By iD Mobile offers low-cost mobile phone deals with 5G coverage, data rollover & inclusive roaming in 50 destinations.
In the UK, iD Mobile offers low-cost mobile phone deals with 4G & 5G coverage from Three. It’s part of the Currys Mobile group, alongside the Carphone Warehouse and Mobiles.co.uk. It was set up in 2015 as their own-brand budget-orientated mobile network.
In this article, we’ll review the iD Mobile network, including the plans available and the features included. We’ll also look at the coverage available on iD Mobile and how you can keep your current phone number when switching to iD.
| Plans From: | £6 per month |
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| Best Deal: | 110GB data for £10 per month |
| Inclusive Features: |
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| Unlimited Data: | From £15 per month |
| Coverage: | 4G & 5G coverage from Three Check postcode |
| Available From: |
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Contents
iD Mobile Plans & Bundles
In the UK, iD Mobile currently offers three types of price plan:
- SIM Only Deals: Get a SIM card for your existing mobile phone from only £6/month. You can choose from a range of 1-month, 12-month and 24-month plans.
- Pay Monthly Phones: Get a brand new mobile phone on a 24-month contract.
- Pay As You Go SIM: Get an iD Mobile Pay As You Go SIM card with no contract and no credit check from £6/month.
SIM Only Deals
If you already have a mobile phone that you’re happy to keep, you can get one of iD Mobile’s SIM-only deals from £6 per month. This is a low-cost SIM card that you can put inside your mobile phone to get unlimited UK minutes, unlimited UK texts and an allowance of 5G mobile data.
In general, the best value deals are available when you take a 12-month contract on iD Mobile. For instance, you can currently get 90GB data for £10 per month on a 12-month contract from iD.
The following table shows the best 12 month SIM-only deals from iD Mobile:
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10GB data | £6.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
| 25GB data | £7.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
| 50GB data | £8.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
| 63GB data | £9.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
| 90GB data | £10.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
| 90GB data | £10.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
| 175GB data | £12.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
| 250GB data | £14.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
| Unlimited data | £16.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
For additional flexibility, consider one of iD Mobile’s one-month rolling plans. With a one-month rolling plan, you’ll have a lot more flexibility to change or cancel your plan when required. However, you’ll get slightly reduced allowances compared to a 12-month plan. For instance, you’ll currently get 110GB data for £10 per month on a 1-month rolling contract from iD Mobile:
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20GB data | £6.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
| 40GB data | £7.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
| 60GB data | £8.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
| 110GB data | £10.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
| 110GB data | £10.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
| 150GB data | £12.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
| 150GB data | £12.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
| 250GB data | £14.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
| Unlimited data | £15.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
If you’re looking for an unlimited data plan, iD Mobile has a £15 unlimited data plan (1 month contract):
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited data | £15.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
You’ll need to undergo a credit check when you take a SIM-only deal from iD Mobile. If you’re looking for a SIM-only deal without the need for a credit check, you can consider alternative networks such as giffgaff, SMARTY and VOXI. Alternatively, iD Mobile offers Pay As You Go SIM cards with no credit check required.
Pay Monthly Phones
If you’d like to buy a new smartphone, you can get one on a 24-month iD Mobile contract. These contracts are sold directly on the iD Mobile website as well as through the Carphone Warehouse, e2save and Mobiles.co.uk.
You can get a handset from a range of manufacturers including Apple, Samsung, Google, Honor, Motorola, Oppo, Sony and Xiaomi.
Before ordering, it’s worth comparing the prices available across the multiple websites that sell iD Mobile contracts. For instance, e2save and Mobiles.co.uk sometimes offer slightly lower prices than those available on the Carphone Warehouse website.
A full list of available handsets can be found on the iD Mobile website. You can then compare this to the prices available on the Carphone Warehouse, e2save and Mobiles.co.uk websites.
Pay As You Go SIM
For customers not wanting the hassle of a credit check, iD Mobile also offers Pay As You Go SIM cards.
On iD Mobile’s Pay As You Go service, you can choose from the following Pay As You Go bundles from £6 per month:
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB data | £6.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 4GB data | £8.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 6GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 20GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| Unlimited data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
In general, you’re far better off choosing a one-month rolling contract as this will give you much better value for money than on Pay As You Go. For instance, you can get 110GB data for £10 per month on a 1-month rolling contract. This compares to the 6GB data for £10 per month on iD Pay As You Go.
For more information, see our full guide to the UK’s best Pay As You Go SIM card deals.
Features
Data Rollover
All of iD Mobile’s SIM-only deals and Pay Monthly plans include a data rollover feature. This gives you a bit more flexibility in how you can use your data, as unused data can rollover into the following month’s allowance.
To give an example, if you have 1.2GB of unused data remaining on a 4GB plan, the unused 1.2GB will be rolled over into the following month’s allowance. This would give you a total of 5.2GB of data to use the following month (the original 4GB data plus the 1.2GB of rolled-over data). Your rolled-over data will always be used first, and data can only be rolled-over for a maximum of one month.
Data rollover is not available on iD Mobile Pay As You Go.
Inclusive Roaming in 50 Destinations
On iD Mobile, you can use your mobile phone abroad in a total of 50 destinations at no extra cost. This includes the 46 EU/EEA destinations, plus four further Eurasian destinations.
