Best sim for an american student in UK

[chrisbainbridge]

The daughter of a friend of ours in the US is coming to the UK for 5 months.  We are going to loan her a samsung  but wonder what is the best sim card.

not too worried about the cost but want large data as she is away from home and i am not certain about the wifi where she will be staying.  Also prefer not to be tied into a long term contract.

I am thinking PAYG but which is best but would rather just set up a contract.  Is there a PAYG that allows automatic topups?

[telstarbox]

Giffgaff gives you a rolling monthly 'goodybag' of minutes/ texts / data for a fixed price. You can change to a different level each month, or start the next one early if you run out. The contract is month to month rather than a minimum term.

[Jasmine]

Another vote for Giffgaff from me.  Their £10 bundle is unlimited texts, calls and 3gb data. In the summer when my internet provider was seriously messing me about I used the £15 bundle which gives 8gb data and used my phone to hotspot my computer. They also send you a text close to your renewal date each month to tell you if your current usage indicates you should stay on that tariff, or go up or down.

To be honest, if she's from the states, she'll think that any UK network provider is really cheap.  Their bottom end mobile contracts charge to *receive* text messages! 

[chrisbainbridge]

Thank you. Giffgaff it is then.

[Kim]

To be honest, if she's from the states, she'll think that any UK network provider is really cheap.  Their bottom end mobile contracts charge to *receive* text messages!

That's surely a side-effect of the USAnian approach where the mobile user pays the premium for the cellular part of the call.  It's no less arbitrary and unreasonable than our approach of treating mobile numbers as special thing that costs more to call.


As for which network's best, Giffgaff isn't a bad choice.  I also like Three for data (dunno about automatic top-ups).  What's likely to be important is the quality of the signal in this residence with dodgy WiFi...

[bobb]

Any monthly, or maybe multiple monthly SIM from pretty much any mobly provider is going to be the same. There's so much competition (you know all the major players, I don't need to list them) that no one company will either charge more or less for the deal. Just shop around, pick one and go with it...

[jsabine]

Agree with Kim (gosh! That's a surprise) that the choice of network should probably be on 4G signal where she's living, at any rate if the wifi is truly dodgy.

Bobb is, I think, wrong in that there are differences in PAYG pricing, probably because the networks rely on ignorance or distress purchases. I think 3 is probably the best bet for data-heavy use (at least it was a couple of years ago), but like others I've found the giffgaff goodybags a decent balance for my usage.

If giffgaff looks sensible then it's worth getting a referrer link from an existing user - free fiver (occasionally a tenner) of non-goodybag usage for both referree and referrer.

(As a certified shill for them, obviously I'll happily supply my own link, but there are plenty of other users here - I got a link from Peli when I signed up.)