I've finally succumbed - But only to the BEST Tariff! (Virgin Mobile in general)

Member Name: Redhead23

Product:	Virgin Mobile in general
Date:	13/01/02 (2524 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, flexible, easy to use

Disadvantages: Tariffs may not suit everyone (esp. off-peak users)

Okay I admit it, I was one of those people who regularly wrinkled their noses and looked away in disgust whenever a mobile phone was ringing, be it on the bus, in the streets or simply at the pub.
I just couldn't understand how somebody could spend hours glued to a mobile phone talking to someone who was sat in the pub next door to the one they themselves were sat in, while their own mates - sat right next to them - didn't even get to exchange a single word with them, or how some people just insisted on sharing their life story with other innocent passengers or pedestrians!

To be honest I still don't quite understand this phenomenon, but after frequently missing my bus (and thus not being able to meet people at the times we had agreed) or not being able to reach friends while out in town, I have now come to appreciate the fact that a mobile can come in handy in various situations, let alone be a life-saver should anything happen to someone when they're stuck out in the middle of nowhere.

Since I had made my mind up that I was finally going to join the 'mobile revolution' (better late than never I guess!), I started looking around for a suitable handset. I knew I didn't need any fancy gimmicks such as snap-on covers or exchangeable screensavers, plus I also didn't just want the mobile that 'everyone else' had, but I still wanted a stylish phone with useful features.

I finally decided that the Motorola Timeport 250 suited my needs perfectly, since it is a tri-band phone and I would therefore be able to use it abroad, such as in the USA, Australia or South America. Can't afford going to these places as of yet, but Australia is definitely a place I want to see in the next few years! It also had some other interesting features, such as the ability to use it for fax and e-mail or the infrared interface which can hook up to compatible handhelds or laptop PCs, converting the phone into a portabl
e 56Kbps modem - plus it's very stylish indeed and I am just a sucker for all things silvery! ;-)

But then I encountered a little problem! Knowing that I would never become a 'phone junky' but would use the phone only for occasional calls and texts, I knew that a 'pay monthly' phone was hardly worth it - to my shock and horror, the phone that I had already fallen in love with only seemed to be available on pay monthly schemes, at least on the major networks (BT Cellnet/Genie, Orange, One2One, Vodafone) that I had initially checked out!

Ready to give up the idea of ever becoming the owner of a mobile, I put the idea to the back of my priority list and forgot about it for a while. Then one day I remembered the adverts for Virgin Mobile that had been on telly over Christmas 2000, and decided it was worth having a look at, so I checked out http://www.virginmobile.co.uk. To my surprise, they actually had 'my' phone among their range, and their tariffs seemed very reasonable for both scarce and frequent phone users. So off I trodded to our local V.Shop, got my phone and I must say that it was a very wise move indeed! So for anyone who wants to know about the marvels VirgineMobile has to offer, here goes...


- - - The Range - - -

While the choice of phones on offer is probably not as wide as with other networks, Virgin still offer something for everyone. From business users over style junkies to people who love a phone with as many customisable features and gimmicks as possible - It's all there!

You can currently choose from 13 phones, including the very popular Nokia 3310 and 3330, the new 'QWERTY' ('Looks weird, sounds great' they say) Nokia 5510, the 'picture message' Sendo S200 phone, both stylish Sony J5/J7 phones and the Motorla T250 (or alternatively the stylish v.66). As I said, something for everyone.

Prices range from £ 69.99 for the snap-on cover Alc
atel 303 to £369.99 for the flip-top Motorola v.66. Now I know that this might sound quite expensive, seeing as though you could get many of these phones for 'free' with some 'pay monthly' scheme or other.

But even though you pay only around £30-50 less than buying the phone directly from the manufacturer (i.e. not bound to any network), the service and the cheap flexitariff as well as all the extras you get when you buy a phone over £100 make this a very good bargain indeed, plus you only need to have spent £30 in call vouchers to have your phone unlocked should you not be entirely happy with their services.


