Im a virgin pre pay (Virgin Mobile in general)

Member Name: romybuzzer

Product:	Virgin Mobile in general
Date:	20/09/02 (1709 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great pricing

Disadvantages: Customer service, Coverage

Did you know that Virgin Pay as you go is one of the easiest ways to cut your big phone bills? Yep, its true. I have just left my contract line and become a pay as you go subscriber.
Not only that but im able to use my old phone AND my old number. All of this for £10 and that includes £5 worth of free calls! so really its costing me £5 to get away from big bills of £50+ a month!

Viring mobile can be found online for more information. Go to:
http://www.virginmobile.com

Its a fairly straightforward site that can be a bit hard to find what you want. While they rely on gory graphics, the navigation is hard to understand.
I kept getting ost trying to find my phone deal that I wanted.

Anyway, it lists all of the options that are available to the user. you can:
Become a Contract user with a phone supplied. This will still cost you loads of money.

Become a Pay as you go customer with one of their phones. These packages start at about £69 for a basic phone that includes the SIM card and phone number.

Become a Pay as you go customer with your own phone. This costs £10 and includes £5 of free calls.
you need to check your phone is compatible which is done on line with a small form you fill in. you need to enter your Phone ID number. This can be found by pressing *#06# . My phone was compatible and the sim card and service pack turned up within 48 hours. I was then back on air within minutes, straight out of the box.

Become a Pay as you go customer with your own phone AND old number. This costs no more money but requires your old number to be "ported" across from your old network. You need to request a PAC code from your old network and then pass the info to Virgin for porting. It takes about 5-7 days.
This way you dont go through the hassle of changing numbers.

Also available on the site you can buy accessories for your phone. You can also buy ringtones and graphics to use. A handy
place to do your phone shopping. They also provide a free service called Virgin Xtras. This offers another free service to customers on line that includes help, news, information, topping up methods and more.

Customer service.
This could do with improving. When you ring up for help, you first have to navigate a larg menu system. This is to route your call more efficiently. Then you go on hold for an eternity until someone eventually answers. They then have to pass you onto someone else. This makes a mockery of the menu system.
However the staff are very friendly and helpful, if a little too busy!

Coverage.
This too is a bit of a let down. Compared to my Vodaphone coverage, my mobile is out of signal all too often for my liking. I dont know why because I thought they used a similar system. It is even worse that Orange i nmy area which is particularly weak.
Getting 5 bars worth of signal is somewhat rare around here for virgin.

Help/topping up.
This is easy to get and easy to top up. there are a variety of methods to top up. These include an E-Card to buy credit on. This is registered to your phone and pretty instant. You can also buy vouchers or register your debit card with them and buy as you go.
The help menu on their operastor number is free and a great source of my info. Just dial 789 on your Virgin mobile.

Overall.
A weak signal in places means its not that great. However a cheap deal and free credit cannot be turned down. Worth investing in if you need to reduce your bills.

Summary: