The best SIM Only deals [Updated regularly][Work in progess]

Bob24

Buddy Holly wrote: »

Aye but isn't 4g only available in some of the cities?

Will be at least 5 years I reckon before it comes to mayo!

Actually if their coverage map is to be believed, they have made decent progress with 4G and parts of May do have it: http://www.meteor.ie/internet-coverage/

But yes sure it will be a while before it reaches the same coverage as 3G.

I guess what I meant is that the eMobile 24 euros deal is much cheaper than anything else on the market for someone who wants 4G (if you except Three which I think some people want to avoid).

fionny

Buddy Holly wrote: »

What you mean?

Say you go with the 10 Guido deal:

You get:
300 mobile min
60 landline min
All irish texts.
1 gig internet


If you needed to use more then any of those you have to go online, log into your account and purchase one of the following addons'

Mobile Calls 60 minutes €3.00
Mobile texts 100 texts €3.00
Internet 1GB €3.00
Landline calls 10 minutes €3.00

You will not simply start to use your credit.

This was a total deal breaker for me.

StaticNoise

16/10/2014
Update

Fixed typo on O2 Pay as you Go plan.
Clarified Blueface calling regions

Armonline

Have started using Tescos sim free 30 day plan and have been very impressed so far.

15Gb Data, 10000 call minutes & 10000 texts any network or landline all for 25 euro a month

Also cash in a 5 euro Tescos voucher and it is worth 15 euro of monthly bill.

Uses O2 network so good 3G signal in Dublin so far. No 4g but have no problem streaming Netflix over 3G anyway.

munkee

I'm trying to make sense of all the options on that spreadsheet and callcosts.

Any idea what would be the best value in this scenario:

60 mins of calls per month.
60 texts roughly.
Data: not huge either, maybe less than 1G per month.

I'm currently on Three's SIM only 20 a month contract.

Is there a PAYG plan that lets you carry over credit, and would be usable for the above?

StaticNoise

You've got a few options.

Tesco Mobile:
10,000 minutes, 10,000 texts, and 15GB. - €15

If you've a Tesco Clubcard, you can use €5 of money vouchers (the one you get in the post) and this is tripled to make €15 in credit, which pays off the plan above in one go. If you're not a customer, just top-up with €15 and you're good to go.


48:
If you order a SIM card online, you can get all you can eat calls, texts and some internet for €10 per month.
It's a Pay as you Go plan, and all customer support is handled on an online forum (search the Mobiles category for more information).
Also, you must claim to be between the ages of 18-21 only. This is easily done, not policed, and straightforward. Loads of people are suddenly 'younger'.

02:
You could register for one of the new plans, such as the unlimited calls and texts, and use your credit to buy internet add-ons.

glic83

StaticNoise wrote: »

You've got a few options.

Tesco Mobile:
10,000 minutes, 10,000 texts, and 15GB. - €15

If you've a Tesco Clubcard, you can use €5 of money vouchers (the one you get in the post) and this is tripled to make €15 in credit, which pays off the plan above in one go. If you're not a customer, just top-up with €15 and you're good to go.


48:
If you order a SIM card online, you can get all you can eat calls, texts and some internet for €10 per month.
It's a Pay as you Go plan, and all customer support is handled on an online forum (search the Mobiles category for more information).
Also, you must claim to be between the ages of 18-21 only. This is easily done, not policed, and straightforward. Loads of people are suddenly 'younger'.

02:
You could register for one of the new plans, such as the unlimited calls and texts, and use your credit to buy internet add-ons.

for the deal above for tesco its 25 euro for the 10,000 mins, 10,000 texts and 15 gigs of data, for 15 euro pm its 10,000 mins, 10,000 texts and 1 gig of data

munkee

The Tesco €15 plan sounds good, although it's not clear on their site how it works for data.

It says:

UNLIMITED Calls to All Mobiles & Landlines
FREE Tesco Mobile to Tesco Mobile calls & texts, 250 Free webtexts
Keep your €15 credit – Spend on added value add ons.

Nothing about data.

Edit: I guess the data is an add-on, €10 for 5GB a month.

But no free texts..so I guess they would eat into your credit of €5.

They all do a good job of not making it transparent.

StaticNoise

Nope...

€15 Top could give you:

UNLIMITED calls to any mobile or landline and
UNLIMITED texts to any mobile or
5Gb of Data or
1Gb of Data
Keep the balance to spend on International calls or day to day usage

It appears that you can pick what you want.

munkee

StaticNoise wrote: »

Nope...

€15 Top could give you

UNLIMITED calls to any mobile or landline and
UNLIMITED texts to any mobile or
5Gb of Data or
1Gb of Data
Keep the balance to spend on International calls or day to day usage

It appears that you can pick what you want.

Yep, but to get that, you have to top up, and then choose your add-ons:

Data Monthly Charge
1GB Data €5.00
5GB Data €10.00
Unlimited Texts €10.00

On balance, 48 months seems better value for me. As a light phone/data user (never far from WiFi), a tenner a month should cover me.

StaticNoise

Updated and revised with new information, and I have fixed the information about 4G on Meteor and incorrect bundles on Three.
If you spot something missing or which requires editing, PM me.

doubie

I presume the On Net calls and texts with 3 are by using the likes of viber and cabbage?

StaticNoise

No, these are standard, traditional calls and texts.

podgeandrodge

So, apart from fact that Tesco is only 3g (which could be important for some) am I correct in saying that their unlimited 30 day sim only plan (10k minutes, 10k texts, 15gig data) at €25 per month is the best deal?

