SIM ONLY – Pay Monthly

Recently, I received few requests asking how much would it cost to sign-up ‘Pay Monthly’ SIM ONLY service in the UK. The below table extracted from The Carphone Warehouse – one of the largest independent phone retailer in the UK and Europe.

Please note: If you’re student and have bank account in the UK, you should not have any problems to get one of this offer. Please speak to The Carphone Warehouse.

Mobile Phone in the UK

How much does it cost to use mobile phone?

Literally, it depends on how you use it. For ‘pay as you go’, you will probably need 10-15 pounds a month if you’re making few minutes of calls each day (average cost of 10p per minute for local call and 20p per minute to Malaysia).

What type of plan should I choose?

Pay as you Go is the most common plan if you don’t use the phone that much. Prepaid card can be purchased from any convenient shops or online.

Contract Phone is suitable for those who plan to stay in the UK for more than 12 months. You will need to have a UK bank account and a good credit rating. Normally Telcos in the UK offer 18 or 24 months contract and you’ll be given a free handset eg. Nokia, HTC, iPhone, etc.

The main Telcos in the UK are Vodafone, T-Mobile, 02, Orange and Three. The services provided by all these telco are pretty much the same. Before jump into the cheapest plan, I suggest you consider the following: –
1) How frequent you use the phone and how long you will be in the UK
2) Some tariffs are cheaper if you make call after office hours/weekend
3) check what your friends use – normally cheaper to call on the same network
4) Are you textmania? Some plans allow you to have free messages/minutes when you top-up
5) Do you need to have internet access/data plan/3G services on your mobile?
6) Check the signal strength with your friends, etc if you live in a basement or remote area.

Talkmobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in the UK, currently uses the Vodafone UK network. Their ‘pay as you go’ plan is quite attractive for international students/visitors. Talkmobile offers FREE International minutes which you can use to call home when you top-up:

£10 = 50 minutes*
£15 – 100 minutes*
£20 – 200 minutes*
*FREE International minute rewards

How to call Malaysia from UK?

Simply dial +6 follow by any mobile/landline phone number in Malaysia eg. +6012-3456789 or +603-12345678.