By Tesco Mobile offers Rocket Pack bundles on Pay As You Go, starting from £7.50/month with no contract.
In the UK, Tesco Mobile offers Rocket Pack bundles on Pay As You Go, with prices starting from £7.50/month. You’ll get access to 4G coverage from O2 with no need to sign a contract or to undergo a credit check.
In this article, we’ll look at Tesco Mobile’s Pay As You Go service, including the Rocket Packs available and how much they’ll cost you. We’ll also look at the Triple Credit tariff from Tesco Mobile, before comparing their Rocket Pack bundles to rival networks like giffgaff and VOXI. Finally, we’ll look at the coverage on Tesco Mobile’s Pay As You Go service and how you can keep your current phone number when moving to the network.
Contents
Bundles & Pricing
On Tesco Mobile’s Pay As You Go service, there are two ways of paying for your usage:
- You can buy a monthly Rocket Pack bundle to cover your usage. Tesco Mobile offers Rocket Pack bundles from £7.50 per month. If you’re a regular mobile user or smartphone user, you’ll normally find Rocket Packs to be the better value option. This is because you’ll get an allowance of minutes, texts and data included in your Rocket Pack.
- You can use traditional Pay As You Go with Tesco Mobile’s Triple Credit offer. Rather than buying an all-inclusive bundle, you can use Tesco Mobile on a traditional Pay As You Go basis with no need to top-up every month. You’ll pay 25p/minute, 10p/text and 10p/MB. Tesco has a triple credit offer that triples your credit for one month whenever you top-up.
With both options, there’s no contract to sign and no credit checks to undergo.
Rocket Pack Bundles
For most people, the cheapest way to use Tesco Mobile on a Pay As You Go basis is by buying a one-month Rocket Pack bundle. Tesco’s Rocket Packs start from £7.50/month and give you an inclusive allowance of UK minutes, texts and data.
There’s currently a choice of five Rocket Packs, ranging from £7.50/month for 2GB of data to £20/month for 50GB of data.
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2GB data | £7.50 per month No contract | See deal |
| 10GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 15GB data | £12.50 per month No contract | See deal |
| 25GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 50GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 100GB data | £30.00 per month No contract | See deal |
When your one-month Rocket Pack bundle comes to an end, any unused allowances will automatically expire. You’ll then need to buy a fresh Rocket Pack to get a new set of allowances. For convenience, there’s an option to set up automatic payments on your account which can make it a hassle-free experience to buy a Rocket Pack every month.
Tesco Mobile’s Rocket Pack bundles can often be beaten by what is available on other networks. For instance, giffgaff also offers Pay As You Go plans with no contract and no credit check:
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
Order giffgaff SIM card (Free) →
On giffgaff, you’ll get the same coverage you would on Tesco Mobile as both mobile networks use coverage from O2.
Pay As You Go Pricing
If you either don’t have a Rocket Pack on your Tesco Mobile account or if you’ve already used up your Rocket Pack allowances, you’ll pay Tesco Mobile’s standard Pay As You Go rates for using your mobile phone.
On Tesco Mobile, phone calls will cost 25p/minute. Text messages will cost 10p each and using mobile data will cost 10p/MB (equivalent to £100 per gigabyte). For this reason, if you’re a heavy user, charges can add up very quickly on standard Pay As You Go. If you regularly use your mobile phone, it may therefore be cheaper getting a Pay As You Go bundle instead.
| Calling Rates: | |
|---|---|
| Voice Calls | 25p/minute (any network, any time) |
| Calls to Voicemail | 15p/minute |
| Calls to Special Rate Numbers | 25p/minute access charge + service charge from the company you’re calling |
| Messaging Rates: | |
| Text Message (SMS) | 10p |
| Picture Message (MMS) | 25p |
| Internet Rates: | |
| Mobile Data | 10p/MB |
In general, Tesco Mobile’s Pay As You Go rates are fairly expensive compared to other networks. 1pMobile has much lower Pay As You Go rates, at 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB (coverage from the EE network).
For more information, see our full comparison of Pay As You Go rates in the UK.
Triple Credit Plan
If you don’t want to top-up every month and to buy a Rocket Pack for your usage, Tesco Mobile has a triple credit offer. If you’re on their traditional Pay As You Go service without a Rocket Pack bundle, you can receive bonus credit as follows:
- When you top-up with £10 of credit, you’ll get £20 of bonus free credit that lasts for one month (making a total of £30 credit).
