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PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT

Are there any no-contract SIM cards?

Q Like many people, I’ve ditched my landline phone and now rely on my mobile. Being the belt-and-braces type, I have a second mobile phone that I want to keep as a backup for emergencies. As such, I’d like a SIM card that doesn’t expire or necessitate a monthly contract. Any ideas?

John Scoote

Giffgaff’s PAYG contract is fine for emergencies, but call and data rates are expensive

A Once upon a time, a ‘pay as you go’ (PAYG) SIM deal meant exactly that: you’d just pay for the calls or data you used, with no commitment. The provider might eventually have deactivated a SIM that hadn’t been used in a while, but these ‘expiry dates’ tended to be measured in years. So you could put a PAYG SIM in a phone, add a bit of credit, stick it in a drawer and more or less forget all about it – until the moment you needed it.

However, since those easygoing days, almost all mobile providers have evolved the term ‘PAYG’ to mean the need to pay a fixed monthly fee, albeit on a 30-day rolling contract that you can cancel at any time – and that’s the problem you face now.

What’s interesting about this question is that a quick glance at the market might convince you there’s really no problem – PAYG deals abound, after all! However, while there are deals that ostensibly appear to honour the spirit of the original PAYG philosophy, few really do.

Let’s explore 1pMobile’s Classic PAYG plan (www.snipca.com/57093) as an example. This offers calls, messages and data at 1p per minute/text/megabyte, with top-ups at your leisure. It’s a good deal for a light or occasional user. However, a closer look at the terms and conditions (www.snipca.com/57094) reveals that all is not quite as it seems. That’s because 1pMobile requires customers to spend at least £10 every 120 days to keep the SIM alive. Admittedly this equates to only around £2.50/month – and remember, the plan itself really is good value – but this hidden clause does mean that the deal isn’t like the original never-expiring PAYG SIMs of yore.

Fortunately, there remains at least one company that still offers a SIM that’s very close to the original ideals of PAYG – albeit with two significant caveats. Order a free Giffgaff SIM (from www.snipca.com/57095) and top up with, say, a tenner, and that credit will stay there indefinitely.

1pMobile’s PAYG plan requires you to spend at least £10 every 120 days

However, the first warning is that the cost of calls and data is eye-watering, at 25p a minute and 10p per MB (www. giffgaff.com/pricing). So, this isn’t a plan you want to be using in anything other than an emergency.

Second, and much more importantly for an emergency/backup phone, the SIM needs to be used at least once every six months to make a call or use the internet, or Giffgaff will consider it inactive – and it will be automatically deactivated. So, while your credit will never expire, the SIM itself might. In other words, if relying on it as a backup, it’s vital to schedule making a call or visiting any web page at least twice a year.