Need help with choosing pay as you go card for a child

[Mika27]

Hello,

I have not had a pay as you go for ages and would be very grateful for any help. We bought a phone for our DS without a sim. He can use internet at home but would like to have a number. We want to buy a sim where you do not have to put money on the account monthly but whenever it is needed to top up. I have tried to search sim deals but all of them look like you have to top up monthly and this is what we do not need. At the moment he just plays with it (music, photos) and so he does not need regular top ups. He is not in secondary yet.

Thank you!

My DS is on Giffgaff and it just tops up (automatically by my debit card, but with strict limits) when it drops below £2 balance. You can also top them up manually.

Thanks WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes. I will have a look at it and will need to talk to my DS if I can trust him not to waste money. I have heard Virgin used to have no strict top ups but could not find any information. Thanks again.

Tesco do a sim only for £10 - 1gbyte, 1000 minutes, 5000 texts

Thank you Cdtaylornars. Do you have to topup monthly or when you need it only?

Another vote for GiffGaff. For only £5 a month you get 100 minutes talk time, 300 texts and 100MB internet. They use the O2 network.

I have a back up t mobile sim I got free from store and you can use your credit to purchase a deal or just pay an exorbitant rate each time you use the phone that you then actively top up when you want

Thank you Bunbaker and FybilSalty. I have received a Giffgaff sim card which I need to activate. I can choose any plan. Bunbaker, if you do not use the £5.00 do you still have to top-up so it is £5.00 monthly?

For me it is very important to find out if I have to top-up monthly even if I still have some money on my sim.

My DH also says that if I do not use all of the monthly top-up on sim card then they will not transfer to the next month.

Giffgaff is very flexible, you can either put on a bundle for £5 or whatever that only lasts for a month, or just credit, the old fashioned way. Both bundles and credit can be set to renew automatically or not. If you don't renew a bundle at the end of the month, any leftover allowance will be lost, but not credit. So for example I have a £7.50 bundle that renews every month (because my use would cost much more than 7.50 if I used top ups instead of a bundle, and I set it to renew automatically or I will forget). I also put £10 actual credit on it about a year ago, because the bundle does not cover phoning abroad, which I need to be able to do. That's down to about £4 now, and when it's gone I will top it up manually.

Naoko, thank you. It is now clearer for me. I also found this website about all networks and unused credit. kenstechtips.com/index.php/payg-inactivity-account-termination-and-credit-expiry

My DS would like to use the sim for rare calls to his friend although I doubt it will happen. I prefer if he learnt how to use Skype or something similar. But for Viber or similar applications you need a number and he does not have a number because we bought a phone without a sim.