EE offers Pay As You Go packs from £5 per month. You’ll also get data rollover & up to 3GB extra data with Free Boosts.

In the UK, EE offers Pay As You Go packs from £5 per month. Available on a 30-day rolling basis, the plans are available with no contract and no credit check. You can also benefit from data rollover, along with a Free Boost every 2 months and a 10% discount on Subscription Packs.

At present, you’ll get 5GB data on EE’s £10 Pay As You Go Pack. This increases to 15GB data for £15, 30GB data for £20, and 100GB data for £30. All of EE’s Pay As You Go packs come with 4G coverage. For access to 5G, you’ll need an EE Pay Monthly SIM card from £15 per month.

In this article, we’ll review EE’s Pay As You Go service including the bundles available and how they compare to other networks. We’ll also look at the coverage available on EE and how you can keep your current phone number when you switch to EE.

Plans From: £5 per month
EE Pay As You Go Packs:
Key Features:
Pay As You Go Rates: 40p/minute
20p/text
Mobile data requires a pack
Coverage:
  • 99% population coverage on 2G, 3G & 4G
  • 5G coverage is not available on EE Pay As You Go

EE Pay As You Go Plans

In the UK, EE currently offers a range of Pay As You Go plans with no contract and no credit check required. You can buy a 30-day Pay As You Go pack from £5 which gives you an inclusive allowance of minutes, texts and mobile data.

If you don’t want to top-up your phone every month, you can also use EE’s Pay As You Go service without buying a pack. Calls will cost 40p/minute and texts will cost 20p each. obile data is only available when you have a pack. For this reason, you’ll probably be better off getting a different SIM card for low usage.

Pay As You Go Packs

Most of EE’s Pay As You Go customers will now choose to buy a Pay As You Go Pack from £5.

Each month, you’ll need to top-up your SIM card with some Pay As You Go credit. This is then exchanged for a 30-day allowance of minutes, texts and 4G mobile data.

There are five different Pay As You Go packs available to choose from on EE:

NetworkMinutesTextsDataMonthly
Cost
EE250500250MB£5.00
EE500Unlimited5GB£10.00
EEUnlimitedUnlimited15GB£15.00
EEUnlimitedUnlimited30GB£20.00
EEUnlimitedUnlimited100GB£30.00

When you visit EE’s website, you won’t be able to choose the £5 pack. However, you can order your SIM card on a different Pay As You Go pack (e.g. the £10 pack), before switching to the £5 pack when you activate the SIM card.

Subscription Packs

You’ll get a 10% discount when you set up monthly card payments on your EE Pay As You Go account. This is also known as ‘Subscribe to Save’.

To give an example, the 5GB Subscription Pack is available for £9 per month (reduced from £10 per month) when you set up automatic monthly card payments.

To take advantage of the Subscription Pack discount, you’ll need to save your payment card details inside your EE account. The payment will then be taken automatically for your pack each month, unless you cancel the automatic renewal. You’ll also benefit from Data Rollover and Data Boosts like other Pay As You Go customers.

Out Of Bundle Charges

Top Up Logo

If you don’t have an active Pay As You Go pack on your account, you’ll pay EE’s standard Pay As You Go rates instead.

At present, EE charges the following rates on Pay As You Go:

Calling Rates:
Voice Calls 40p/minute (any network, any time)
Calls to Voicemail 40p/minute
Calls to Special Rate Numbers 44p/minute access charge
+ service charge from the company you’re calling
Messaging Rates:
Text Message (SMS) 20p
Picture Message (MMS) 40p
Internet Rates:
Mobile Data Not available: a pack is required.

If you’re looking for a Pay As You Go plan where you don’t need to top-up every month, there are far better options out there for light users. For instance, 1pMobile offers 4G & 5G coverage from EE with Pay As You Go rates of just 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB.

EE Pay As You Go Features

Data Rollover

Normally, any unused allowances remaining on your pack will expire along with your bundle. The exception to this is your mobile data allowance which rolls over if you qualify for data rollover.

To qualify for data rollover, you’ll need to renew your Pay As You Go pack within seven days of the previous pack expiring. Only your core data allowance will be rolled over into the following month’s bundle. Your unused data can only be rolled over for one month. In addition, this isn’t possible to roll over your Free Boost allowance.

To give an example, you might have 5GB of unused data remaining on the £15 Pack which comes with 15GB of data. Subject to eligibility, the 5GB of unused data would rollover into the following month. This would give you a total of 20GB data (the original 15GB plus the 5GB of rolled over data).

For more information, see the EE website for further details about how data rollover works.

Free Boosts

If you remain on an EE Pay As You Go Pack costing £10 per month or more, you’ll get a Free Boost every 2 months. The Free Boost will increase your data allowance by 500MB per month.

Your Free Boosts will accumulate every 2 months, until you have a maximum of six Free Boosts on your EE Pay As You Go account. This means you’re able to get a maximum of 3GB of additional data every month (6 x 500MB = 3GB data).

