If you can afford to, buying a new phone outright offers a lot of flexibility.
The absolute best phones can be expensive though, so consider one of best budget phones or best mid-range phones instead. Refurbished phones are another cost-saving option.
That flexibility then arrives in the form of the SIM-only deals available to you. There are plenty of 12- and 24-month contracts out there, but shorter-term options mean you can switch at any time.
And with so many networks and operators to choose from in the UK, prices on monthly rolling and Pay As You Go (PAYG) are very competitive. Here are all the short-term providers in the UK and the plans you need to know about.
For a more general overview, see our guide to the best UK phone networks.
Best Pay As You Go phone networks in the UK
There are technically only four phone networks in the UK, all of which offer PAYG contracts of some description:
That could go down to three, if the proposed Vodafone and Three merger goes through. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulator has provisionally concluded that the two companies could address the main concern of reduced competition, though the investigation is still ongoing.
But there are loads of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), or ‘piggybackers’ as they’re often known. They rent the network space from one of the four above, but offer their own contracts and additional perks. Learn more in our separate guide to piggyback phone networks.
Here are all the piggybackers which offer one-month rolling and PAYG contracts:
- EE – 1pMobile, Lycamobile, Your Co-op, Ecotalk, Zevvle, RWG Mobile
- O2 – Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile
- Three – iD Mobile, Smarty, FreedomPop, Honest Mobile, Superdrug Mobile
- Vodafone – Voxi, Asda Mobile, Lebara Mobile, RWG Mobile
For detailed information about each of the providers mentioned in this section, see our full best UK phone networks guide. Below, you’ll find an overview of the best PAYG contract offers from the four networks and their main piggybackers.
Only the data allowance is specified for the providers you see here, as they all offer unlimited minutes and unlimited texts.
Pay As You Go deals on the EE network
- EE – Five monthly rolling plans, starting at £25 per month for 5GB of data. Cheapest plan limited to 10Gbps speeds, no PAYG
- 1pMobile – Eight monthly rolling plans, starting at £6 per month for 2GB of data. PAYG plan costs 1p per minute, 1p per text, 1p per MB
- Lycamobile – Six monthly rolling plans, starting at £5 per month for 10GB of data. PAYG plans from £5 for 25GB of data for 30 days
- Your Co-op – Four monthly rolling plans, starting at £11 per month for 9GB of data. No PAYG plans
- Ecotalk – Five monthly rolling plans, starting at £6 per month for 3GB of data for 3 months (1GB thereafter). No PAYG plans
- RWG Mobile – Seven monthly rolling plans, starting at £2 per month for 750MB of data. PAYG from £3 for 1GB of data for 30 days
Pay As You Go deals on the O2 network
- O2 – Five monthly rolling plans, starting at £20 per month for 2GB of data. PAYG plans start at £10 for 21GB of data, all include some data rollover
- Giffgaff – Eight monthly rolling plans, starting at £6 per month for 1GB of data. PAYG plans start at £6 for 1GB of data
- Tesco Mobile – PAYG plans start at £10 for 30GB of data (10GB for non-Clubcard members), no monthly rolling plans
Pay As You Go deals on the Three network
- Three – Four monthly rolling plans, starting at £19 per month for 4GB of data. PAYG plans start at £10 for 10GB of data
- iD Mobile – 10 monthly rolling plans, starting at £6 per month for 8GB of data. PAYG plans start at £6 for 1GB of data
- Smarty – Eight monthly rolling plans starting at £5 per month for 5GB of data. Data-only plans from £5 per month for 2GB of data, or data discount plans (get money back for unused data) from £6 per month for 1GB of data. No PAYG plans
- Honest Mobile – Three monthly rolling plans, starting at £13.50 per month for 4GB of data, but price goes down by 5% each year (up to maximum of 30%). No PAYG plans
- Superdrug Mobile – Two monthly rolling plans, starting at £10 per month for 30GB of data. No PAYG plans
Pay As You Go deals on the Vodafone network
- Vodafone – Six monthly rolling plans, starting at £26 per month for 3GB of data. PAYG plans start at £10 for 8GB of data (plus extra 19GB per month for three months), data-only SIMs from £17 per month for 4GB of data
- Voxi – Five monthly rolling plans, starting at £10 per month for 20GB of data, unlimited use of social media apps with all plans (some streaming apps on more expensive ones). No PAYG plans
- Asda Mobile – PAYG plans from £5 for 3GB of data, no monthly rolling plans
- Lebara – Six monthly rolling plans, starting at £5 for 5GB of data. No PAYG plans
- Talkmobile – Four monthly rolling plans, starting at £5.95 per month for 6GB of data. No PAYG plans
What’s the difference between a contract and Pay As You Go?
When you sign up for a full contract with a mobile network, you’re usually agreeing to remain in that deal for at least a year, but possibly two or three. In return for this loyalty, you’ll often get a phone for free (or at a low price) but in reality you’re spreading the cost of that handset across the duration of your contract.
For a lot of people, this regular monthly payment is fine because it means they can move to a new phone every couple of years. But there are drawbacks, as existing customers can find that they don’t get as good a deal as new ones and leaving a contract early can be a very expensive business as you’ll usually need to pay up the balance in one go.
The alternative, of course, is to buy a phone outright and just get the SIM from the mobile network. That’s what Pay As You Go or monthly rolling packages are all about.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
As the name suggests, you’re not tied into a lengthy contract – if you wish, you can stop using the SIM at the end of the month without any penalty charges. Due to the short-term nature of the plans you may find that prices for data tend to be higher than those on traditional plans (unlimited calls and texts are usually included), but there are often exceptions.
Many PAYG deals offer the same sort of features as monthly contracts, which means things such as data roaming will still work in other countries and you can share your data with other devices by using your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot.
PAYG works best if you already have a phone to use, as this keeps down the costs of adding a new one to the tariff. If you got your device as part of a previous contract with a network provider, make sure it isn’t locked to that network. But since December 2021, all phones in the UK have been sold unlocked anyway.
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