EU & EEA inclusive roaming destinations:
- Austria
- Azores
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Canary Islands
- Croatia
- Cyprus (South)
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- French Guiana
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guadeloupe
- Guernsey
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Italy
- Jersey
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Madeira
- Malta
- Martinique
- Monaco
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Reunion
- Romania
- Saint Barthelemy
- Saint-Martin
- San Marino
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Vatican City
Other inclusive roaming destinations:
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Macedonia
- Kazakhstan
The inclusion of these four additional destinations is fairly unique to iD Mobile and allows them to advertise a higher number of inclusive destinations for roaming. However, we suspect few people are planning to travel to those places so the extra destinations may be of limited use in practice.
For more information about iD Mobile’s inclusive roaming feature, please see the iD Mobile website.
Unlimited Data Plans
If you’re looking for an unlimited data SIM card, you can choose from the following unlimited data plans from £15 per month on iD Mobile:
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited data | £15.00 per month 1 month contract | See deal |
| Unlimited data | £15.00 per month 24 month contract | See deal |
| Unlimited data | £16.00 per month 12 month contract | See deal |
You’ll get access to Three’s 4G and 5G network on this plan, with no hidden fair usage limits. See our guide to the UK’s best unlimited data plans for further information.
Network & Coverage
4G & 5G Coverage from Three
In the UK, customers on the iD Mobile network will have access to 4G and 5G coverage from Three. You can expect 99% population coverage on 4G and 54% population coverage on 5G (subject to you having a 5G-ready phone).
Before you order an iD Mobile SIM card or phone, it’s strongly recommended that you check the coverage in your area. You can do this by entering your postcode on the iD Mobile website:
Check iD Mobile coverage (idmobile.co.uk) →
You’ll also get Wi-Fi Calling and 4G Calling on compatible devices. There’s more information about this on the iD Mobile website.
Tethering & Personal Hotspot
Tethering or personal hotspot refers to the process of sharing your smartphone’s internet connection with other devices (e.g. with your laptop or tablet). It’s a good way of getting a mobile broadband connection on your other devices.
iD Mobile now allows tethering and personal hotspot on all of their plans. This is confirmed in their FAQs:
Can I tether on iD Mobile?
You can tether on iD Mobile, but please be warned – it can use up a lot of data very quickly and can work out to be very costly if you don’t take the right precautions (see the below FAQ for more details).How much does tethering cost?
It takes a lot more data to do things on a laptop than on a phone, even if you’re just playing games or streaming videos. So, if you’re using your network connection to tether, you’ll use up more data than you might think.
Until the end of 2018, tethering was not permitted by iD Mobile’s terms and conditions. Nowadays, there shouldn’t be any restrictions on tethering (even though it’s discouraged in the iD Mobile FAQs).
International Coverage
iD Mobile offers an international roaming service so customers can use their mobile phone when travelling abroad to other countries.
When you travel to other EU & EEA destinations, you can use your UK plan allowances at no extra charge when you’re there (subject to iD Mobile’s open data fair usage policy). In addition, you can use your normal UK allowances when you travelling to Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Macedonia.
If you’re travelling further afield (e.g. to the USA, Canada, Turkey or Dubai), it can cost you a lot more to use your iD Mobile SIM card whilst you’re there. There’s detailed information about the international roaming charges on the iD Mobile website.
Keeping Your Phone Number
If you’re switching from another mobile network to iD Mobile, it’s a straightforward process keeping your current phone number.
Start off by getting a PAC Code from your old mobile network. You can get one through your mobile network’s website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075. It’s always free obtaining a PAC Code and you should be sent one within 60 seconds of your request.
Once you have the PAC Code from your old mobile network, you can order your new SIM card or phone from the iD Mobile website. Alternatively, you can get it from the Carphone Warehouse, e2save or Mobiles.co.uk.
When your new phone or SIM card arrives from iD Mobile, you’ll initially be given a temporary phone number. You can use this to test out the service. Once you’re happy to move your phone number over, submit your PAC Code through the iD Mobile website. Your phone number transfer will then normally take place on the next working day.
For step-by-step instructions on how to move your phone number to iD Mobile, please select your current mobile network from the drop-down menu below:
Frequently Asked Questions
| What is iD Mobile and what plans do they offer? | In the UK, iD Mobile is the own-brand mobile network from the Carphone Warehouse. They offer 4G & 5G coverage from Three on the following types of plan:
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|---|---|
| Does iD Mobile offer Pay As You Go? | Yes. iD Mobile currently offers a choice of Pay As You Go plans from £6 per month. However, you’re far better off getting a one-month rolling contract instead (as long as you’re happy to go through a credit check). For instance, you can get 110GB data for £10 per month on a 1-month rolling contract. This compares to the 6GB data for £10 per month on iD’s Pay As You Go service. |
| What coverage will I get on iD Mobile? | You’ll get 99% population coverage on 4G, piggybacking on Three’s mobile network for coverage. 5G coverage is also available to around 53% of the UK’s population. |
| Can I keep my current phone number? | Yes. It’s a straightforward process keeping your current phone number when you switch to iD Mobile. 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. Once you’ve done this, you can provide the PAC Code to iD, either when you sign up for the service or once you’ve activated your SIM card.
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More Information
For more information about iD Mobile, please see their official website. It’s also worth checking the Carphone Warehouse, e2save and Mobiles.co.uk websites as they also stock products from iD Mobile.
Anand said:
Does iD Mobile also uses CGNAT like SMARTY do? I couldn’t use SMARTY to connect my work laptop with my work VPN due to the frequent IP address changed.