- When you top-up with £15 of credit, you’ll get £30 of bonus free credit that lasts for one month (making a total of £45 credit).
- When you top-up with £20 of credit, you’ll get £40 of bonus free credit that lasts for one month (making a total of £60 credit).
The bonus free credit can only be used for standard-rate calling, texting and browsing inside the UK. It isn’t possible to use your bonus credit for other things like buying a bundle, premium-rate calling, international calling or roaming outside of Europe. Your bonus credit is always used before your normal credit and expires one month after the date of your top-up.
Bonus Bundles on Triple Credit
In addition to the triple credit offer, you can also benefit from a free bonus bundle when you top-up by £10 or £15 in one go:
- When you top-up with £10 of credit in one go, you can choose from 50 texts, 75 minutes or 250MB of data.
- When you top-up with £15 of credit in one go, you can choose from 5000 texts, 200 minutes or 1GB of data.
There’s more information about this on the Tesco Mobile website.
Comparison to Alternatives
£7.50 per month bundles
On Tesco Mobile, you’ll currently pay £7.50 for a Rocket Pack with 500 minutes, 5000 texts and 2GB of data.
As an alternative to this, consider ASDA Mobile’s £7 bundle which gives you unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 3GB of data. This is 50% more data than you’d get on Tesco Mobile and with a cost saving of 50p per month. You can also consider giffgaff’s £8 goodybag which comes with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 2GB of data.
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5GB data | £7.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 2GB data | £7.50 per month No contract | See deal |
| 10GB data | £8.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 5GB data | £8.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 4GB data | £8.00 per month No contract | See deal |
£10 per month bundles
Tesco Mobile’s £10 Rocket Pack bundle comes with 5000 minutes, 5000 texts and 10GB of data.
The following table shows some alternatives to this. For instance, you can get unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 20GB of data for £10/month on giffgaff. Like Tesco Mobile, giffgaff also uses coverage from O2.
Alternatively, VOXI currently offers 45GB of data and endless social media data for £10/month. The coverage on VOXI is provided by the Vodafone network.
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 20GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 15GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 15GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 10GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 10GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 8GB data 25Mbps max speed | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 8GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 8GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
£15 per month bundles
Tesco Mobile’s £15 Rocket Pack bundle includes 5000 minutes, 5000 texts and 25GB of data.
This compares as follows to other mobile networks:
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 105GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 35GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 30GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 30GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 25GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 25GB data 25Mbps max speed | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 25GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 25GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 25GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
£20 per month bundles
On Tesco Mobile, the £20 Rocket Pack bundle comes with 5000 minutes, 5000 texts and 50GB of data.
For a better value alternative, we’d recommend giffgaff’s £20 goodybag. This gives you unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 80GB of data (this is 60% more data than you’d get on Tesco Mobile).
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited data 2Mbps max speed | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
Offer ends 28th Nov | 300GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 100GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 80GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 50GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 50GB data 25Mbps max speed | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 50GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 50GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 50GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 40GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
For more information, see our in-depth comparison of Pay As You Go bundles in the UK.
Network & Coverage
2G, 3G & 4G Coverage From O2
Tesco Mobile uses O2 as its network coverage provider. As such, customers using the Tesco Mobile service will receive 99% population coverage on O2’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks in the UK.
Before you sign up to the Tesco Mobile network, it’s important to double-check the coverage in your area. You can do this by entering your postcode on the Tesco Mobile coverage map:
Check Tesco Mobile Coverage (tescomobile.com) →
For more information, see our full review of the coverage on O2. You can also read our guide to mobile networks using coverage from O2.
5G Coverage
5G coverage isn’t currently available to customers using Tesco Mobile’s Pay As You Go service. This includes both the Rocket Pack and Triple Credit plans, both of which are limited to 4G speeds as a maximum.
If you’d like to access 5G on Tesco Mobile, you’ll need to choose a Pay Monthly contract from Tesco.
For more information, see our guide to 5G SIM-only deals and 5G mobile coverage in the UK.
Tethering & Personal Hotspot
Tethering or personal hotspot refers to the process of sharing your smartphone’s internet connection with another device (e.g. with your laptop or tablet). It’s often used as a convenient way to get access to mobile broadband on other devices.
On Tesco Mobile’s Pay As You Go service, you can tether or use personal hotspot without any restrictions. This means you can share your inclusive data allowance with other devices.