StaticNoise

Updated the error on Tesco Mobile pricing. Thanks, podgeandrodge.

The Guvnor

Great thread a great help in choosing a good plan.

A few q's:

1: Do any of the unlimited plans include calls to UK/N. Ireland?

2: Tesco to Tesco calls would that work from Ireland to UK plan or vice versa?

3: In terms of coverage - O2/Tesco would be at the top?

I live near the border and am north a lot - then sometimes you are north but phone thinks it is in the south and vice versa.

Thanks

StaticNoise

The Guvnor,

I'm posting a reply in your dedicated thread in order to avoid cluttering this one.

Trilla90

I recently got a 4g phone and tried out the meteor €20 unlimited offer. I soon realised the data wasn't really unlimited and a week into it i had downloaded 5gb of data already.

I'm about to order a sim from 3. I think their unlimited data (15gb fair usage), any network texts and any network weekend calls is hard to beat. I rarely make calls and can use viber during the week. Living in Dublin so the coverage should be good. I've never used 3 before though so it's a bit of a jump into the unknown. Will change back to meteor if their no good.

StaticNoise

I'm a 3Pay customer, and I have been for four years, if not more.
I have used 12.5GB in the past eight days, and I've no slowdown whatsoever on 4G LTE.

Quality altogether.

Bob24

Trilla90 wrote: »

I recently got a 4g phone and tried out the meteor €20 unlimited offer. I soon realised the data wasn't really unlimited and a week into it i had downloaded 5gb of data already.

I'm about to order a sim from 3. I think their unlimited data (15gb fair usage), any network texts and any network weekend calls is hard to beat. I rarely make calls and can use viber during the week. Living in Dublin so the coverage should be good. I've never used 3 before though so it's a bit of a jump into the unknown. Will change back to meteor if their no good.

Have been with O2/Tesco and Meteor in the last few years and now with Three.

Like you I moved because other companies are confused with what the word unlimited means. From that perspective I am happy with Three and they are indeed hard to beat (which is why I am staying with them). But expect network performance to drop by quite a notch compared to what you are getting from Meteor. I am definitely having more issues with video (and even music) streaming than I had before - even on O2's 3G network.

StaticNoise

Not quite true: I'm getting ~35Mbps on my 4G here in the suburbs of Dublin, which traditionally had awful coverage.

Bob24

StaticNoise wrote: »

Not quite true: I'm getting ~35Mbps on my 4G here in the suburbs of Dublin, which traditionally had awful coverage.

My experience:

Getting 4Mbps on Speedtest.net right now next to Connolly Station on an iPhone 6 with full 4G coverage (and 0.2Mpbs we it comes to upload speed). I am around here most days and rarely get speeds faster than 5Mbps.

HQ (256/320 KBPS) audio streaming from Deezer very regularly breaks up in Dublin city center, even if the data speed on Speedtest is quite higher than 320KBPS. I suspect they are doing some kind of traffic shaping to limit usage of streaming services (it was definitely working better on O2 3G, but obviously the monthly data limit was causing me another issue).

Thargor

Hi, the spreadsheet links dont work anymore, anyone know if this project is over? Looking for an answer to this:

Thargor wrote: »

Hi, asking for my father, he rarely uses his phone so plans are no good to him even just the 15 or 20 Euro a month ones, Tesco have raised the rates for non-plan customers and I wanted to check who is the cheapest PAYG at the minute for calls and text? Is there an Askaboutmoney style comparison anywhere?

Slippin Jimmy

Thargor wrote: »

Hi, the spreadsheet links dont work anymore, anyone know if this project is over? Looking for an answer to this:

I just tried it there. The link allowed me to open it with Google docs.

Kristopherus

The Blueface Ireland Unlimited plan is now €25.00 + VAT.

podgeandrodge

Thargor wrote: »

Hi, asking for my father, he rarely uses his phone so plans are no good to him even just the 15 or 20 Euro a month ones, Tesco have raised the rates for non-plan customers and I wanted to check who is the cheapest PAYG at the minute for calls and text?

what about Lycamobile - €9 a month for 150 minutes, 150 texts and 100mb data. Whether that is worth it is down to what you mean by rarely using his phone - if it's hardly ever does the rate really matter that much?

iggy

Any workaround for the €24 per month emobile deal for eircom customers?
Leaving VF and going Sim only. I'm not an eircom customer but that deal would be perfect for me.
Cheers

Mantis Toboggan

Thargor wrote: »

Hi, the spreadsheet links dont work anymore, anyone know if this project is over? Looking for an answer to this:

What about 48 months?

10 euro per month for 300 mobile minutes, 60 minutes to landlines, unlimited texts and 1 GB data?

podgeandrodge

iggy wrote: »

Any workaround for the €24 per month emobile deal for eircom customers?
Leaving VF and going Sim only. I'm not an eircom customer but that deal would be perfect for me.
Cheers

someone on here before managed it but others have all been refused. Have you considered Tesco unlimited calls, texts and data (3G) for €25 a month?

If 4G is important, the Vodafone sim only 12 month at €35 per month is next best I think for unlimited calls, texts and 5gig data (4G) and as well as the 4G it includes 100 international minutes and 100 international texts.

StaticNoise

Major Update

As part of my love for you all (which is timeless and ever-lasting), I am developing this into a website.
Here you'll be able to see all the deals in real-time, and regularly updated. As always, there'll be no referral links or sneaky deals like you'll find on other 'savings' websites.

The link is still active, but it will be moving shortly.
Standby.