Would that be the case with iD Mobile too?
Paul matthews said:
I been trying to ring this company up now for about a week and I still can’t get through to them so if and when I do I am going to cancel my phone Contract whit them
L.ford said:
Why has the I.d 3.99 sim only not available now, 20.07.2019
Ken replied:
Hi there,
Sadly, the £3.99 tariff was withdrawn from sale by iD Mobile last week 🙁
Ken
Sonia said:
Been charged for incoming texts off family and friends whilst in Turkey at 60p a text and Id are saying this is correct, so been charged overall £16.20 for friends and family to text me, ludicrous and cannot find anywhere that whilst outside the eu incoming texts from family and friends are chargeable.
Now at ombudsmen stage and looking forward to ditching my contract after this fiasco.
Check your bills when you have been outside the EU.
Ken replied:
Hi Sonia,
Sorry to hear about the unexpected charges you’ve encountered on iD Mobile. I’m only aware of a fee for outgoing text messages – I don’t believe there should be a fee for receiving a text (as you don’t have the option of whether to accept the message). Is the fee definitely for receiving a SMS message, rather than something else (e.g. voicemail or roaming data)?
Ken
Sadhana said:
Hi
Honestly speaking I wouldn’t recommend ID mobile to any of my friends or family because of what they did with my credit rating.i quit ID in a matter of few months as I was not happy from day 1 of receiving the pay as you go sim. The customer service is bad and if u do not set a direct debit you had it. The worse nightmare I had was recently when I applied for a credit report and noticed it to be bad the reason being because of ID mobile , when went into the matter found out that I was in credit with them £3.50. When asked why my credit report shows me to be at default they said it will be cleared after 30 days.When checked again on the 1st October 2017 it’s still the same. Imagine how anyone would feel if that’s done to them.No matter how many times u call them it’s like talking to a deaf person.Ive lived in the Uk for 11 years & never had such an experience or such a bad credit rating. Please don’t be fooled with their low cost or whatever they offer you stay away from getting trapped by them
Andrew said:
If using idmobile as pay as you go then you must top up at least once a year
“12.4 Unless an additional Top-Up has been made, any unused Credit will expire after a period of 365 days from the date of purchase and unused allowances will expire as specified and this is non-refundable.”
Stephen worthington said:
Avoid this company at all costs. I took out a sim at carphone warehouse for my son. I phoned to cancel and they said I needed to pay the outstanding balance before I cancel. After paying the balance I hung up. I then received a bill 2 months later for £20 despite never using the phone. They are still saying I need to pay despite agreeing that I did phone to cancel.
Every time I phone it takes about 30 minutes. I get through quickly but then they put me to a different department, etc. Every time you have to give your details again. And of course it is not free because I no longer have the phone.
They have now put me in touch with a debt recovery company despite being still in discussion about clearing the balance. This has also coincided with my receiving a deluge of spam texts and emails about loans and credit cards. They have obviously sold my details to a marketing company.
Geraldine Armstrong said:
If anyone is thinking of using this network to use abroad think again. I took out a take away contract so l could use my phone in France and Spain but it did not work and left me with a phone that l could not use for 6 weeks. l rang customer services 3 times but it never got sorted out. I have since cancelled my contract, but never received an explanation or apology for the inconvenience caused.
peter said:
CUSTOMER SERVICE NEVER AVAILABLE!!! ID mobile is such a disappointment. I ordered an id mobile sim coz it was cheap, but then it turned out to be a disaster. After 3 weeks I used up all my usage and it can’t upgrade. I tried to contact their customer service but nobody ever bothered to pick up the phone, so I left id mobile. But they still charge for all kinds of fees. I refused to pay these unreasonable fees, so they sent a credit link recover company ask me fees all day. And try to threaten me by dropping my credit score. This is the WORST MOBILE COMPANY ever used. DO NOT USE IT.
Dan said:
Everyone seems to be having a bad experience but…
I have been with ID since pretty much the start (about 14 months now), so has my wife and two of my work colleagues and none of us have had any major issues.
I had to speak to customer services a few months back and although it took me explaining the situation about 5 times before the guy in the other end of the phone got what I was saying, he at least sorted out my issue once he understood.
Other than that it’s been great. I am on the Shockproof SIM only plan (4gb data, 500 mins and 5000 texts) and for a tenner a month I really can’t complain. I have never gone over my allowances so have never received and unexpected charges. The signal quality and availability is fine in Liverpool where I live and the android app is quite good too.
I have previously been with Vodafone (never again) and Tesco Mobile (alright) but have so far been happy with ID.
I have probably just jinxed it haven’t I 🙁
KC said:
Worst and most useless customer services ever…..for absolutely anything and everything asked of them!
They messed up the porting of my number so I couldn’t receive any calls. Quoted 3 to 5 days to fix?? After 5 days and another call to in to them, they changed it to working days…..so a week then! Then after 7 days and the problem was still unresolved, they quoted another 3 to 5 days as the issue had to be pushed to ‘another team’ as ‘technical’ couldn’t fix the issue?? I ended up getting another sim from a different supplier and told ID Mobile to cancel my contract and asked for confirmation in writing (as others have had issues with this) but that hasn’t been forthcoming. Been told verbally that my contract is cancelled and I owe nothing BUT then I receive texts telling me my direct debit is set to leave my account on such and such a day??
