PAYG Rolling plan vs Sim only pay monthly.

[Suri66]

Hi,

Im looking at a sim deal for my daughter whos 11.

Iv had sim only for a number of years and understand how they work, but for the PAYG rolling plan, does the way its manages differ much?, as O2 seems to offer a better deal on rolling plan vs sim only. 30gb for £10 vs £12.99 on sim only?

My understanding is payment taken monthly automatically, same as sim only.

Same/similar data and unlimited calls/texts, same as sim only.

What are the major differences apart from if you run out of data on payg, you have to manually top up for more data and your not tied in i.e 12months/24 months

[MI5]

@Suri66 

The biggest advantage for a child is that they cannot run up a huge bill on PAYG like you could do on a contract.

Definitely the best choice for a child's phone.

[Suri66]

Yes thats what I thought. Also just thought for example she sent a pic message as text this obvious charges 55p or whatever it is. This comes off the £10 top up right? So does the data of 30gb adjust as well as reduce? 

[madasaf1sh]

@Suri66 

Sim Only is a Pay Monthly account, and you will be credit checked, and you assume all responsibility, if your daughter uses it to buy goods and services without any spend cap in place. 

PAYG you get a fixed amount and cant spend what you don't have credit for, and you can only pay by Debit or Credit Card for the rolling plans

The topup only covers the plan and not any extras like as you mentioned picture messages..

It all depends on your risk appetite, and for an 11 year old, it might be better to go for the rolling plan, and you could even get it coming out of their bank account if they have a card linked to it.. 

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

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@Suri66 wrote:

Yes thats what I thought. Also just thought for example she sent a pic message as text this obvious charges 55p or whatever it is. This comes off the £10 top up right? So does the data of 30gb adjust as well as reduce? 

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@Suri66 

The £10 top up buys standard allowances so there is never any credit unless extra is added.

She won't be able send a picture message via sms but using WhatsApp will be possible.

If using an iPhone, picture messages can be sent via iMessage. Both of those use data so will reduce from the 30gb allowance.

Pay As You Go: Introducing "Rolling Plans"