Let me begin by asking, are you reading this on your phone? If so, congratulations you are one of the 90-94 per cent of the nation who are mobile phone users in the UK right now, let alone 4.6 billion people worldwide.
Image Source: Statista
The truth is, we wouldn’t know what to do without our phones. The mobile phone has given us the ability to do things differently easily. Fancy something new for dinner tonight, just open up a cooking recipe app or better still order a takeaway via your Deliveroo app. Looking for the love of your life, just swipe left or right. Either way, you get the concept, our mobile phones give us the ability to connect and explore like never before.
With the popularity of a 24/7 connected lifestyle, comes a hefty price tag, continuously running out of minutes, SMS text messages and the biggest of them all data. But I know what you’re thinking, your phone is fine, other than that scratch from when you dropped it whilst running for the bus, its fully functional and working just like it did when you first got it, and you really don’t want to be going through the stress of transferring your contacts and the pictures of last night’s dinner, (which you took numerous pictures of, trying to get the right angle for your social media), right? Well, that’s good news as you can save yourself a fortune with a SIM-only deal.
Before we go into more detail regarding what a SIM is and what the best deals are, it would help to know what SIM stands for right? Well to broaden your pub quiz knowledge, SIM actually stands for Subscriber Identity Module. The storage space on SIM’s are not very big and it is mainly used for connecting a host of information needed to connect to a mobile network, so don’t get excited thinking you will get extra space to store your memes because you won’t.
Let’s begin with the basics. A sim is a little chip that slots into your phone provided to you by your mobile service provider. Originally the SIM card was slightly larger than what it is now. As smartphone technology has advanced over the past years and devices getting slimmer, the SIM cards needed to adjust to this change and adapt too. A SIM only deal covers you just for the network service it offers you, this would be a set monthly allowance of data, minutes and texts your service provider and you would have agreed on when purchasing the SIM only deal.
A SIM only deal is typically much cheaper than traditional mobile contracts. This is because with SIM only you are not paying a bundle cost of a new phone and the services, you are just paying for the service you are receiving from your network provider. This means you can use your existing phone to slot the SIM into or purchase a phone separately which is becoming more popular.
It’s important to understand that, although you are not buying or paying for a new phone, you will need to sign up to a contact to get the SIM only. These deals are generally offered on a 12-month contract basis or a rolling 30-day contract. Once you know which network you’re happy to stay with or join and what allowance you would like.
Here’s a list of deals available with a healthy amount of data and minutes to keep you on top of your world.
- Vodafone – £8.00 per month on a 12-month contract. Includes 4GB 4G data and a 3GB data bonus, unlimited minutes, unlimited texts.
- Vodafone – £10.00 per month on a 12-month contract. Includes 8GB 4G data and a 5GB data bonus, unlimited minutes, unlimited texts.
- Three – £17.00 per month on a 12-month contract. Includes 30GB 4G data, unlimited minutes, unlimited texts.
- O2 – £25.00 per month on a 12-month contract. Includes 40GB 4G data, unlimited minutes, unlimited texts.
- O2 – £29.00 per month on a 12-month contract. Includes 50GB 4G data, unlimited minutes, unlimited texts.