Want an EASY PAYG Tariff? Try Tesco! (Tesco Mobile SIM)

Name: DavyMichelle

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Product:	Tesco Mobile SIM
Date:	12.05.08 (298 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy, Cheap, Good Coverage, Loads of Ways to Top Up

Disadvantages: None

To go with our new phones, the Mrs and I received Tesco Standard Mobile Sim Cards complete with our Tesco Pay-As-You-Go phones. You can get one of three different Sim Cards though and we know this because we firstly stopped to consider our options in store, and then had a nosey online when we went to register for credit!


Normally you pay £2.47 for a Standard, Extra or Value Sim Card but at the moment they're offering deals on all of these so that you buy them with some credit already on them for less than the cost of the credit. So the Standard one for examples usually costs £2.47 and comes with £10 worth of credit - but you can buy it at the moment for £5. If you buy a Tesco PAYG handset then you'll get the Standard sim card with £1 of credit on it included in the price. I think that it'd be better to chuck that sim card though and pay £5 to get one with £10 of credit on it - surely? Too late now we've already started using the number included with the free sim card though.


If you use the standard tariff, you get nice easy pricing that's easy to understand. You pay 20p per minute to make a call regardless of whether it's a mobile or landline. You then pay 10p per text message. Also, you can register your three favourite numbers and pay just 10p per minute to call them and 5p per text message you send to them. I think it's a great idea for those who don't use their phones that much.


If you want the extra tariff, that basically just means you agree to top up at least £15 a month in return for cheaper calls and texts. You pay just 10p per minute for all calls and 5p per minute for all texts. I've gone for this option as I use my phone for work and all I had to do was opt in using my current standard sim card.


Something that's benefited both myself on the extra tariff and the Mrs on the standard one is signing up for regular top-ups. If you go online and register to top up regularly, you can get a 10% discount. So the Mrs has signed up to top up £10 once a month (we got to choose on which date) and this means she'll only pay £9 per month for her £10 credit. I signed up for £15 every two weeks which I'll only pay £13.50 a time for and I'll still qualify for the cheaper tariff even with the saving.


The Tesco Value tariff we haven't used but I can tell you what it is at least. It's basically a cheap call package for those who don't use their phones much. You pay 15p per minute for calls and 5p per text. The drawback to this is that you can't access any extras on this tariff. So you can't access the internet, you can't use your phone abroad and you can't send or receive photos. You can literally call or text. So I can see this being suitable for some but not for us.


The service so far has been good. I'm not usually Tesco's biggest fan but I'm very pleased so far. They don't charge us to call the helpline (automated) and we both got a helpful getting started booklet with our phone explaining how to use our sim cards and what we'd get from them. Also, because they're on the o2 network, Tesco cover 99% of the UK so we shouldn't have any problems with coverage.


I'm really pleased with what I've got for the price I'm paying. I can clearly see how much I'm spending and the prices are more competitive than if I'd gone for a contract phone. It's great that I can top-up online too as I don't tend to shop in Tesco so that would have been a deal breaker for me. You can top up over the phone too so not to worry if you prefer doing it that way. Maybe there's a better deal out there but this is the best I've come across in a long time.


Five stars from me for clear prices, good coverage, lots of options and an easy to use service.

Summary: Five stars from me