To illustrate, customers on the £10 Pay As You Go Pack will start off with 5GB data per month. This will increase to 5.5GB after two months, 6GB after four months, and so on. Once you’ve been a customer for 12 months, you’ll get a maximum of 8GB data per month. It isn’t possible to earn any more Boosts on top of this but you’ll continue benefiting from the increased allowance for as long as you remain a customer on the plan.

The £5 Pay As You Go Pack isn’t eligible for Free Boosts.

For customers who joined EE Pay As You Go before August 2021, a different system was in place where you’d earn a Free Boost every quarter. According to EE, you can keep these boosts when you move to their latest Pay As You Go plans.

How To Buy & Stop Packs

If you’re an existing EE Pay As You Go customer, the easiest way to buy a Pay As You Go pack is through the My EE website or app.

You can also buy a Pay As You Go pack by texting the relevant shortcode to 150 as follows:

Bundle Name Bundle Code
£5 Pack (with 250MB data) Text PACK05 to 150
£10 Pack (with 5GB data) Text PACK10 to 150
£15 Pack (with 15GB data) Text PACK15 to 150
£20 Pack (with 30GB data) Text PACK20 to 150
£30 Pack (with 100GB data) Text PACK30 to 150

You’ll need to make sure you have a sufficient amount of credit before you buy a Pay As You Go pack. If you aren’t sure how much credit you have remaining on your account, you can check your balance by texting BALANCE to 150. This will also tell you the remaining allowances in your current pack.

To see a reminder of the Pay As You Go packs that are available to you, text ALL PACKS to 150.

If you set up direct card payments with EE, you won’t need to manually purchase your pack. Instead, your pack will be purchased for you automatically each month, with the payment taken from your registered credit card or debit card.

If you’d like to stop the automatic renewal of your EE Pay As You Go pack, text STOP PACK to 150. Alternatively, if you’d like to renew your Pay As You Go pack early, text NOW to 150.

Comparison To Alternatives

In the following section, we’ll compare EE’s Pay As You Go bundles to rival offerings from other mobile networks.

£5 per month bundles

EE’s £5 Pay As You Go pack gives you 250 minutes, 500 texts and 250MB of 4G data. Generally, you’ll get far better value when you purchase a bundle elsewhere (e.g. from ASDA Mobile which uses coverage from Vodafone).

The following table compares EE’s £5 pack to rival offerings on other mobile networks:

NetworkMinutesTextsDataMonthly
Cost
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimitedNo data£4.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited3GB£5.00
EE250500250MB£5.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited2GB£6.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited5GB£7.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited5GB£8.00

£10 per month bundles

10 Pound Note

For £10 per month, EE currently offers a Pay As You Go pack with 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 5GB of data.

On rival mobile networks, you can get a lot more data for £10. For instance, giffgaff offers 20GB data for £10. You’ll also get an extra 1GB data from your third month onwards. giffgaff offers 4G & 5G coverage from O2.

NetworkMinutesTextsDataMonthly
Cost
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited20GB£10.00
VOXIUnlimitedUnlimited15GB£10.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited12GB£10.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited10GB£10.00
VodafoneUnlimitedUnlimited7GB£10.00
EE500Unlimited5GB£10.00

£15 per month bundles

15 Pound Notes

On their £15 Pay As You Go Pack, EE currently offers unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 15GB of data.

The following table shows a comparison of EE’s £15 pack to what is available on other networks:

NetworkMinutesTextsDataMonthly
Cost
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited35GB£15.00
VOXIUnlimitedUnlimited30GB£15.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited25GB£15.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited25GB£15.00
VodafoneUnlimitedUnlimited20GB£15.00
EEUnlimitedUnlimited15GB£15.00

£20 per month bundles

20 Pound Note

EE’s £20 Pay As You Go Pack comes with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 30GB of data.

For a better value alternative, consider giffgaff’s 100GB data plan. This is available for £20 per month and gives you access to 5G coverage on O2.

The following table shows comparable Pay As You Go bundles costing £20/month:

NetworkMinutesTextsDataMonthly
Cost
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
2Mbps max		£20.00
VOXIUnlimitedUnlimited100GB£20.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited100GB£20.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited50GB£20.00
VodafoneUnlimitedUnlimited40GB£20.00
EEUnlimitedUnlimited30GB£20.00

For more information, see our in-depth comparison of the UK’s best value Pay As You Go bundles.

Handsets

There are two ways of joining EE’s Pay As You Go service.

If you’d like a new mobile phone, you can buy one from the EE website. You can get a new Pay As You Go phone for as little as £15, with an minimum top-up of £10 required.

If you already have an unlocked mobile phone that you’re happy to keep, you can simply order a free Pay As You Go SIM card from EE’s website. If your handset is currently locked to another network, you may find it helpful to read our guides on unlocking an iPhone and unlocking a Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Coverage

2G, 3G and 4G Coverage

On EE’s Pay As You Go service, you’ll be able to access 2G, 3G and 4G coverage. At the time of writing, EE offers 99% population coverage and about 85% geographical coverage.

Before joining EE’s Pay As You Go service, we’d recommend double-checking the coverage in your area. You can do this by entering your postcode on EE’s website:

Check EE Coverage (ee.co.uk) →

Unfortunately, 5G coverage is not available to customers on EE’s Pay As You Go service. For alternative options, see our guide to 5G Pay As You Go plans.