They are the worst company I’ve ever had the mispleasure to deal with. Don’t be sold by the deals on offer……it’s just not worth it. I was lucky enough to only have a rolling month sim contract but I’ve now lost my number dealing with these morons. If I was tied in for 2 years, I’m not sure what I would have done!!
ged said:
seem to good to be true, I fell for it, says data rolls over it doesn’t its a SCAM they say all the nice things but don’t tell you about the hidden clauses, then they want to charge you extra for them to do it. AVOID AVOID.
Bimal said:
Don’t even bother to look at the deals! It’s all there to lure you!! Customer service is horrible!! Is any of them know what they are doing? Please go for similar ones somewhere else!!
Andy said:
I’ve had ID’s £5/month Shockproof deal for maybe 6 months now, and while the 4g coverage isn’t as good as BT I’ve never had any problems with ID at all. My PAC code change went through in 3 days, and billing is fine. I like the app and have 1.5gb data for £5/month. No problems.
Sara said:
Beware, ID offer you a sim deal and then deny all knowledge of it. I purchased a sim when there was a double data deal but they denied all knowledge of it. They said they would investigate but no one ever got back to me. I tried to cancel my sim but of course they didn’t do it and denied I ever cancelled it. They said they would go back and listen to the call and someone would call me back. Again no call back. I have called again today and they said they will cancel my sim but I won’t hold my breath. They just keep taking my money for a sim that I don’t want and haven’t even used.
They are cheaper than the large mobile providers for a reason, they are awful. Customer services are useless too. I am so please that I didn’t sign up for a 12 month contract.
Reading the review, it looks like no one has anything good to say about ID Mobile.
JAMAL said:
ID is horrible, worse provider I ever been on. I took a monthly £5 contract Sim only as they providing 1.5GB of data and 250 min free. But every month they were taking £10, £12 and sometime £14. I was furious and I made enquiry why my bills double suddenly. ID mobile told me I subscribe to some premium txt message which I had no knowledge of. I asked for refund which they never paid me back when I wanted to cancel my contract by giving by giving 30 days notice I found my contract was still running and direct debit the amount of £15 £20 was being taken out from my account. So I stopped the direct debit through my bank. IB mobile then threaten me via email to put the direct debit back as it was before. I informed them I already gave notice to you and you still continue my contract. So I was not going to put ID mobile back on the direct debit. I then receive a final bill through the post the amount of £12 in which I ignored. Two month later I received a letter from Creditlink Account Recovery Solutions a Debt Collection Agency that ID mobile refer to claim back the money. I then decided to pay the remaining money. The IDmobile are the biggest are scammers.
Claire Armstrong said:
absolutely terrible network had more problems with zero help from customer service it needs banning. I’m handing my phone in to carphone warehouse tomorrow after one week couldn’t use Internet. couldn’t use it in Spain on holiday. and couldn’t set up the id app without problems. customer service are s*** as well…. angry is not the word. now I can’t make calls or text off it as it’s saying no service… WHAT!!!!! 😠😠😠
Ben said:
Never go with ID Mobile. I had a contract on a Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 and after 4 days they disconnected me for no-reason and the customer service is awful. They just put the phone down!
James Marshall said:
Be warned iD mobile has to be the worst possible mobile company to deal with in my experience. Having taken a SIM only contract for 4g service clearly described as a strong signal in my area at the time the coverage was barely available in my house, 3g was almost unusable and consequently at the end of each month I had 490+ of 500 minutes still unused because I couldn’t use my phone at home where it was most needed. Their coverage map has subsequently shrunk its 4g coverage in my area so I’m no longer in it. I am currently trying to terminate my contract without having to pay the penalty – I’ve already paid for 6 months service they can’t deliver.
Their customer service is appalling – I’ve spent hours on the phone with their operatives, I’ve had my phone checked by Carphone Warehouse at their insistance – no probs – and my case keeps being passed to a ‘senior manager’ none of whom respond. Today they suspended my service for non-payment of my latest bill and someone is DEFINITELY going to call me back today! I’m not holding my breath!
Gemma said:
So disappointed with ID mobile. I got the phone as a present for my mum and it has turned into a nightmare! Firstly I have tried to cap the bill which they won’t do???? Then there is the issue of signal! I caught my mum using her old pay as you go phone and asked her if she didn’t like the new iphone and it turned out it’s just the signal is so bad she’s having to use both!
The there’s the bill! When you’re out of data it will let you continue to use the data until you reach a bill limit. Guess how much the data is???? £50 per 50mb yes that’s right £50 per 50mb!!!! When you reach the account spend limit for data (which they set – or I’d set it for zero) it then won’t allow you to use any minutes or any texts until your next bill.
You can add a bolt on for £7 for 1GB of data but even if you do that and then go over that the £50 charge per 50mb applies. The charge for data is nothing short of daylight robbery.
Avoid until they sort themselves out and stick with one of the main operators – I prefer 02
Sean said:
I consider myself one of the earliest customers of the iD mobile network but sadly, this is an organisation that is not outward looking and I predict will not last long! I complained about poor network coverage, unreliable internet service and the most inept customer service but all to no avail. I am told the coverage in my area is superb and yet most of the day I can neither receive nor make calls, using the internet itself is even a luxury. I will certainly not be recommending this product to anybody. Yes it might be relatively cheap but the catastrophic poor user experience outweighs that cost deficit. I will migrate as soon as my contract is up; Thank you very much!!!
