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New sim options?

chrissyyy

ULTIMATE Member
I have picked up my PAC from EE today after 5 years. With the price rises, their complete unwillingness to do a deal and the fact the cell that covers my work is up and down like a yoyo has backed me into a corner.

I don't particularly want to lock in on a contract on another network due to the RPI increases etc.

Roaming is pretty important, I travel to Europe and the US 4/5 times a year.

I use around 50-60gb data per month.

Locally, Three perform pretty well, but I know across the UK they are hit and miss. O2 I will not consider, they're swamped around here and perform poorly.

I have a Smarty sim with 50gb data for £8 per month.

Is there a better deal out there at the moment on a month to month basis?
 
I think the PAC only stays valid for about a month so I guess there's an important number that needs to be kept.

Recently I moved a SIM from Pay Monthly to PAYG and was pleasantly surprised EE billed pro-rata instead of imposing the one month notice period (two weeks instead).

Waiting for Black Friday to see the deals.
 
EE is a rip off once your out of contract looking at prices cheapest plan i can obtain is their 20gb for £9 24 months to convert to e-sim and £7 for a apple watch add-on total £16 i required e-sim for my new iPhone 15 Pro Max/Apple watch 9.


Or go with uswitch vodafone 6gb for £7.00 12 months and add the apple watch add on for £7.00 total £14.

or with a cheap £6.99 slow o2 plan 12 months and £5 apple watch add-on total £12
 
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I think the PAC only stays valid for about a month so I guess there's an important number that needs to be kept.

Recently I moved a SIM from Pay Monthly to PAYG and was pleasantly surprised EE billed pro-rata instead of imposing the one month notice period (two weeks instead).

Waiting for Black Friday to see the deals.
My plan is to be on a new network in the next 7 days.

Options from what I can see, needing around 50gb data and discounting the O2 network completely are……

Smarty - 50gb £8
Voxi - 60gb for £12
Lebara - Ultd £25
Lyca - 50gb - £15
1p - 50gb £15

I don’t particularly want to take out another contract as I don’t want a hard search against me before I push through with my mortgage in principle.

Are there any downsides to Smarty vs the actual Three network?
 
My plan is to be on a new network in the next 7 days.

Options from what I can see, needing around 50gb data and discounting the O2 network completely are……

Smarty - 50gb £8
Voxi - 60gb for £12
Lebara - Ultd £25
Lyca - 50gb - £15
1p - 50gb £15

I don’t particularly want to take out another contract as I don’t want a hard search against me before I push through with my mortgage in principle.

Are there any downsides to Smarty vs the actual Three network?
If you get good Three UK reception, it's a fine network.

I think Smarty is mainly prepayment so they won't need to do a credit search. A Three UK contact is post-pay (debts incurred before payment) so might need some credit search. Three UK has some perks programme that I forget the name of, and is good internationally in lots of countries.

Smarty's customer service is said to be better than Three UK's.
 
If you get good Three UK reception, it's a fine network.

I think Smarty is mainly prepayment so they won't need to do a credit search. A Three UK contact is post-pay (debts incurred before payment) so might need some credit search. Three UK has some perks programme that I forget the name of, and is good internationally in lots of countries.

Smarty's customer service is said to be better than Three UK's.
I have a test sim with Smarty and yes, it is prepayment so no credit checks etc.

Testing Smarty, it is the best network in my home town for 5G and the nearest city it out performs Vodafone and O2, which quite simply do not perform at busy times so I am kind of leaning towards Smarty at this point.

I know out in the rural areas it will probably struggle compared to Vodafone, O2 and EE but we'll see.

Can you roam in the US on Smarty?
 
EE is a rip off once your out of contract looking at prices cheapest plan i can obtain is their 20gb for £9 24 months to convert to e-sim and £7 for a apple watch add-on total £16 i required e-sim for my new iPhone 15 Pro Max/Apple watch 9.


Or go with uswitch vodafone 6gb for £7.00 12 months and add the apple watch add on for £7.00 total £14.

or with a cheap £6.99 slow o2 plan 12 months and £5 apple watch add-on total £12
Decent deals on there for EE
 
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My plan is to be on a new network in the next 7 days.

