Are cheap pay as you go deals a thing of the past?

[SwanFlight]

Just trying to work out what everyone does regarding how they provision their young ones and/or elders SIM deals.

Typically the people I'm thinking of only send a few texts per month and probably receive a handful. However they may make the odd important phone call - for kids it might be: 'can you come pick me up..' etc.

I'm after a no-frills cheap SMS deal really, but being able to make the odd call shouldn't bankrupt them.

There used to be an O2 classic tariff, charged at 3p (per min calls), 2p (per text), 1p (per 1MB data). And another charge for voicemail.

It seems most providers don't offer thee sorts of deals anymore and try and get you on a monthly or yearly contract. The cheapest I can find is about £6 a month for an allowance of data, and usually as many calls and texts as you can send.

For those with a few kids this soon could rack up! So what do people do or advise? Are there any good family orientated deals?

I think those days are long gone!!
My mum used to be on pay as you go, she pretty much only uses her phone for texts but increasingly seems to have switched to whatsapp. It was cheaper to get her a monthly sim card deal than pay as you go. She's got a sim that's added to my contract which gives 10% discount and all calls / texts included and 1GB of data which is more than she'll ever need.
On some deals you can do family data share if one has a lower data allowance than another, then if the lower one runs out you can share some from the higher account.
Try giffgaff for sim only deals, I think they're quite reasonable.
I've also found these things are often easier to work out if you go into a shop and talk to a human rather than trying to suss it out online!

Lebara have one for £5 a month and you get the first 3 months half price. Google also suggests Asda have one at £5 a month. Trying looking at USwitch they give advice on the best deals. £5 a month is very cheap when you think about what you’re actually getting.

Try Martin Lewis website
Best Sim Only Deals - Compare Cheap Contracts - MSE
Best pay-as-you-go Sim deals: Compare the best offers - MSE

Surely that's a sim-only rolling deal: so anywhere from a few quid to £10 a month, which usually has all texts and calls included and some amount of data. Cancel whenever you want. I've just googled and seen there's one with Lebara (using EE's network) for £1.48 a month with unlimited texts and calls and 5G of data...

I'm on PAYG with GiffGaff (o2 cheap rate). This is my personal number so I use it for all my apps and calls in but I have a work SIM that I use for calls out and data so rarely use my personal SIM. I add £10 every 9m or so. It isn't cheap to use though, occasionally I have to send a text, they are 10p and calls are 25p per min, data is 10p per mb. One of the reasons why £10 lasts so long with me.

Their cheapest monthly plan is £6pm for 1GB data and unlimited texts/ calls which seems a decent deal.

Yeah Giffgaff user here. I found that being on PayG was pointless as as soon as you make one call and forget to look at the clock it eats all your credit. Currently their PayG is at 25p per min for calls and 10p per text. That would soon go.

I find their network kind of sucks, but I don't really have a choice of networks where I live. I read a lot of O2 sucks, 3 sucks etc. And I think that just falls down to whether you are well provisioned at home or not / near a mast, busy masts etc.

Yeah I can see that there are many monthly's around the £5 mark. Are there not any good family deals to be had? I mean my neighbours with two adults and many kids, and sky must be haemorrhaging money!

You've got to work with your available networks then. EE / Three is poor near me and not worth having.

I top up £5 a month and that's plenty for me. As I rarely go out and mostly use the WiFi at home.
I'm presuming that package is still available with EE? I don't think you'll get away with paying any less than that a month.

I use GiffGaff for my DC (three of the four have phones) as O2 is the only one with passable signal. It’s £10 each per month SIM only, so does add up but there have been minimal increases since I took out the first contract 7 years ago, gives certainty and means they always can contact me and I haven’t needed to switch as their needs change.

DD is on Asda mobile PAYG. She mostly uses WhatsApp and WIFi so haven't topped up for ages.

Edit: not sure if they still offer it but there a talk and text for children option that doesn't include data. £4 pm

MoneySavingExpert gives 3 options for no monthly cost. Asda (Vodafone), Giffgaff (O2) and Three.