James Marshall replied:
Hi Sean – see my comment posted this afternoon – you have my total sympathy
Sean replied:
Apparently iD mobile is now trying to shortchange subscribers! Be vigilant folks… if you had their contract with unlimited browsing data at £20, they are capping that at 10GB with no forewarning or reduction in the tariff which is sheer robbery. If you are not happy with their new deal, the alternative is to ask you to cancel so that when you try taking their contract again, then you will automatically be placed on what they offer. iD cannot change their service midway without compensating the customer. I am so angry and will be notifying trading standards. To be honest, I did not find anything exciting about this network; poor! Poor!! Poor!!! From coverage to customer service!!!! I have compared other networks offering just about the same cost albeit a little less data. But at least I can be rest assured I can make/receive calls, browse and text and not waiting for the network to fall in and out of service. I will much rather switch. iD is ill-prepared for business and I do not foresee any future in their business.
Richard said:
Friends, I am also having infuriating problems with iD — like my TakeAway plan never worked with data, in Poland, Spain, and France. Their customer service is dreadful.
How much did it cost any of you who cancelled early to terminate your contract? I have 13 months left of a 24-month contract, and I am worried they will charge me £100s to quit! But honestly, they are deceiving. I expect Three’s data signal is much better anyway. The 4G network is practically non-existent for city centre Leicester indoors. Awful awful.
Fioanu said:
Don’t do it. I had their largest data only plan. The moment I went over it rather than blocking it or allowing me to refresh the package they slapped a £100 charge and took it straight from my bank account. They will rip you off the moment you go over your paltry data limit.
Use a provider that provides unlimited data so you don’t get these criminal charges – GiffGaff do £20 unlimited so no shocks or penalties and they are truly one month at a time so don’t require 30 days notice for termination on a supposedly monthly rolling contract!
Joan Wardhaugh said:
Well here I am again, fighting my corner with ID. Still no reception at all, wrote to the Southampton address, recorded delivery on the 23rd March 2016. Still waiting for a reply!! Rang and Emailed ID so many times without a result. Unfortunately I was conned into a contract (first & last ever).
All I get from them is the Tech guys are looking into it, must be star gazing because I’m still without a signal, have a phone I can’t use. Phone calls go to Voice Box, can’t pick them up as there is “a No Network Available” message. Same with internet etc.
Giving them one last chance to sort by sending for a Deadlock Letter if it’s not sorted within two weeks. Just hoping for some communication from the UK instead of Africa. Not sure which way to approach this now.
Nicola said:
Thought I’d give ID mobile a try after I unsuccessfully tried TPO 1st. As nice as it is knowing you’re helping a charity, I had no signal and no internet most of the time. Took them 4 days to transfer my number. Calling customer service took between 10 minutes and 1 hour.
Got my ID mobile sim and the difference was huge. No problem with signal or internet so far. Entered PAC code on app in the evening and they transferred my number by the next morning. Called customer services once as the instructions said it would give a transfer date but it didn’t, they answered my call quickly and my question.
I can only imagine that either the previous problems others have encountered have been ironed out or I’ve just been really lucky so far!
Joan Wardhaugh said:
Dealing with CPW at the moment due to no service from ID on my mobile. Have been into CPW in Newcastle countless times and I am still no further forward. If I travel 4 miles I get service, back home none. Because I have reception when I am in the shop, not interested. Finally found out Samsung mobile had a fault, great left it for repair, got replacement while phone was fixed. Same problem again no service in my area. Requested new SIM, same problem, no service.
CPW rang ID on my behalf Saturday 12 March and told me the technicians would test everything out and if I rang them 24 hours later they would let me know what was happening and if I could cancel my contract through lack of service. Gave me no reason except that engineers might be working in area and it could be OK in a period of time!! Given two differing dates re engineers sorting this out! What period of time I ask. Silence.
Then they refer me back to CPW saying as they sold me phone and contract they would have to deal with it. Going in this afternoon. Watch this Space. Bearing in mind I have been back and forward to this store countless time with any progress becoming a little annoyed. I don’t usually play the age game but I’m 80 years old and it isn’t doing my stress level any good. No one wants responsibility and meantime I’m phoneless.
ChrisK replied:
Joan, this could be your problem, if there is no network coverage at your home it does not matter how good or bad the networks customer service is or how good your phone is you’re not going to be able to use your phone and this can happen no matter what network you use.
Here is a solution for you and can tell you what networks cover your home area.
Put your post code in the form and select the network that covers your home (using the indoors button will be best) then try another network until you find the best one for you.
http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/check-coverage/
ChrisK replied:
Just to add, IDmobile uses the Three network so start with that one first to see if it works at your home.
David D said:
Just had 10-day nightmare with ID. They cancelled my first order for a Samsung S6 saying my credit rating was faulty. I signed up to both Experian and Equifax, the credit check companies to say they use and confirmed I have an excellent rating across the board and that ID had done no checks. I reordered, but then battled for the next week to find out what was happening. The first admitted they had done no checks, then insisted they had (despite my having Experian and Equifax reports open in front of me saying they hadn’t). All calls to customer service had the same result: we can’t access sales information! Promised return calls never happened. Successive emails uncovered no further explanation. They can’t or wan’t put you through to anyone who can deal with complains. One bloke, who claimed to be a senior customer services rep simply said – very discourteously – to all my questions that he either didn’t know or couldn’t find out or that getting access to information on my application was impossible.
Their website promises next day delivery and throughout my dealings with them, the deal remained on line and showed available stock of the S6. But basically, I don’t think they wanted to sell it me at the price.