- - - What you get - - -

When you buy your phone from Virgin, you also need a £10 service pack which includes your SIM card (staff SHOULD remind you that you need the SIM card, but sometimes they forget to mention this and you could be in for a nasty surprise when you get home, unwrap your phone and discover that you can't actually use it! Thankfully, their website makes this clear). Included in the service pack is everything you need to get started, including an explanation of their services, a handful of cards to pass on your new number to friends and family and a £5 airtime voucher to start you off. You can also buy the service pack separately, so you can join VirginMobile with any unlocked handset.

They had a £20-off offer on their mobiles when I bought mine, so the T250 (normally priced at £149.99) was already down to £129.99. In addition, you also receive a rucksack and a £20 airtime voucher with every phone over £100, plus a £3 ringtone and logo voucher (which buys you 2 of either) if you buy a compatible phone. So with all this included, my phone and SIM card had only actually cost me just over £110, which is pretty good for a pay as you go phone.

You will also get a charger (well yeah that should really go without saying!) and a basic hands-free kit with your phone, as well as some p
hone-specific accessories such as phone-PC links, software or belt clips. Apart from the manufacturer's manual, you also get a Virgin 'Quickstart Guide' and 'Accessories Guide' which are specific to the phone you just bought and can come in pretty handy if you want to get started right away (you have to charge your battery first though) without trawling through the whole manual first.

All in all a pretty handy package, and the £25 of free calls are obviously a welcome extra, since you have just spent quite a bit of money on a phone and don't want to start paying for call vouchers straight away! (And believe me, those £25 last 'forever'!)


- - - Payment Options - - -

All Virgin phones are initially set up for pay as you go by vouchers, which you can buy from any V.Shop, order online or get in most major supermarkets throughout the country. Topping up is pretty straightforward - you buy the voucher, scratch off the silver coating over the code, ring 789 on your Virgin phone and follow the instructions to instantly top up your phone's airtime balance. Easy even for a mobile novice like myself!

If you can't be bothered with going out to buy vouchers, you can also choose to 'pay as you go' by credit or debit card. For this, you need to ring their customer support (this costs you 10p for the entire duration of the call) and let them run a credit check on your card details. If you pass, you can now top up simply by ringing 789 and following the instructions, or alternatively select 'top up' from the Virgin X-Tras menu on your phone. While I do not have a credit or debit card, I still find this a handy option since I know quite a few people who have neither a V.Shop nor a larger supermarket in their vicinity, but still want to keep total control over their spending and therefore want to stick with 'pay as you go' rather than paying monthly.

And speaking of 'p
ay monthly' options - yes, Virgin offer that as well (with Direct Debit), but with a big difference. Even on 'pay monthly', there is no service charge whatsoever, which means that you can keep running your phone at the same costs but don't have to worry about running out of airtime.

- - - What it costs - - -

As I said before I am pretty much a virgin (Argh, bad pun!) when it comes to mobile phones, but after looking around and comparing the tariffs for most UK networks, I still feel that the tariffs are very competitive, suitable for most users and also very straightforward.

The tariffs are the same whatever payment option you choose, and while some 'pay monthly' offers from other networks feature slightly cheaper rates, the lack of a monthly service charge easily makes up for this, and compared with most other 'pay as you go' services they are a bargain.

Virgin do not make a difference between on and off-peak calls, so you can use your phone at any time of the day without worrying about extortionate peak rates. Of course, if you use your phone very frequently but only during off-peak times, you might be better off with a network where off-peak calls are very cheap. Personally prefer the Virgin way though since I finish work at 4:30 pm and often need to make calls when I am planning on meeting someone in town or when the bus service proves so unreliable that I need to ring hubby and beg for a lift home or else be stuck at work all night!

The basic rates are as follows:

Calls to Virgin mobiles, most UK landline numbers, WAP service and freephone numbers are charged at 15p/minute for the first 5 minutes a day, then drop to 5p/minute for the rest of the day. If you make very short calls an a daily basis this might be a bit expensive (although 15p/minute is still pretty cheap compared to other networks, in particular compared to peak rate calls), but I personally do not use my phone on
a daily basis. I rather use it when I am out and in such cases I often make quite a few calls to various people or occasional longer calls to hubby or friends, so 5 minutes are easily spent on the phone.