If you’re using a compatible smartphone, you’ll also get Wi-Fi Calling and 4G Calling on EE Pay As You Go. WiFi Coverage Boost is also available as long as you’ve topped up by at least £5 in the past 30 days.

For more information, see our EE network & coverage review.

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).

On EE Pay As You Go, you can use tethering and personal hotspot without any restrictions. This means you can share a mobile broadband connection and your data allowance with other devices.

For frequent users of the tethering or personal hotspot feature, other mobile networks like giffgaff may be worth considering as an alternative to EE. For the same monthly price, giffgaff offers a larger data allowance which will normally be more suitable for sharing with other devices.

International Roaming

On EE’s Pay As You Go service, you’re able to use your mobile phone abroad at no extra cost in 48 European destinations. This includes all of the minutes, texts and data from your plan (up to a maximum of 50GB per month).

In July 2021, EE introduced a £2 daily charge for Pay Monthly customers to use their mobile phone in Europe. This £2 per day charge does not apply to Pay As You Go customers who will continue to receive free European roaming.

Outside Europe, it isn’t possible to use your Pay As You Go pack allowances. Instead, additional fees will apply using your mobile phone abroad. You can check the international roaming rates on the EE website.

Keeping Your Phone Number

If you’re switching from another mobile network to EE’s Pay As You Go service, it’s a straightforward process to keep your current phone number. This will save you the hassle of having to telling everyone a brand new phone number.

Start by ordering your SIM card on the EE website. You’ll need to have an EE SIM card before the number transfer can take place. After you order the SIM card, you can then request a PAC Code from your old network.

Once you’ve received the new SIM card from EE, you can head over to this online form. In the form, you’ll be able to submit your PAC Code to EE. Your phone number transfer will then be scheduled, normally for the next working day.

For a step-by-step guide on moving your phone number to EE, please select your current mobile network from the drop down menu below:

PAC Code Finder: Transfer Your Phone Number to EE

Select your current mobile network:

  More Options

Frequently Asked Questions

What bundles & packs are available on EE Pay As You Go?
EE currently offers a choice of five Pay As You Go packs:
  • £5 Pack: 250MB data, 250 minutes & 500 texts
  • £10 Pack: 5GB data, 500 minutes & unlimited texts
  • £15 Pack: 15GB data, unlimited minutes & unlimited texts
  • £20 Pack: 30GB data, unlimited minutes & unlimited texts
  • £30 Pack: 100GB data, unlimited minutes & unlimited texts

The £5 Pay As You Go Pack can’t be selected online. Instead, you’ll need to order a free SIM card on a different plan. When it arrives, you can switch to the £5 pack using the My EE app or by texting PACK05 to 150.
What are the standard Pay As You Go rates on EE?
If you don’t have an active Pay As You Go pack or bundle, you’ll pay EE’s standard Pay As You Go rates of 40p/minute and 20p/text. Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to use 4G mobile data unless you have an active Pay As You Go pack.
What coverage will I get on EE Pay As You Go?
You’ll get 99% population coverage on EE’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks. You can check the availability of coverage in your area by entering your postcode on the EE website.
Is 5G coverage available on EE Pay As You Go?
Unfortunately, it isn’t currently possible to access 5G coverage on EE’s Pay As You Go service. You’ll need an EE Pay Monthly SIM card from £15 per month for access to 5G. Alternatively, there are other mobile networks that also offer 5G SIM-only deals.
Can I keep my current phone number?
Yes. It’s easy keeping your current phone number. Simply ask your current mobile network to provide you with a PAC Code. This can be obtained through your mobile network’s website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075. You should then provide the PAC Code to EE after you order your new Pay As You Go plan.

More Information

For more information about EE’s Pay As You Go service, please see the official EE website.

Your Comments 94 so far

We'd love to hear your thoughts and any questions you may have. So far, we've received 94 comments from readers. You can add your own comment here.

  • Louis said:

    Hi Ken, I am a light user of a EE PAYG sim card. In order to keep the card “active”, I must use it once in a while. Recently, I can only make a call (a charge of 35p a minute), but strangely I can’t send out a text (15 p per message). Is that correct that I must now buy a pack in order to text? Or, the failure of texting is due to a technical issue?

    Thanks.

    Louis

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Louis,
      Thanks for your comment. As far as I know, it should still be possible to send text messages without having a pack. It might be worth double checking the SMS text messaging centre settings on your phone – more info here.
      Ken

  • Daisy said:

    Agreeing with Ten Yen’s observations here. After topping up the minimum of £5 and texting TALK01, I got a reply saying “just so you know, you’re currently on one of our older packs that aren’t available to buy anymore…” I definitely wasn’t informed before and why on earth would I have gotten the “you need £1 credit for you next £1 Talk Pack” prompt this morning if you stopped offering this? There’s no mention anywhere online that this was discontinued either. I am not happy.