Totally frustrating and time wasting: i have now emailed Carphone Warehouse Managing director, but I don’t suppose I will get the courtesy of a reply. I would not recommend ID even to my enemies and certainly not my friends.
Robert said:
Like most people are saying, iDMobile are awful. I made a huge mistake by going with iD Mobile. There are REGULAR problems with both their website and mobile app. They don’t have very basic features, such as an itemisation of the calls you have made in the currently billing month.
I have had so many problems, it’d take me half an hour to list them all. It has meant I’ve wasted hours of my time and lost money being charged for calls that should have been included as I’d bought a top-up to my monthly minutes etc. etc.
The customer service is abysmal. It is outsourced to Africa and the staff are mediocre.
iD Mobile is part of Carphone Warehouse and Carephone Warehouse’s own branch staff have complained to me saying they are fed up with problems with iD Mobile and that they are tearing their hair out. That proves how bad this network is.
ChrisK replied:
Joined ID the turn of this year and like you say there is or was no itemised billing however this may have been something that has changed the past month or so because I sent an e-mail to their customer services and within two hours I had itemised billing that are downloaded in PDF form.
Perhaps it’s not available by default but it can be had for free by request for sure and e-mail contact with them was more or less instant for me.
Mike replied:
I’m looking for itemised billing at low cost. What iD package did you have to obtain the PDF files, and could you get them each month online after you requested, or did you have to email iD each time?
ChrisK replied:
HI Mike
I have a £5 package giving 250 min, 5,000 and 500Mb of data.
The itemised billing did not show up when I opened the account but I sent a email to ID support and they added it in. It’s Pdf form and shows what you used including incoming and out going calls from the previous month but no live usage data.
ChrisK replied:
Just to add to your question, no there’s no need to request a Pdf every month as once its set up its there to down load at the end of the month.
Mike replied:
Thanks Chris, that answers my question. Since then I have discovered that LIFE and Delight also offer itemised billing on PAYG. It’s possible Ken will have a page shortly with all the suppliers offering itemised billing. It would be great to see a big matrix style table with all the secondary ‘features’ listed for each supplier; e.g. tethering, itemised billing, underlying network, etc. etc. Then we could quickly spot the supplier with all the features we want.
Joe said:
Got an iD sim only deal over Christmas – 250mins, 1GB data and unlimited texts for £5.
Porting from Sainsburys took a few days longer than expected. Other than that, running fine with 4G or 3G in most places, even got 2G in the countryside.
Customer services aren’t the easiest to understand, they sound South African with strong accents but pleasent enough.
Duke said:
Once you sign up with ID you cant change your tariff. So beware.
Reception is ok but not as good as Three which is surprising as ID use the Three network I believe.
To sum up, I wouldn’t go with ID again.
Gerry said:
ID Mobile sell themselves as having 4G, well what a laugh that is as my 4G signal is worse than the 3G signal. When I was with Tesco I would get 10mbps speed on 3G, I only get half of that with 4G on ID Mobile.
Avoid.
Sandra said:
I have taken a 2 year contract with ID. unfortunately was away when the 14 day cooling off expired or would have cancelled it. Not happy in any respect, and now very nervous of this company, bad UK coverage and they have charged me 2 pounds for dialling an unrecognised number! wished I had stayed with o2 on pay as you go, I think this network will be a milking machine. Disgruntled Sandra .
Evil Prince said:
Dreadful, truly dreadful. I never had any problems with my old network. Carphone Warehouse has completely stitched me up with I.D. If Carphone Warehouse offer you this network run away people, run away run and hide
Ewen said:
I would advise against taking out a contract with iD. I took a contract with them, the phone arriving two days late. All was fine for a few weeks and then the sim was damaged, my fault, and now over two weeks later i am still waiting for a replacement. If ever I get this sorted out I will never deal with them again.
Jon said:
These guys did a great job of getting the word out there, tons of sites carried the same “impartial” review and said how great they were.
I purchased a MotoG for my daughter on the “Go To” plan and tried to set up a limit, being told that “Go To” plans can’t have a limit set on them!… So while they say they are trying to shake up the industry and be productive, they are instead being quite underhanded.
Finding information on the difference between all of the tariffs is a bit like pulling your own teeth while in the dark and half drunk… Your not going to end up with something good. They don’t list what the overage charges are in a easy to find way (if at all)…
I live near Manchester and the signal here is great (but I checked that before I purchased the phone anyhow!).
I am also disappointed in them not willing to move me to another plan without taking out a whole new contract (at a price point that also includes a new phone!).
The account page website and their app both suffer outages all of the time too… Sometimes they are down for days, other times just hours. Not sure what the issues is with that, but it bugs me when I want to check usage!.
This month I have a £90 bill for data usage (over 2 days!) and the daughter is now having the phone removed.. While I know I am to blame for some of it (and her for most of it!), there is no reason that any provider cant send out a notice to say that limits are getting reached, and there is no reason to say that a provider cant put a hard cap on the phone plan.
Perhaps some of the plans work, but generally I would stay clear of them and go for some of the larger carriers with the more formal terms and conditions. Sure they all make the information difficult to find and often difficult to understand, but at least most of the others do have the information there!.
I guess it is back to a old T-Mobile PAYG Sim with Unlimited data for £3.33 a month… Slow Unlimited data trumps £90 every 2 days for fast data!.
