O2 Pay & Go - Anyone on this tariff?

[kolax]

Favourite Place: is that really making a call from one place, eg. home? What's the point in having a mobile? Surely I've got that wrong. As near as I can tell, the calls on this tariff are to UK landlines and O2 mobiles, so what happens if I call a non-O2 mobile?

Cheaper. Calls to any other network are 25p a minute flat rate, where as calls to O2 mobiles (or favourite place) are 25p for the first three minutes, then 5p a minute for the rest of the day, but that only applies to O2 mobiles.

are you sure about that?

prior to getting my 3G iphone on pay and go, i was using normal o2 pay and go with the £7.50 bolt on. i would top up £10 every month, from which the £7.50 would be deducted and i would get a free allowance (in my case minutes rather than texts). i see no reason why it wouldn't be the same with the 3G iphone on pay and go.

http://www.o2.co.uk/mobilestariffs/tariffs/paygo/paygoboltons0153 - scroll to the bottom:

"O2 Web & Wi-Fi Bolt On for iPhone Unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi to use with an original iPhone only. £10 per month."

 

[sananda]

http://www.o2.co.uk/mobilestariffs/tariffs/paygo/paygoboltons0153 - scroll to the bottom:

"O2 Web & Wi-Fi Bolt On for iPhone Unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi to use with an original iPhone only. £10 per month."

it's not the amount i'm querying or that it exists, but that you said when someone tops up £10 to pay for the 02 web and wifi bolt on you will not get the free texts for having topped up the £10. i doubt that is correct based on past experience with the ordinary web bolt on.

 

[kolax]

it's not the amount i'm querying or that it exists, but that you said when someone tops up £10 to pay for the 02 web and wifi bolt on you will not get the free texts for having topped up the £10. i doubt that is correct based on past experience with the ordinary web bolt on.

Ah - my understanding is you need to top up £10 just for the web bolt on, then any additional top up for minutes/texts.

O2's website is pretty vague though, I can't find a definite answer and their email support is useless. I emailed them back in June asking what the fair use limit was, and got an email back with a hundred links to their website, none of which said what the limit was (200MB/month).

 

[sananda]

Ah - my understanding is you need to top up £10 just for the web bolt on, then any additional top up for minutes/texts.

it certainly worked the other way for me when i was using a first generation iphone on pay and go.

 

[kolax]

it certainly worked the other way for me when i was using a first generation iphone on pay and go.

So all O2 is saying is for web bolt on, you just need to be topping up £10 a month (every month? what happens if you miss a month?), but that money is purely for text and phone calls and nothing gets deducted from that £10 for the web bolt on?

 

[Ish]

Cheaper. Calls to any other network are 25p a minute flat rate, where as calls to O2 mobiles (or favourite place) are 25p for the first three minutes, then 5p a minute for the rest of the day, but that only applies to O2 mobiles.

The query I have with Favourite Place is surely they're not expecting you to use your mobile to call from, say, home? I wondered if it meant to O2 mobiles registered to a UK postcode, but I found this

"You can change your postcode once every 30 days by texting CHANGEPLACE plus your new postcode to 22204 free."

so it sounds as though you should make most of your calls from a fixed address. If you're in a short-term rent and don't have a landline fine, but otherwise, isn't that what landlines are for?

 

[kolax]

The query I have with Favourite Place is surely they're not expecting you to use your mobile to call from, say, home? I wondered if it meant to O2 mobiles registered to a UK postcode, but I found this

"You can change your postcode once every 30 days by texting CHANGEPLACE plus your new postcode to 22204 free."

so it sounds as though you should make most of your calls from a fixed address. If you're in a short-term rent and don't have a landline fine, but otherwise, isn't that what landlines are for?

Your favourite place doesn't have to be home - if you have a girlfriend, make it there, cheap calls.

 

[sananda]

So all O2 is saying is for web bolt on, you just need to be topping up £10 a month (every month? what happens if you miss a month?), but that money is purely for text and phone calls and nothing gets deducted from that £10 for the web bolt on?

no, you top up £10. at that point it isn't relevant why you have topped up, it is merely a top up. and for topping up that amount you get either some free texts or minutes. next you can pay for a bolt out of your balance. if you don't have a sufficient balance (because you haven't topped up), you don't get your bolt on that month.

 

[allmIne]

Quite a few people are wondering why anybody would bother with a contract.

The majority of the posts above give it away, really; no arsing about wondering what is and isn't included, what if anything will be deducted from your credit, and no having to top up certain amounts to receive certain promotions.

Oh, and if you use your phone for phone calls, PAYG just isn't an option. Many people, myself included, aren't a fan of the whole 'top-up' rigmarole, either.