  • Ten Yen said:

    Coincidental update? Or has EE silently (at least to my 3xSims on Talk01 (and previously dp1) dropped their 1ukp offering…. anyone else been left in the lurch by this un-announced change?

  • Frans said:

    Hi
    I have a “£15 VIP pack” with EE and am getting an iPhone 12. Will I be able to use 5G with my £15 VIP pack?

    If not what would I need to do to access 5G?

  • Stuart said:

    Hi, I’ve been trying to get a SIM card to enable me to use the PAYG £1 talk and text pack with EE. We already have it on two other phones. EE say I can’t order one from them directly and I have to get one from a supermarket but they only have the Packs starting at £10. Your article mentions the £5 pack which would be an alternative but it isn’t listed on the EE website either nor are they available in supermarkets. Is it just me, am I missing something or don’t they want people to have the low cost options? I definitely didn’t have this problem when I set the others up a couple of years ago. Thanks for the concise article.

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Stuart,
      Thanks for your comment. You’re right in saying that it isn’t possible to order a SIM card that starts with the £5 pack. However, I believe you should be able to add this through the My EE website or app once you have a SIM card from them and some credit on it.
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

  • Aidan said:

    I was wondering if you had a comparison with PAYG tariff – so where data/texts/minutes last until you use your credit. Don’t expire each month like bundles. Think its called 1p mobile at EE but needs a £10 top up every 120 days so can’t be cheapest.

    • Ken replied:

      Hi there,
      Sadly, I don’t think EE offers free top-up bonuses as a standard feature of their service. By all means, however, you could give them a call on 150 and threaten to take your business elsewhere – it’s possible they might decide to offer you a couple of sweeteners if you do this 😉
      Ken

  • Neil said:

    I topped up £20 on 06 June 2019. This entitled me to unlimited texts for 30 days. I have been switched to EE and am now being charged 15p a text. Has the unlimited facility been taken?

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Neil,
      Thanks for your comment. Were you previously using Orange Pay As You Go? If so, I believe the service has now closed and customers have been migrated over to EE. This means the top-up offer you were previously using is unfortunately no longer available 🙁
      Ken

  • Carlo Wingfield said:

    I found EE to be unhelpful and difficult to find someone to talk to .Nothing works in my account ,I can buy no packs or add ons or top up PAYG in my account ,it has been reset but it is no different.
    To top up using the phone takes 10 to 15 minutes ,endless security questions (which I answer correctly) only to be referred to an operator . I think they want every one to be on a contract and make PAYG as difficult and time consuming as possible .

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Judith,
      Many thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, the allowances on EE’s Pay As You Go Packs only work inside the UK & EU. If you’re looking for an alternative deal that includes usage in the US, I recommend having a read of my article on using your smartphone in the US.
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

  • Paul Hulse said:

    I have a tablet and buy a £25 bundle each month. However, I don’t use the 2000 minutes ever. I would like to use these minutes on my galaxy. Both tablet and galaxy were bought at the same time in an EE shop. Is this possible to transfer the minutes and if so, how?

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Paul,
      As far as I know, it isn’t possible to transfer the minutes allowance between two EE SIM cards (however, in some cases you can transfer data between two SIM cards if they’re both linked to the same Pay Monthly account). It could be worth giving EE a call to discuss your requirements, and to see whether they can offer a solution to this?
      Ken

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Audrey,
      Any unused allowances remaining in your pack will expire and will not roll over at the end of the 30 day period. However, if you have any Pay As You Go credit outside of the pack, this won’t be lost when the bundle expires and will still be available for you to use.
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

  • Tim B said:

    The £1 per week Talk and Text pack could work out cheaper than the £5 per month Everything pack. This is because you can get more weekly allowance from the free boosts on Talk and Text compared to the equivalent weekly allowance from the £5 per month Everything pack.

  • Jeremy said:

    Hey Ken – thanks for the nice article with clear conclusions. I didn’t see anything about international use with EE payg sims. If I buy the £15 data pack will I be able to use my data allowance in Spain?
    cheers
    J

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Jeremy,
      Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, EE’s £15 Data Pack will not currently allow you to use your data allowance in Spain. Rather, you’ll need to pay their EU roaming rates. The good news, however, is things will change from the 15th June 2017. After this date, all UK mobile networks will be legally obliged to offer roaming in Europe at no extra charge. At that point, you should be able to use the Data Pack with no problems in Europe.
      Hope this helps!
      Ken

  • Marilyna A said:

    Hi. I was in England for two weeks and bought a SIM AND pay as you go, talk, text, data for £15. Now I am home and want to stop everything. Not just stopping a pack, but stopping whole service. How do I stop it from auto renewing after 30 days? I will be continuing with my usual carrier in Canada. Also Can I lend the SIM to a friend who is going to England in a few months and use it again?
    Thanks for your help!