Last year I topped up my sons T-Mobile phone with £120 (OVER THE YEAR), spent £40 on boosters, and he ended up with 168 mins + unlim txt + unlim data every month plus £80 credit (usually spent on mins)…. And according to his phone he pulled down about 60 gig of data over those 12 months!… I think its time that ALL of these providers start charging us something more in line with what things really cost.. iD Mob is not the only provider at fault, but today they are on my ..List..
Will Simpson said:
I bought a new phone in July last year as my contract with EE was coming to an end.
I wanted to keep costs down and was persuaded to go with Carphone Warehouse ID.
I have found them very problematic.
You don’t know when you are running out of data then you have to constantly phone up to add data as they have put a bar on my phone, despite asking not to do so.
Even after adding data it often doesn’t accept it.
I bought data yesterday and I was told my internet would be available within 2-3 hours.
24 hours later and I’m still not connected.
I called and was told it could be 48 hours!!!!
I’m only 4 months into my contract but have an option of leaving after 12 months.
I shall certainly seriously consider this.
I wouldn’t recommend Carphone Warehouse ID to anyone.
ali tabassum said:
Hello all, Had my new contract from ID on 02.11.15. I live in Richmond TW10 and work in harrow HA1. Great 4G network all over north circular and generally every where else I have been. Some places I get ocassional 3G but still very fast. I was using EE before and had lots of coverage blackouts in travelling in between above areas. I do recommend this network.
Thanks.
So sad said:
I’m just absolutely devastated that I trusted the advice from Carphone Warehouse ie their staff (they lie). Biggest mistake I have ever made in over twenty years of owning a mobile phone. Please, please do not put your self though the STRESS, pay a few pounds more. Do not get iD network it just doesn’t work properly at all !!
sergio said:
DO NOT JOIN THIS COMPANY BEWARE THEY WILL INCLUDE EXTRA CHARGES WITHOUT YOU KNOWING AND AFTER A DAY FIGHTING MY SITUATION THIS IS WHAT I HAVE TO WRITE JUST TO AWARE PEOPLE OF THIS
I don’t want your kind regards, I want my money bacK. on the 19th, which is when this absurd data problem took place, I got a new phone and I didn’t know that the app data could carry on network data as I didn’t stop it and I wasn’t using it. I want my hard earned money back and not your sincere apologies as you couldn’t give two c**Ps. I am innocent and what you are doing is pure thievery and to say that I’m liable for these add ons that I didn’t even use!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you must be having a laugh.
I will do what I can to get my refund but I hope this company doesn’t last long as what you are doing is not right. I thought at the beginning “lets try this company out it might be pretty good” – gosh I am so wrong biggest mistake, If I knew I wouldn’t even touch your company with a barge pole, your a bunch of thieves.
If I don’t get my refund that I am entitled to then I will cancel my direct debit and you’ll get no more money from me. Is this the strategy that you use to keep your customers happy?!?!?!?!?!?! “Maximise our profits but lets ignore the 3rd party spill over effect that we have”.
Was promised a call back from a manager did I get any noo! Your customer service is a shambles, I wasted so much time with this stupid situation. I will write on every website possible about you and hope you lose dozens of customers thanks to my reviews and will post on blogs relating to network services. You’ll be worse off, you might think that I’m not going to but I will because that is my money not yours. For crying out loud your network doesn’t even work in my conservatory, its so pathetic and to be charged £75.13 extra!!!!!!! you company is full of con artists and I will spread the message.
No kind regards
Emma replied:
I agree with everything you have just said. I too refuse to pay the excessive amount they are trying to charge me for data used on the 2 contracts I took out for my daughters. When I checked their phone bills, i was rather dubious as the inclusive data allowance ran out on the same day.
Since October I have been querying my statements. The emails I send them are obviously not read thoroughly because their response is always patronising by telling me how I can reduce my data usage!! On their advice i cancelled my direct debit because they had not responded to my query within their timescale. But what they didn’t tell me is that they will slap on another charge every month my account is overdue for cancellation of my direct debit (their idea) and put a bar on their phones without notice. I do however pay the monthly cost of the phone. It was late last month because their website and app were down. ID (inconsistent dishonest) Mobile should feel ashamed of themselves.
I hope you have not paid them as it gives me hope!!
kevin longson replied:
Sergio,
did you ever get your problem resolved? My daughter recently took out a contract with ID and now is having the exactly the same issues as you describe. She is about to terminate her direct debit due to lack of help or assitance from Customer service. I have also discovered many others complaining about this mysterious data overuse which costs £75.00
i would be interested in what your eventual outcome was.
Sergio replied:
No they are hopeless con artists, they are unhelpful hence I’ve just opted to ignore them until they speak to me about a fair agreement because a payment of £150 is definately not going to happen. (Apparently it has rose due to so called ‘admin costs’)
Ceri jones said:
Stay we’ll away from this network customer service is crap nobody has a clue what they are doing even the managers are no help, can’t change direct debit dates, can’t transfer number, website always down,my phone has been cut off for a mistake on there side, been trying for four days to get it back on, worst thing I’ve ever done is go with this network!!!!!
