Pay As You Go With Three

Remember back to the days of Pay As You Go mobile phones? Running out of credit and being unable to text your friends, or having to make collect calls for your parents to pick you up? I have recently made the switch back to PAYG, after comparing a ton of different plans. I tend to buy my phones outright, usually when I’m in Florida. The savings can be amazing. A two year contract with Three for an iPhone 6 with unlimited data and 600 minutes is a total cost of £1,129 (24 months at £45 plus £49 one off cost). Whereas purchasing an iPhone 6 outright from Apple and taking out the PAYG package called “All in One 15” (which gives you 300 minutes, 3,000 texts and unlimited data for just £15 per 30 days) will cost you £909 (24 months at £15 plus £549 one off cost) – a saving of £220. Of course, you may not be able to lay your hands on £549 to purchase a phone outright, but the savings are massive if you are able to.

What swung it for me, apart from saving money, is that Three allow you to use your phone in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Macau, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland and United States (Spain and New Zealand are available from April) for free with Feel At Home. This means you can use your data, minutes and text allowances without incurring any further charges. This was fantastic for going to Florida, as I usually spend $60+ on an American SIM card and data.

There have been some reports of Three having very bad signal – since I have been with them I have only experienced half a day without signal. Three have developed an app, Three In Touch, that allows you to make and receive calls and texts on your phone using Wi-Fi whenever you don’t have signal.

All in all I have been really impressed with Three. My phone bill has come down dramatically, and using PAYG means that I never go over my allowance.

If you are on PAYG or a SIM only contract, how do you find it?