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Marilyna,
      Hope you enjoyed your trip here in England! 🙂
      Regarding the £15 pack on your EE SIM card, there’s no need to cancel the service on this. After the 30 day pack expires, the SIM card will simply have no money on it (it won’t cost anything to keep the SIM card connected). The SIM card can be reactivated at any time by topping it up with more money (so absolutely fine to lend this to a friend and it will work straight away once they add some money to it).
      The only thing worth being aware of is that your SIM card may be disconnected after 6 months of inactivity.
      Hope this helps!
      Ken

  • Kelly said:

    Hi Ken

    I have EE data £15 pack and renew it all the Time. I often buy data add ons. But if I have 215 data left and my 500 mg just been renewed which will my plan use as I don’t want waste my add on as due run out in few days

  • Unknown said:

    What if I were to use a Black berry booster pack on my iPhone – for 5 pounds you could get 30 days Internet (by texting MONTHWEB2 to 441 on TMobile) but I’m not sure if it would work on iPhones even if they’re of the same network

    • Ken replied:

      Hi there,
      Unfortunately the BlackBerry booster won’t work on the iPhone. The BlackBerry booster is actually designed for older BlackBerry devices (running BlackBerry OS 7 or earlier) that connect to the internet through the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS).
      Ken

  • Andrew Jenkins said:

    Ken,

    Simple question but I’m struggling to find the answer. I picked up a £1 Talk&Text SIM the other day and have registered and topped it up. I have changed the second week to the £1 Data Pack. My question, come the third week will EE renew with another Data Pack or will it always revert back to the Talk&Text (as per the original SIM)?

    I know I could wait a week but I’m impatient 🙂

    Andrew.

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Andrew,
      It will automatically renew the last pack you purchased (so EE will renew your Data Pack automatically)!
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

  • bill jones said:

    I seem to have got a ee voucher instead of an orange one, I was told that it covers orange also but it has a 16 digit code not 12 digit so have not been unable to use it, any advice most welcome thanks.

    • Tim B replied:

      EE top up vouchers can be used with an Orange plan. Just call 450 and follow the prompts and you’ll have the option of entering a 12 or 16 digit voucher code.

  • bill jones said:

    I have a phone on orange new dolphin £10 buys 1gb for 30 days and txts and calls, if I don’t top up after the 30 days I still have the £10. Is the ee tp10 simular or am I cut of if I don’t auto top up.

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Bill,
      Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, there’s a key difference between the EE Pay As You Go Packs and the Dolphin tariff from Orange. With EE’s Pay As You Go packs, your £10 of credit is used up to buy the one-month bundle. With Dolphin, you’ll keep your £10 of credit in addition to the free allowances you receive for 30 days (the 1GB of free data and the 400 free text messages). So if you’re a fairly light user, you’ll be better off staying on Dolphin. For regular users, the Packs from EE could still prove better value (as you’ll get a lot more minutes for your £10 of credit than you would on Orange).
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

    • Ken replied:

      Hi there,
      Thanks for the heads up about this! Looks like they’ve also changed the free data boost from 250MB to 500MB. I’ve updated the article above and included the image which explains how they accumulate 🙂
      Thanks,
      Ken

  • Chas said:

    Hi wonder if you know the answer to this :-

    With my text and web bundle with Vodafone PAYG, I get my allowance ON TOP of my credit, so as long as I don’t exceed my allowance of Texts and browsing, my balance is still the same at the end of the month as it was at the beginning. This means I can then carry on using my £10 top up for normal usage in the next month. With this system, my phone usually goes two months before I need a top up, sometimes longer, making the cost a very reasonable £5ish a month.

    My question is, do all providers work this way, for example if I switched to an EE PAYG bundle, would the allowance be on top of the credit, or not? Some Vodafone bundles, usually those including free minutes, do not give the allowance on top of your credit, so if all the minutes, texts and web are not used up, the £10 is lost.

    Thanks in advance

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Chas,
      Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, the deal from EE works in a very different way to your current deal on Vodafone. With your Text & Web Freebie, you keep the £10 of credit (the texts and data are essentially a free gift as a thank you for topping up).
      With a Pay As You Go bundle like the Packs from EE, you’re actually spending your credit to buy the allowances (you exchange the £10 of credit for a certain number of minutes/texts/data/etc). The ‘Big Value Bundles’ promoted by Vodafone also work in this exact same way.
      Unfortunately, I’m not aware of many other networks that give you a free allowance every time you top-up (Tesco Mobile’s Triple Your Credit offer is kind of similar, as is Three’s free top-up allowance of 150MB).
      Ken

  • Nelgrd said:

    Hi on the £1 packs do you collect another boost every 12 weeks? So for example after 48 weeks would it be possible to have 4 extra boosts on the account? Cant find the answer to this anywhere. Thanks

        • Tim Barrow replied:

          Would I be right in thinking that by week 48 you could either qualify for an extra 4 x 25 = 100 texts, or 4 x 10 = 40 extra mins; or a bit of both: 50 extra texts and 20 extra mins per week on top of the normal 25 mins and 50 texts?That’s after buying a 7 day pack continuously over 48 weeks.

          So would there be a limit to how many boosts a user could qualify for if they stayed on the £1 per week talk and text pack for a long time?

          • Ken replied:

            Hi Tim,
            Yes – I believe so! I’m not sure if there is any limit on how many boosts you can acquire – certainly, I’m not aware of any limits at present.
            Ken

  • Alison said:

    Hi Ken

    I have a spare phone to keep in the car and have just topped it up with £15 credit. However £10 was taken for a 30 day pack which I don’t want. I have managed to stop it from renewing in 30 days time, but is there any way of getting my credit back for this month?