International Roaming
If you’re travelling abroad to another country, you can use your Tesco Mobile Pay As You Go SIM card through Tesco’s international roaming service.
If you’re travelling to one of 48 European Home From Home destinations, you’ll be able to use your Rocket Pack allowances at no extra cost. Alternatively, you’ll pay the same Pay As You Go rates as you normally would inside the UK. The Triple Credit offer is also valid for usage in Europe.
If you’re travelling to a country outside Europe, additional roaming rates will apply for this. This is often prohibitively expensive (e.g. £5/MB in the USA) so remember to double-check the roaming costs before you depart.
Keeping Your Phone Number
If you’re changing from another mobile network to Tesco Mobile’s Pay As You Go service, it’s a straightforward process keeping your current phone number.
Start by asking your current mobile network to give you a PAC Code. You can get a PAC through your mobile network’s website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075.
Once you have a PAC Code from your old network, you can order your new Pay As You Go phone or SIM card from Tesco’s website. To start with, you’ll be assigned a temporary phone number by Tesco Mobile which you can use to try out the service. If you’re happy to continue, follow the instructions on Tesco’s website and text PORT to 23424. This will start the process of moving your phone number to Tesco Mobile.
For a step-by-step guide on moving your phone number to Tesco Mobile, please select your current mobile network from the drop-down menu below:
It isn’t possible to transfer Pay As You Go credit from your old mobile network to Tesco Mobile. You should therefore try to use it up before moving your phone number over.
Frequently Asked Questions
| What Pay As You Go bundles are available on Tesco Mobile? | On Tesco Mobile, you’re currently able to choose from the following Pay As You Go bundles:
All of your Rocket Pack allowances last for one month and any unused allowances cannot be rolled over into the following month. |
|---|---|
| How do Tesco Mobile’s Rocket Packs compare? | While Rocket Packs offer reasonable value, they can be beaten by Pay As You Go bundles on other networks. For instance, giffgaff offers unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 10GB of 5G data for £10/month on their £10 golden goodybag. Alternatively, VOXI (which uses coverage from Vodafone) offers 45GB of data and endless social media data for £10/month. |
| Can I use Tesco Mobile without topping up every month? | Yes. You can use Tesco Mobile on a traditional Pay As You Go basis at 25p/minute, 10p/text and 10p/MB. You can benefit from the triple credit offer when you use Tesco Mobile on traditional Pay As You Go. This gives you £20 of free bonus credit that lasts for one month, when you top-up your phone by £10. |
| What are the Pay As You Go rates on Tesco Mobile? | On Tesco Mobile, the standard Pay As You Go rates are 25p/minute, 10p/text and 10p/MB for mobile data. This is significantly more expensive than other networks. For instance, 1pMobile charges just 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB (coverage from the EE network). Alternatively, ASDA Mobile charges 4p/minute, 4p/text and 4p/MB (coverage from Vodafone). |
| What coverage will I get on Tesco Mobile? | Tesco Mobile offers 99% population coverage on O2’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks in the UK. You can therefore get a Tesco Mobile signal in the same places you can get a signal from O2. You can use Tesco Mobile’s online coverage map to check availability in your area.
Unfortunately, 5G coverage is not currently available to Tesco Mobile Pay As You Go customers. Instead, you’ll need to choose one of Tesco Mobile’s 5G-ready Pay Monthly SIM cards. |
| Can I keep my current phone number? | Yes. Simply ask your current mobile network to provide you with a PAC Code. You can get one through your mobile network’s website or app. Once you’ve done that, you can provide the PAC Code to Tesco Mobile following the instructions on their website. |
More Information
For more information about Tesco Mobile’s Pay As You Go service, please see their official website.
Rach said:
Will a Tesco rocket pack show me my itemised usage on pay as you go?
Bob bighat said:
Tesco mobile is to expensive
MR ROBERT JACKSON said:
I seem to be getting a reduced amount each time I check my tesco payg balance by about 20pence per day. I changed an old phone to a new Alcatel one on Wednesday.
I don’t have an any rocket deals in place
Ken replied:
Hi Robert,
Thanks for your comment. It sounds like the “mobile data” option might be switched on on your phone. This means if your handset has gone out of the range of Wi-Fi, it will connect to 3G or 4G and this will cost you 10p/MB. You can switch off mobile data within the Settings menu on your phone, which will stop your phone from connecting to 3G or 4G data.
Hope this helps,
Ken