Giffgaff is probably the best bet. Even on pay as you go calls and texts to other Giffgaff numbers are free if you top up every 3 months which might make it worthwhile. I'm a bit shocked at the PAYG price per min/text though, I also remember the O2 '321' deal.

Amazed people pay £10 a month for each of their children. I was under the assumption there would be some kind of family pack available.

@LikeABat that talk and text plan for £4 a month is still there. That's more like it.

I'm not thinking about a deal for me. I am really thinking about young ones and olds that have just a basic phone. One where they might want to shoot off the odd text to friends and ring home every once in a while and allow parents to call if needs be. The network to network free calls is a good idea if you are all on the same network, but that could require a major shift.

I did find a PAYG deal through the Martin Lewis links above: RWG Voice 5p per minute, SMS 5p. At the moment paying £5 per month for about 3 texts!

Kind of a hard line to tread with kids, you want them to have some independence, but certainly don't want to lead them into being smart phone addicts like, well, most of us. At the moment they get access to tablets under supervision and only recently access to an old school phone.

My kids are grown up so it might have changed but we had giffgaff for our kids as their calls to Giffgaff numbers were free. So they could call each other, me or DH.

I feel a one month rolling contract (pay monthly) is safe/good enough, and has the best offers.

Ds recently received his first phone, and I used a deal (think it was via MSE) so the first 8 months cost £1.10pm. Then it’s £5.90 after, if we choose to stay, making it £2.70 each month over a year. Unlimited texts and calls, 10gb data. That deal finished but I know I’ve seen very similar pop up often on such sites.

Tesco payg lite is 8p/min for calls and 4p for texts.

I use Smarty for me and my kids as I can set up a group for them where I'm the account holder for payments. It's around £5 a month each. Payg was costing more as they started using their phones much more out of the house.

The Smarty group plan allows you to look at everyone's call history! I suppose this is a feature!

They seem to do a basic £6 per month: 5GB data, includes WIFI calling and EU roaming. And another Sim knocks 10% off, so I guess the next Sim is £5.40 per month. And all your billing can be managed in one place as you say. At least their group plans are comprehensible unlike most of the others I have just looked at: EE/O2/Tesco... that seem totally overpriced and impossible to understand. I guess as mentioned the only downside is the Three network. Smarty look to be actively targeting this market.

@fruitpastille is the dashboard easy to use for the Smarty group plan?

I didn't even know some people still buy credit or hve some sort of limits in minutes. Mine from giffgaff is £8 a month and unlimited calls and texts and so much data that I stream YouTube on my lunch breaks and ever run out. Cancel anytime.

I pay around £25 for me and 3 kids on 2x Lebara and 2x iD mobile. Plenty of data. Kids use data/WiFi almost exclusively as apparently people don't talk and text they use WhatsApp now. They all have around 10-12GB data and it's fine.
I'm genuinely very happy with what I pay for 4 rolling 30-day contracts and remember paying £30 month for me alone on contract which didn't even include any minutes or texts!

I found our deals using Money Saving Expert as per the links posted by someone above.

We both have Asda Mobile SIMs for £5 a month, and dont use a fraction of the allowance. Also have Giffgaff PAYG as backup second SIM

Giffgaff my whole family is on because you can pay from £5 a month, for the kids it's a bargain and second you can up or lower and cancel anytime aswell. So hubby and I have a £10 package that has free calls,texts and data..the kids have the same just less data

We use Vodafone payg. DC1 has a £5 bundle for lots of data. DC2, DH and MIL I top up from time to time. I get an email alert when they have under £1 credit. They mostly use wifi with occasional other use. Vodafone caps use at £1 a day, and for the three of them it tends to be an occasional day out and about where the phone gets used. It's a maximum of £10 every three months, as this is my ceiling to move them to another plan. I have a old £5 a month bundle for calls/texts/data which isn't available any more. It "helps" that mobile signal is very poor here so most phone use is on WIFI.

I'm on smarty and pay £12 a month for unlimited everything.
DD is on ee she pays £10 a month for unlimited calls and texts and 8gb Internet.
Dh is on ee and he get unlimited everything for £15 but can't get that deal now.

I've got ID mobile, £6 a month, unlimited.