    Many thanks, Alison

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Alison,
      Thanks for your comment. Typically, it’s not possible to cancel a pack once it’s already been purchased and once the money has been taken from your credit. Saying that, I recommend giving EE Customer Services a quick call on 150. If you explain the situation, they may offer to refund the credit to your account.
      Ken

  • Pauline said:

    Our daughter gave us her old iphone as out little Nokia will not hold its charge.We rarely use our phone so we wanted pay as you go but not the daily or monthly one.We got a SIM card from EE to transfer from orange.It is however a SIM card for an everything tarrif.
    How do we change this.Does the sim oblige us to carry on.

  • ronald wiseman said:

    I use the 3 network on contract my friend uses ee payg, if i switch to ee would we get free texts from each other, basicly looking for a cheaper way of texting between us.

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Ronald,
      Unfortunately, EE doesn’t offer any free deals for texting on their network. You can however use the texting allowance on your EE bundle (e.g. the Everything Packs has unlimited texting so you can text any UK number at no extra charge using the allowance). On Three, you can also use the inclusive texts from your contract.
      Ken

  • Bob said:

    I have been on the Dolphin tariff for what seems like for ever, I usually top up at a supermarket check out. However I did it this time on line.

    No problem with the top up BUT I noticed there was a link to change to “new dolphin”.

    I have no idea if it is different/better/worse as I could find no information on their site.

    • Danielle replied:

      If you too up on ee early for yr everything pack will it auto update or will I have to top up on the day to get them …

      • Ken replied:

        Hi Danielle,
        On your anniversary day (when the previous pack expires), EE will try to take the cost of another bundle from your Pay As You Go credit. For this reason, it doesn’t matter if you top up early: you’ll still get the pack as normal.
        Unfortunately, it’s not possible to renew your pack early (you’ll need to wait until the previous pack expires).
        Hope this helps,
        Ken

  • Chris Dickson said:

    Hi Ken

    Brilliant site for the non tech. I am thinking of buying a non sim Doro PhoneEasy 607. I want to use it payg solely for a very small number of calls and texts each month. Can anyone recommend a provider who will cover this? I don’t want a “bundle” which runs out after 30 days, although I was tempted by the EE £1 per week for calls and texts only. But EE don’t accommodate 2g phones. What should I do?!

    Chris Dickson

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Chris,
      Thanks for your feedback and glad you’re finding the website useful! In regards to your last question, EE does support 2G handsets – you can happily use an EE SIM card in a 2G-only phone like the Doro PhoneEasy 607. It’s actually Three that doesn’t support 2G-only handsets: see my article here for more information.
      With regards to the best value deals, it really depends on how you use your handset. The £1/week deal from EE is pretty good, alternatively you could also consider a more classic tariff where you pay for airtime on a per-minute and per-text basis.
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

  • Allan said:

    Dear Ken,

    I will be visiting UK soon and I am looking at getting the EE everthing PAYG bundle pack. Is it possible to purchase it from the local store instead of getting it online or have it posted to a UK address? I can’t find any information on this. Thanks for your help!

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Allan,
      Indeed you can! You can buy a SIM card from EE at any of their retail stores (there are 550 stores dotted across the country). Enter the postcode for your hotel to find the nearest store. Often, you can also find the SIM cards available in a supermarket (typically located somewhere close to the till). If you’re buying from a store, you might need to follow the instructions here to buy an Everything Pack.
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

      • Allan replied:

        Thanks for your reply Ken!
        I was comments on EE Facebook page and it seems like there are tons of complains with regards to their service. Now I am starting to doubt their reliability. Read from else where that Three seems to be one of the most reliable few.

        In your personal opinion, would you recommend I go for Three or EE? I just want to make sure that I have the data and I can make the calls when I need it. Thanks

        • Ken replied:

          Hi Allan,
          Thanks for the feedback! I personally use both Three and EE – not had any major problems with either of the two networks. I think it really depends on where your live – in general, EE probably does have a much better network but there are certain locations where Three will work a lot better.
          Ken

  • barbara said:

    Hi Ken,

    My family are planning to go to UK and France from Jun 20 to Jul4. Do you have a plan that covers both countries? We probably would use more data than phone or text since we like wechat and Skype. Please recommend a plan with rate info. Will there be enough time for you to ship to the US?
    Thanks!

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Barbara,
      The best deal for the UK & France will probably be Three’s Feel At Home SIM card. For £10, you get 500MB of data along with 100 minutes and 3000 texts. For £15, you get 25GB of internet with 300 minutes and 3000 texts. The best thing to do would probably be to buy the SIM card on arrival in the UK.
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

  • Angus Day said:

    I have a T-Mobile PAYG SIM and have been buying monthly 500MB internet boosters. I was able to play Youtube videos on my 2G Nokia 206 phone.

    This month, after reading your reviews of EE PAYG packs, I tried an EE PAYG SIM and bought a £1 1 week data pack. This works OK on internet, but will not play Youtube videos. It attempts to load video, buffers to 60%, stops and then says “no response, try again”.