Options from what I can see, needing around 50gb data and discounting the O2 network completely are……

Smarty - 50gb £8
Voxi - 60gb for £12
Lebara - Ultd £25
Lyca - 50gb - £15
1p - 50gb £15

I don’t particularly want to take out another contract as I don’t want a hard search against me before I push through with my mortgage in principle.

Are there any downsides to Smarty vs the actual Three network?
Alternative to Smarty, as Superdrug is owned by Three's Owners.
 
Alternative to Smarty, as Superdrug is owned by Three's Owners.
Interesting.

I cannot see a sim available that comes close to my Smarty £8 for 50gb sim.

I think i'll give Smarty a go and if they let me down, give Voxi or 1p a try if they drop a good Black Friday deal.
 
I have a test sim with Smarty and yes, it is prepayment so no credit checks etc.

Testing Smarty, it is the best network in my home town for 5G and the nearest city it out performs Vodafone and O2, which quite simply do not perform at busy times so I am kind of leaning towards Smarty at this point.

I know out in the rural areas it will probably struggle compared to Vodafone, O2 and EE but we'll see.

Can you roam in the US on Smarty?
Apparently there's an "Out of plan" add-on.

 
Three payg sim for roaming in the USA. £10 for 10gb I think, not the greatest deal but depends how much data you’ll need abroad, may still be cheaper than add ons by other networks.

50gb for £15 or 100gb for £20 on the payg options.

Not as great as smarty but it’s no credit checks, comes with Three+ app, and USA roaming.
 
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I think as I am not due to go out to the US until next year, I’ll give Smarty a go. My trips for the remainder of the year are in the EU.

If I don’t find the network up to scratch then I’ll give a Vodafone MVNO a go.
 
Three payg sim for roaming in the USA. £10 for 10gb I think, not the greatest deal but depends how much data you’ll need abroad, may still be cheaper than add ons by other networks.

50gb for £15 or 100gb for £20 on the payg options.

Not as great as smarty but it’s no credit checks, comes with Three+ app, and USA roaming.
Remember that Three roaming is capped to 12GB.
 
EE are capping speeds now so if using for router please bear in mind.

I’ve just got a pac code yesterday for my wife and transferred to 02 (£8) £30 Gig as reception is the best in my area but the main reason is the virgin volt .

I’ve just tested a Three sim for router on an iPhone and speeds are not capped and reaching 1.1Gb
 
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What is roaming like on Three / Smarty?

Do you get 5G in the EU?
 
What is roaming like on Three / Smarty?

Do you get 5G in the EU?
Nope 5G roaming does not work on Three/Smarty. That being said though, they have the best ping times I've seen for roaming networks, a mile better than Vodafone. Was getting 300 ping on Vodafone, 60/70 ping on smarty in Spain. As for getting it to work, all you have to do is make sure the APN is set right and data roaming is enabled if using smarty. Land, switch your device on and it connects and works immediately on 4G/4G+.
I did notice that on NetMonster, it showed 5G NSA but it was in a permanently disconnected state.
 
Nope 5G roaming does not work on Three/Smarty. That being said though, they have the best ping times I've seen for roaming networks, a mile better than Vodafone. Was getting 300 ping on Vodafone, 60/70 ping on smarty in Spain. As for getting it to work, all you have to do is make sure the APN is set right and data roaming is enabled if using smarty. Land, switch your device on and it connects and works immediately on 4G/4G+.
I did notice that on NetMonster, it showed 5G NSA but it was in a permanently disconnected state.
Good to hear. Is there anything you have to enable on your actual Smarty account to roam?

Using an iPhone, it’s pretty easy to roam, just enable roaming in settings.
 
Good to hear. Is there anything you have to enable on your actual Smarty account to roam?

Using an iPhone, it’s pretty easy to roam, just enable roaming in settings.
Nope, it just kind of works within the EU. Otuside the EU tho you need to make sure you have an out of bundle addon
 
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