The o2 cheaper roaming is a real plus, too - it makes a hoooooge difference to your calls from abroad.

So there ya go - it all depends on what you use your phone for

 

[sananda]

Oh, and if you use your phone for phone calls, PAYG just isn't an option.

yeah, it only really works out if (like me) you make very very few phone calls. i haven't topped up since april, so it all works out well for me. for various reasons i appear to have complimentary top ups amounting to £50 so i won't be spending anything extra for a long time.

 

[Ish]

Quite a few people are wondering why anybody would bother with a contract.

The majority of the posts above give it away, really; no arsing about wondering what is and isn't included, what if anything will be deducted from your credit, and no having to top up certain amounts to receive certain promotions.

Oh, and if you use your phone for phone calls, PAYG just isn't an option. Many people, myself included, aren't a fan of the whole 'top-up' rigmarole, either.

The o2 cheaper roaming is a real plus, too - it makes a hoooooge difference to your calls from abroad.

So there ya go - it all depends on what you use your phone for

I think you're right. Added to that is the need to find nearly £400 to buy the phone. There's not a vast amount of difference in final cost after 18 months for me.

16 GB iPhone cost on £30 tariff after 18 months:
phone - £155.61 (after VAT reduction)
tariff: 18 x £30 = £540
total £695.61

16GB PAYG iPhone cost with £10 per month top up:
phone - £391.57
top ups: 18 x £10 = £180
data - 6 x £10 (first 12 months free) = £60
total £631.57

difference = £64.04

Added to that with PAYG there is no visual voicemail or call merging, different roaming charges (I think) and having to pay to check your messages (I think).

As you say, it depends on what you use your phone for.

 

[kolax]

The majority of the posts above give it away, really; no arsing about wondering what is and isn't included, what if anything will be deducted from your credit, and no having to top up certain amounts to receive certain promotions.

Oh, and if you use your phone for phone calls, PAYG just isn't an option. Many people, myself included, aren't a fan of the whole 'top-up' rigmarole, either.

The o2 cheaper roaming is a real plus, too - it makes a hoooooge difference to your calls from abroad.

If you are a caller, you are still cheaper with PAYG. £30 top up credit a month (you can do it online!) - unlimited minutes.

 

[StuBeck]

O2 seems pretty useless. Their website is vague, and the bill doesn't mention anything about how many megabytes you've used, which is the only real issue with PAYG for me.

 

[kolax]

O2 seems pretty useless. Their website is vague, and the bill doesn't mention anything about how many megabytes you've used, which is the only real issue with PAYG for me.

The bill mentions how much data usage you've used in the Pay Monthly option does it?

 

[ppc750fx]

FYI if you're on PAYG with O2, there's absolutely no reason to get the £10 mobile internet option unless you intend to use their WiFi hot spots. If not (i.e if you usually make do with free hotspots), then just get the £7.50 bolt-on instead. It's the exact same service without the ability to use The Cloud's hotspots (which are relatively scarce IMHO.)

Not a huge savings, but no reason to pay for something you're not using, right?

 

[ppc750fx]

O2 seems pretty useless. Their website is vague, and the bill doesn't mention anything about how many megabytes you've used, which is the only real issue with PAYG for me.

Can't you just keep track of this using the phone's usage stats?

 

[kolax]

FYI if you're on PAYG with O2, there's absolutely no reason to get the £10 mobile internet option unless you intend to use their WiFi hot spots. If not (i.e if you usually make do with free hotspots), then just get the £7.50 bolt-on instead. It's the exact same service without the ability to use The Cloud's hotspots (which are relatively scarce IMHO.)

I'm sure it is required to pay £10 for the iPhone. AFAIK the £7.50 Web Bolt-On option isn't available for it.

 

[StuBeck]

The bill mentions how much data usage you've used in the Pay Monthly option does it?

Nope, it doesnt. My boss is on pay monthly and it doesn't mention anything about it. On my blackberry with orange it mentions it, which is always nothing (last month was 11 megabytes) but thats without going to websites and using blackberry's mail which takes out attachments.

Can't you just keep track of this using the phone's usage stats?

Probably, but since I don't have the phone I'm not sure how to do it! Can you help me with this?

 

[ppc750fx]

I'm sure it is required to pay £10 for the iPhone. AFAIK the £7.50 Web Bolt-On option isn't available for it.

Believe me, it's not required.

If it is, then O2 must just like me...

It's the _exact same_ service. The only difference is you can use The Cloud's WiFi hotspots for free. The GPRS/EDGE/3G access you get with both plans is the same -- same APN, same IP pool, same speed, everything.