Jacqueline said:
I purchased a contract with ID on the Friday and returned my phone and contract on the Monday. The coverage was appalling (Scotland). I managed to make 2 phone calls over that weekend and even then I had to stand outside in the pouring rain to get a signal..and don’t even get me started on Internet coverage, I had none!! So Carphone warehouse happily cancelled my contract and gave me another with Vodafone. However later that month my bank account was debited by ID even although it was cancelled two weeks before. Well fast forward 2 months and many emails and calls back and forth I still have not received my money back. I have written to them again this morning and no doubt I will get fobbed off with some crap that it’s passed to their accounts dept. I am at the end of my patience with this and will be seeking advice elsewhere. DO NOT TAKE A CONTRACT WITH ID……shocking coverage and shocking customer service. Thoroughly disappointed and never had to write a bad review about a company or product before but I am furious with ID 🙁
Mike said:
I’m reasonably happy with the coverage but customer service is appalling
When I signed up carphone warehouse promised me I could use them for customer support rather than iD but that turned out to be simply untrue
Really annoyed that you can’t change your plan
I wanted to change to a plan with more data but todo that it turns out you have to cancel your plan, get a PAC code
Buy a cheap sim from another network and transfer your number then get another PAC code and then take out a new plan with iD and transfer your number back to iD
Pathetic
carol said:
ID is totally useless. if you use your internet allowance for example, they cut your phone off till the end of the month even though you have used hardly any of your calls or txts. total waste of time and money. wish I had of stuck with giffgaff. furious that I am stuck with this. AVOID AVOID AVOID !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lakhbir Nar said:
thanks for the advice guys. sorry if you have had bad experiences with id. i am now going to go with a different network provider. worth spending a couple of quid extra for better customer service and network coverage!!
Robert Barayuga said:
id mobile is a ripoff. i got a phone & returned it the following day because network is rubbish. carphone sorted everything(that’s what i think) but they didn’t because after a week of returning the phone, id mobile took money from my account and up to now, 28 july 2015 2 months after i returned the phone, i hadn’t had my money back and they don’t have a plan of returning my money. i went to ombudsman and id mocked me for doing that. i go the store(carphone) and phone id mobile but nothing happened. my advice to all who are thinking of getting a deal with id mobile or carphone warehouse, don’t, don’t, don’t before it’s too late. network is rubbish. people who work for the network and store are arrogant.
Rusty said:
I had nothing but troubles with iD, the srvice is terrible, I am leaving them and going back to 3.
Nick said:
I recently bought a SIM only deal from ID, and have discovered the hard way that when I dial a certain Reading number, where the dialling code is 0118, ID drop the initial 0, and it thinks I am dialling a 118 number and charges accordingly until I run out of credit. Not sure whether it is all 0118 numbers, but try 0118 960 **** from an ID phone and you will see what I mean!
Ken replied:
Hi Nick,
Thanks for the heads up about this – it sounds like a totally weird bug on iD Mobile (I’ve taken the last four digits of the phone number out for the privacy of the person on the other end!). Have you tried reporting this bug to iD Mobile? It would be great if they could resolve the error (they’ll probably also refund all of your 118 charges).
Ken
Debbie said:
appalling customer service sent 7 email complaints have phoned at least 8 times and always promise to phone back never phone back. They charge you £5.90 and freeze your phone if you go over 1 of your allowances so if you go over data and minuite its a charge £11.80 !!!!! Worst company I have ever dealt with
Dee said:
Unfortunately once you go over your allowance on any item they completely bar your ‘phone; you can’t even call customer services.
The only warning for me was two simultaneous messages warning my I’d used 80% of my Shockproof buffer, and 100% of my Shockproof buffer. The website took me through the process of ordering a new SIM when I tried to change my tariff, Carphone Warehouse representatives were singularly unhelpful.
Lovely ideas but they need a little help implementing some basic network courtesies. Considering the networks aren’t known for being fair, this is a problem.
Gavin Davies said:
I recently perchased a Huawei P8. And it is a a lovely phone, but after looking through the specs on Phone Arena, I realized it dose not support 4G 800MHz. Which sound like a load of mambo jumbo, but essentially means I will not be able to use 4G everywhere advertised on the ID mobile website. As it dose not support all 4G frequencies used by Three, who supply ID mobiles network.
However I’m not going to send it back as is a good phone, and luckily Three’s 3G network is very fast for 3G. But would of been nice to of been told.
Ken replied:
Hi Gavin,
Thanks for the feedback and glad you’re enjoying your Huawei P8. In response to the 800MHz 4G frequency, it depends on which version of the phone you have. In the UK, I believe Huawei are selling GRA-L09 (the global version of the Huawei P8). This supports all LTE frequencies used in the UK: band 3 (1800MHz), band 7 (2600MHz) and band 20 (800MHz). PhoneArena is probably showing the specifications for the GRA-UL00 (the Chinese version of the P8).
Ken
Gavin Davies replied:
Thanks Ken. Feel a bit stuped now!
On the other hand will be nice to have good 4g coverage in most places. Once 4g rollout is done and not have to change phone.
Ken replied:
Hi Gavin,
Not at all – I always get highly confused by this all myself! As LTE bands vary so much across the world, most smartphones are now available in several different versions. It’s an absolute maze if you’re travelling abroad or if you’re buying a handset in another country (it’s often difficult to find out whether your handset will actually work on the relevant 4G networks)!
kEN
gordon said:
Poor coverage 4G is hit and miss and no help from Customer service IF you can get through
will not accept ID when prompted even though Carphone Warehouse know about the problem.
Mohamad said:
Very poor reception and hardly any 4g coverage in London.
Made a mistake leaving EE, will be going back to them within days.
Shocking for this day in age that 4g is so bad