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Which PAYG network allows the smallest cash top up?

Steve1980

Regular Member
I'd like to get a PAYG SIM for a spare phone for a family member and pay cash for the connection (so there's no possibility of bill shock). There's a fair chance the phone is going to get lost at some point, so I'd rather minimise the amount of money tied up on the SIM and lost along with the phone.

I'm fairly sure I can top up a Three SIM with cash in £10 increments, but not smaller. That's what they told me in the shop the last time I bought a voucher anyway. Does anyone allow smaller cash top ups?
 
CMLink allow £1 top ups.
Asda Mobile, Vodafone, Talk Home and probably a few others I am not immediately thinking of allow £5 top ups.

TalkHome is probably your best bet if they are going to be using it for more than just the one-off call or text. Their Penny Pro plan is 1p to join, then 1p per minute, 1p per text, 1p per MB so you can stretch the £5 quite far.
 
Thanks Koda! Can I top any of those up with cash? I suppose if I'm buying a PAYG top up with a debit card there's not really a risk of bill shock, but I would prefer cash somehow. I suspect I could buy a Vodafone top up voucher in a local shop at least.
 
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Thanks Koda! Can I top any of those up with cash? I suppose if I'm buying a PAYG top up with a debit card there's not really a risk of bill shock, but I would prefer cash somehow. I suspect I could buy a Vodafone top up voucher in a local shop at least.
Asda, Vodafone and TalkHome can be done at PayPoint or PayZone machines in many stores, and with Asda Mobile you can also top up at the checkouts at Asda of course.

Vodafone are the most expensive of the three. It's £2 for every day you use it. (https://www.vodafone.co.uk/pricechanges/pay-as-you-go1)

Asda are 15p per minute and 10p per text. (https://mobile.asda.com/rates-and-charges)

TalkHome are 1p per unit (https://talkhome.co.uk/sim-only-deals/payg/110)

You can also do one-off top ups by card, rather than saving the card details if wanting to go about it that way instead and be sure you won't have any additional charges on your account.
 
Thanks! I'm a bit disappointed Vodafone have hiked their prices, £1/day for "unlimited on the odd occasion you need it" service felt pretty tempting, but £2/day not so much.

But good to see there are options for PayPoint/PayZone on several of these.

I didn't realise you could top up Asda Mobile at the checkout - the last time I checked, my local Asda didn't have any of their own SIMs on sale so I assumed they kind of didn't support them in store any more and it was an entirely on-line deal.
 
In Tesco, it lets us print a £5 top-up voucher for the following networks:
  • Vodafone
  • Virgin
  • Lebara
  • Sure
  • Lycamobile
  • Now Mobile
  • EE
I checked this on the customer service tills ("legacy" tills) so it may be different to the self-service or checkout tills ("Tesco Tills").
 
In Tesco, it lets us print a £5 top-up voucher for the following networks:
  • Vodafone
  • Virgin
  • Lebara
  • Sure
  • Lycamobile
  • Now Mobile
  • EE
I checked this on the customer service tills ("legacy" tills) so it may be different to the self-service or checkout tills ("Tesco Tills").
Interesting list there. Virgin Mobile PAYG was shut down long before the Virgin Mobile brand was killed off in general. I wonder if the system would actually produce a voucher or if it would give an error if someone tried to put it through the till.

As for Sure - I assume you are on the UK Mainland, right? Presumably they just have one system for all Tesco stores whethere it's here or on one of the islands where Sure is a thing.

Now Mobile and TalkHome share most of their systems including top up voucher codes I believe. So that should work for OP if they went down that route. But it's interesting to see Now on the list since they are one of the smaller players while most other small MVNOs are missing.
 
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Now Mobile and TalkHome share most of their systems including top up voucher codes I believe. So that should work for OP if they went down that route. But it's interesting to see Now on the list since they are one of the smaller players while most other small MVNOs are missing.
Now are one of the oldest MVNOs about, well before internet topups so not super surprised!

TalkHome is probably your best bet if they are going to be using it for more than just the one-off call or text. Their Penny Pro plan is 1p to join, then 1p per minute, 1p per text, 1p per MB so you can stretch the £5 quite far.
I believe with Talk Home it requires the 1p plan to be manually "renewed" every 30 days (for free) otherwise it will revert to the normal PAYG rates. 10p min for national call, 18p per minute to call a UK mobile, 5p per text and 1p per MB

I would probably still go for an O2 Classic SIM at the 3/2/1 rate, it only has to be used every 6 months to keep it active, although the minimum top up is £10 I believe.

There's a fair chance the phone is going to get lost at some point, so I'd rather minimise the amount of money tied up on the SIM and lost along with the phone.

There is no chance of "bill shock" however you pay using a pay as you go service, no matter how you pay. Even if you used your card or had an automatically renewing bundle, chargeable services will simply not work unless you have a credit balance on the SIM.
 
I believe with Talk Home it requires the 1p plan to be manually "renewed" every 30 days (for free) otherwise it will revert to the normal PAYG rates. 10p min for national call, 18p per minute to call a UK mobile, 5p per text and 1p per MB
There's an auto renew option for it. Mine has been active for months with occasional use every couple of months and not topped up for about a year now. It seems to be something you can set up and then forget about.
 
There's an auto renew option for it. Mine has been active for months with occasional use every couple of months and not topped up for about a year now. It seems to be something you can set up and then forget about.
Ah, guess that has changed - that's a good thing
 
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