    The settings configuration file for T-Mobile has web, streaming and access points listed as received. The EE file lists only web and access point. I wonder, therefore, if streaming is allowed.

    I have discussed this with EE on Twitter, and they are unable to suggest a reason. Any ideas, Ken? I dread speaking to customer services after previous experiences!

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Angus,
      Thanks for your comment. I’m not totally sure why this is happening… in theory, EE Pay As You Go should give you the same coverage as T-Mobile Pay As You Go but with the addition of 4G. Streaming is definitely allowed on EE Pay As You Go so this also shouldn’t be a problem with the tariff. It might be worth checking with EE directly to see why this is possibly the case.
      One more thing: I couldn’t quite understand how you could watch YouTube videos on a 2G-only handset? I believe 2G connections are normally too slow to be able to support the streaming of YouTube?
      Ken

      • Angus Day replied:

        Thanks for your comments.

        Regarding the playing of Youtube videos on 2G. (Definitely 2G, as the Nokia 206 is 2G only). It works acceptably well on an EDGE connection using Opera mini browser, which condenses the data before sending it to the phone; image quality is set to LOW and there is occasional buffering. On a GPRS connection, you get the message “insufficient bandwidth”.

        I intend to replace my phone with a 4G model shortly. I’ll try again with that, before approaching EE customer services.

        Regards, Angus

  • Robert Crooks said:

    I have been paying £1’s and £1’s for weeks and weeks and do not receive any boosts for my phone, please look into this its becoming very frustrating, and I need some help immediately. thank you.

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Robert,
      Thanks for your comment. I recommend you contact EE Customer Services on 150: they’re the ones that’ll be able to help you. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to your EE account details (I’m a third-party blogger!) so I wouldn’t be able to check this for you.
      Ken

  • Gary said:

    Hi Ken,
    Thanks for explaining in detail all the various packs & procedures. Very helpful.

    Ian currently PAYG with EE but have stopped topping up my usual £10 for unlimited texts as I want to use my credit up as I am switching to Giffgaff. I have paid EE for 6 month internet booster but I’m looking at a unlimited text booster to ease the speed at which my credit is falling (lost £30 credit from texting in just 18 days!). So I am looking at the EE TTP10 pack for now and shall swiftly add STOP PACK once initiated.

    What I would like to know is, is it possible to keep my current phone number with EE when I switch to Giffgaff ?

    Thanks inadvance.

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Gary,
      Thanks for the comment and really glad you found the article helpful! Before proceeding, it’s worth double-checking whether you’re actually on a T-Mobile plan or an EE plan (I believe the 6 month internet booster for £20 is actually an offer from T-Mobile). If you do find out you’re on T-Mobile rather than EE, see the article here for information about your plan. On T-Mobile, you’ll need to buy one of the Smart Packs (the EE Talk & Text Pack won’t be available).
      To answer your question about transferring a phone number, yep – this is definitely possible! Once you’ve figured out whether you’re on T-Mobile or EE, you can follow one of these step-by-step guides:
      Moving your phone number from EE to giffgaff
      Moving your phone number from T-Mobile to giffgaff
      Hope this helps!
      Ken

      • Gary replied:

        Thanks for your swift reply and for guiding me with the relevant info, Ken. Your help is a blessing my friend, espcially to confused consumers like myself.

        Yes, I am on T-Mobile (& not EE as I stated previously). Must have got confused with all the EE messages I kept receiving. Doesn’t take much to confuse me.

        So glad I can keep my number when I switch to Giffgaff.

        Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with us all via this wonderful website.

        Gary

  • Bill said:

    Hi, thanks for posting a great article. Can you recommend a PAYG sim that does not expire or auto renew like in the old days ?

    I want it for a spare phone for emergencies only. I’m happy to load it with some minimal credit and make an outgoing call or text every 3 – 6 months to keep it active.

    I was looking at the new EE £1 bundles but if you tell EE not to make further debits to your credit card with STOP PACK, I assume the sim will expire after its 7 or 30 days period or will it run and run ?

    thanks

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Bill,
      Thanks for the kind feedback regarding the article! The EE Pay As You Go SIM card won’t expire automatically when you cancel the Pack. Indeed, it remains active providing you use the SIM card at least once every 180 days. When you text STOP PACK, the SIM card reverts to standard Pay As You Go (any money you top-up goes on to the credit, you’ll then be charged 30p/minute and 12p/text whenever you use the handset). For more information, see my guide to credit expiry and account termination.
      Whilst we’re here, it’s worth mentioning there are other mobile networks which charge a bit less (e.g. giffgaff is 10p/minute and 6p/text). You might find they work out better value.
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

  • David Heslop said:

    Hi ken. Any idea when EE 250mb data boost on pay as you go is applied? Do I have to use up my 500mb allowance first before I receive it? Been asking in various EE shops but their staff and those in india are clueless. Help me!

