fine, although I still think the VM website needs some updating to explain what the offer really means!

[moiraf100]

Go here to get a free Virgin sim card.
http://www.virginmobile.co.uk/promo/duoSim.html
I got one a while ago that had a fiver on it.
I barely use a mobile phone (hand me down from my daughter), except for the odd text, I keep it in case of an emergency in the car, and as alarm clock.

Oops, you need a phone as well, maybe someone has an old one they could give you? :)