For example a 10 minute call will cost 75p for the first five minutes, but since the charges then drop to 5p/minute you only pay £1 for the total call, averaging out at 10p/minute, and obviously getting cheaper as you keep talking. The good thing is that international calls (charged between 15 and 80p a minute depending on where you call) also count towards the 5 minute 'barrier', so a 5 minute call abroad will automatically lower your standard charges to 5p.

Voicemail retrieval is absolutely free (as long as you still have any airtime left), which is a really handy feature since most people do not keep their phones on at all times and checking your voicemails can end up pretty expensive if you have to pay for it, especially if you have a lot of messages waiting for you.

Calls to other networks are pretty expensive at 35p/minute, but I know quite a few people who use Virgin, and most of my other calls are to landlines so I am not too bothered by the occasional off-network call. In addition, it is common practice for all mobile service providers to charge quite a bit more for off-network calls, and 35p for a peak call is not 'too' bad compared with the ~50p that most other networks charge.

Text messages are charged at 10p/message, which is pretty standard. You can also text abroad (for 20p/message) to selected networks, although I have found out that even though Switzerland (where I come from) is not on the list of networks on their website, I can still send messages to all my friends there, so even if the country or network you are wanting to send a message to is not on the list, it might still be worth trying it out!


- - - The Service - - -

The services offered by Virgin are pretty standard
, but still quite comprehensive. The standard services include free voicemail, text message service, caller display, call waiting, itemised billing and fax/data calls, WAP service and MP3 service for compatible phones.

Some services, such as itemised billing, are only free for 'pay monthly' customers, but for a one-off fee of £15 this can be set up for 'pay as you go' customers. Unfortunately, you do not get a 'remaining airtime' display on your phone, but you can easily check your balance by ringing 789 for free and waiting for it to come up. This is pretty straightforward, although it can be a bit annoying if you are trying to check your balance in a busy place like a club or a pub.

Extra services include optional insurance (£20/year), call diversion or voicemail plus (which allows you to store 30 messages for 3 weeks) as well as the 'Big Bonus' offer, which allows you to get 10% off your charges if you spend more than £30 in a month.

If you have access to the Internet (you obviously do if you are reading this!), you can also sign up for Virgin Xtras, a service that provides you with fun, text games, information (like sports news, lottery results etc.), screensavers and ringtones as well as access to information through WAP. You have to sign up on their website before you can use this service, and you can then customise you account online so you don't need to pay for WAP calls in order to get your Xtra options tailor-made for your needs and interests.

Virgin use the One2One network, which covers 98% of the UK and has so far proven very reliable, bar a few understandable exceptions such as Christmas or New Year's Eve. Should you have any problems with the service, you can quickly get in touch with the Virgin team on 789 on a Virgin phone or on 0845 6000 789 on a landline. So far I have not had any trouble, neither with the service nor the phone itself, but should I ever experience such prob
lems I will update this opinion to report on how the service dealt with it!

- - - The Verdict - - -

Although I have not got much experience with mobiles and other networks, but so far I am very happy with the Virgin network. In spite of initial 'playing about' (especially with the WAP service) and frequent calls and text messages over Christmas and New Year, I still have more than £10 left of my initial £25 of airtime, their services are easy to use and I am considering to change to 'pay monthly' by direct debit since I am content with the network.

The tariffs work out well for most users, whether occasional or frequent, and the additional services are also very affordable. The handsets available with Virgin offer something for everyone and the £10 service pack is affordable enough to make switching networks easy, especially if you are not prepared to fork out for line rental even when you don't use your phone. If you are not satisfied, there is a 28 day money-back guarantee and as mentioned above there are no charges for having your phone unlocked as long as you have spent £30 with Virgin.

All in all Virgin is a great network for everyone, and since there are no obligations in the form of line rental, you get a great choice of handsets (which are often only available on 'pay monthly' on other networks) and competitive call charges without losing control of your spending.

I don't regret connecting to the Virgin network, and I am sure that most of their customers would agree that their no-fuss service is among the best currently available in the UK!

(c) 2002, Redhead23

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