    • Ken replied:

      Hi David,
      Thanks for your comment. You should receive a text message from EE after buying the 30-day pack a total of 3 times. This will tell you how to opt in to receive the 250MB of additional monthly data. If you didn’t get the message, text BOOST to 150. Once opted in, you’ll get the free data for all future pack purchases (e.g. your 500MB allowance will increase to 750MB).
      Hope this helps,
      Ken

  • David Wilson said:

    Hi, just bought iPhone 4S from the Carphone Warehouse, they put me on EE Pay As You Go.
    They are taking £1 per week so I use £10 about every 3 months.
    I texted STOP PACK but they still took another £1. I phoned the free phone number… lady said she didn’t do Pay As You Go and put me through to another lady far far away I suppose!
    Said she had stopped the pack and gave me my £1 back. She wished me a happy Christmas and was gone… I listened to lots of Christmas music, and lost about £4 off my £9 credit. It’s driving me mental. I shall go and hassle the EE shop but I don’t hold out much hope.

  • Ross said:

    On the EE Talk and Text packs can you “opt out” as soon as you have started a (in this case) 7 day period so that it doesn’t renew automatically or will this cancel the 7 day pack which you have just paid for. I only ask because this pack will suit my old Mum occasionally but not every week and I fear she’ll text her code to receive it but forget to opt out at the end of the week and see her credit disappearing even if she’s not using it! If she can opt in and out in quick succession I’m sure she’ll remember! Thanks, Ross

  • Kelvin Willshee said:

    I can’t find an awful lot of information about 0845 numbers and their ilk.

    I am on EE and use their £1 package. It lasts for 7 days and gives me 25 minutes of call time, 50 texts and 10 MB data. The phone is for my 9 year old daughter and I figure it will suffice. Who can’t afford £1 per week?

    I was stung recently however when dialling a 0845 number from the phone. Within a few minutes the call was disconnected and my credit was gone. It seems that 0845 numbers are not included in the £1 pack. I didn’t see that fact mentioned anywhere when I bought the phone and EE sim. I cannot see it mentioned anywhere in any comparison charts of network phone tarrifs. I cannot see it mentioned by you anywhere in this article.

    If a bolt on/pack says 25 minutes call time surely that should mean to any phone. If it doesn’t they should warn customers.

    Charging outside of bolt on packages is awful and must catch so many customers out.

    I would like to see a comparison between all the mobile networks to include their policy / charges relating to 01,02,03,08 numbers.

    Thanks

  • John said:

    In the ‘How To Buy A Pack’ section above you have the wrong code for the EE £10 Talk & Text Pack – it should read Text TTP10 to 150

  • Andy said:

    Hi,

    First a thank you for a very useful site.

    I have become increasingly disillusioned with T-Mobile – they have become less and less competitive since I joined them. I have been with them since I bought my first smartphone – the T-Mobile (HTC) G1. When I bought it, it came with 3GB of data on a £10 tariff. I think this was a special for Android phones.

    I have since renewed my contract with them twice and each time it seems to have been worse value. May last “upgrade” process found me on a £17/month tariff and 750MB data allowance. I was told that once I reached the allowance I would no longer be able to download and stream but would still be able to browse and email – fine with me (though frustratingly worse value for money than before). For several months I remained within the allowance. Then a couple of months ago I exceeded the allowance and received a txt saying I could only brows and email – fine by me. But last month I exceeded my allowance and I could only continue to use data by adding a free 250MB booster. Not really a major issue – it’s free and it got me to the end of the month. But it’s not what I signed up for and it’s just the latest in a gradual erosion of the value I used to get from T-Mobile. Is this a typical story?

    I’ve now decided that my next phone will probably be a Nexus + a SIM only deal maybe with GiffGaff or 3.

    Cheers,
    Andy

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Andy,

      Thanks for the comment! I think the main problem is your contract changing when you upgrade your phone – you’re signing a brand new contract so you come under the new terms and conditions after renewing (they tempt you away with shiny new devices!). I’ve had a T-Mobile account for almost four years now and managed to keep the 3GB of data. According to T-Mobile, I should still be using a HTC Desire but in reality the phone has changed several times since! I’ve upgraded my phone by buying SIM-free rather than by upgrading via the contract. Similarly, I know of a few friends who still have legacy “Unlimited” data plans from O2 – again they’ve done the same by buying a Pay As You Go or SIM free handset.

      As you say, giffgaff and Three now offer some pretty good deals so hopefully you can find something suitable!

      Ken

      • Andy replied:

        Thanks for the tips. I should have done as you did and left the data plan untouched. Ah well – lesson learned!

        And thanks again for a great resource.

        • Chris replied:

          I just renewed my old contract with t-mobile (originally an HTC Desire that came with a 3GB data allowance), but they still reduced my allowance down to 750MB without ever informing me. When I queried my allowance, they would never give me a straight answer.

          I agree with Andy, before they became part of EE I found they offered reasonable value for money and I always received good customer service. I am still with t-mobile but on a sim only 1 month contract, but I feel that they now offer much less value for money and customer service is poor with long waits to talk to anyone.

          In my view, Three currently offer much better value with their free calls to 0800, ‘feel at home’ roaming etc. From what I have read, their CS seems a bit variable though.

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