topic Re: Why can't I top up by an arbitrary amount? in Pay As You Go

Why can't I top up by an arbitrary amount?

dabl8 — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 13:08:18 GMT

Let's say I have £9.80 credit. It would suit me to top up by just 20p and get a £10 bundle.

Re: Why can't I top up by an arbitrary amount?

madasaf1sh — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 13:20:16 GMT

@dabl8

Because it costs more than 20p to process a 20p top up.

And since day one of PAYG it has been a minimum of £5 top ups(this is no longer the case) so no chance of it changing anytime soon, if at all.

If they where to allow this I would expect them to pass on the costs to you the customer.

edited to add (this is no longer the case)

Re: Why can't I top up by an arbitrary amount?

MI5 — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 13:14:13 GMT

@dabl8

£10 is the minimum set by O2 I'm afraid.

Re: Why can't I top up by an arbitrary amount?

dabl8 — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 13:55:53 GMT

I get very little for my £9.80 if I use it without a bundle. If I would switch network I forfeit the balance. That's £10 down the drain unless I go through the hassle of keeping the SIM and setting up a new number on the other network.

Other networks: 3 lets me buy a daily bundle for 30p. 1Pmobile is true PAYG where I would be charged per MB/ per minute/ per SMS.

IT says here: https://www.o2.co.uk/help/account-and-billing/extra-charges-guide: £3 per MB. Max £1 per day. What does that mean?

Re: Why can't I top up by an arbitrary amount?

madasaf1sh — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 14:38:39 GMT

@dabl8

Three no longer offers the 30p daily bundles its now charged at 10p per minute, 10p/SMS and 5p MB.

New Three price plans: http://www.three.co.uk/cs/Satellite?blobkey=id&blobnocache=false&blobwhere=1401117147714&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs

They used to offer a daily internet bundle for 50p per day which gave you 120Mb of data

1p Mobile is an interesting proposition as its is a pure Old Fashioned PAYG service running on top of BT's network, and like most MVNO's they offer (sometimes) better and more innovative services.

I think £3/mb and max £1 a day is legalese as they have to show the cost per Mb.

To be honest if you have a esim capable handsets the likes esim.net offer better value on a pay monthly / non credit check option.

Re: Why can't I top up by an arbitrary amount?

dabl8 — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 15:25:00 GMT

Funny it's not showing up in the PDF but I can see that addon in My3; and now that I see it again it's gone up to 50p for 120MB