By Vodafone offers ‘Pay As You Go Plus’ plans from £10. Compare Vodafone’s no-contract Pay As You Go bundles.
If you’re looking for a flexible Pay As You Go plan where there’s no contract and no need for a credit check, Vodafone offers Pay As You Go Plus plans from £10 per month. They’re available with 5G connectivity, as well as support for eSIM, making it easier and faster to get connected to their network. You’ll also get VeryMe Rewards, for access to exclusive discounts and offers.
In this article, we’ll review Vodafone’s Pay As You Go Plus service, as well as their other Pay As You Go plans such as VOXI and their Big Value Bundles. We’ll also look at the key features and limitations, along with the coverage available and how to keep your current phone number.
| Plans From: | £10 per month |
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| Vodafone PAYG Plans |
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| What We Like: |
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| What We Don’t Like: |
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| Coverage: | Vodafone coverage (4G & 5G) – check postcode |
Contents
Vodafone Pay As You Go Plans
In the UK, it’s still possible to join Vodafone as a Pay As You Go customer, with no contract and no need for a credit check to sign up.
There’s a choice of different Pay As You Go plans, with the most popular one being Pay As You Go Plus. It’s also possible to sign up on VOXI Pay As You Go, on Big Value Bundles, or on Pay As You Go 1.
Pay As You Go Plus
If you’re joining Vodafone as a new Pay As You Go customer, their default option is now to join on their Pay As You Go Plus plan. This is their newest Pay As You Go offering, with support for 5G speeds as well as eSIM technology on all of the plans.
When you join on Pay As You Go Plus, you’ll be able to get 8GB data for £10 per month. As a special offer until the 9th January 2025, there’s also a bonus 19GB data per month for the first 3 months. This means you’ll be able to get 27GB data for £10 (reverting to the standard 8GB for £10 after the first 3 months).
For heavy users, there’s 25GB data for £15 (75GB for the first 3 months), 50GB data for £20 (150GB for the first 3 months), 150GB data for £30 (300GB for the first 3 months), and unlimited data for £40 per month:
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8GB data | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 25GB data | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 50GB data | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 150GB data | £30.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| Unlimited data 100Mbps max speed | £40.00 per month No contract | See deal |
With Pay As You Go Plus, you’ll need to provide your credit card or debit card details when you sign up. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to set your plan to renew automatically every 30 days. However, there’s no obligation to keep renewing it, as you can switch off the ‘Auto-Renew’ feature at any time.
VOXI Pay As You Go
If you’re looking for a contract-free plan that gives you the same coverage, but with more data for the same price, you could consider getting a VOXI Pay As You Go SIM.
VOXI is part of Vodafone, but they offer slightly different plans under a separate, distinct brand. In the background, the service is powered by Vodafone Pay As You Go, with some additional features layered on top such as Unlimited Social Media, Music and Video.
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45GB data Unlimited Social Media | £10.00 per month No contract | See deal |
Offer ends 28th Nov | 75GB data Unlimited Social Media Unlimited Music | £12.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| 105GB data Unlimited Social Media Unlimited Music Unlimited Video | £15.00 per month No contract | See deal |
Offer ends 28th Nov | 300GB data Unlimited Social Media Unlimited Music Unlimited Video | £20.00 per month No contract | See deal |
| Unlimited data Unlimited Social Media Unlimited Music Unlimited Video | £35.00 per month No contract | See deal |
Although it’s a different range of plans, it works very similarly to Vodafone’s other Pay As You Go plans. You’ll get access to 5G coverage on all of the VOXI plans, with no contract and no need for a credit check. You’ll also benefit from automatic renewal. One difference is that you won’t have access to VeryMe Rewards. However, there’s a separate VOXI Drop customer loyalty programme instead.
If you’re an existing Vodafone Pay As You Go customer, you can move your plan to VOXI at any time.
Big Value Bundles
If you signed up to Vodafone’s Pay As You Go service before January 2024, you’ll have been placed on their Big Value Bundles.
The old ‘Big Value Bundles’ are very similar to the new ‘Pay As You Go Plus’ plans, but you’ll get a smaller amount of data included on each one. In addition, the Big Value Bundles are restricted to 4G coverage (unless you choose the £40 Big Value Bundle which is 5G-enabled). There’s no support for eSIM on these plans.
Vodafone’s Big Value Bundles are as follows:
- £10 Big Value Bundle: 7GB data with unlimited minutes & unlimited texts.
- £15 Big Value Bundle: 20GB data with unlimited minutes & unlimited texts.
- £20 Big Value Bundle: 40GB data with unlimited minutes & unlimited texts.
- £30 Big Value Bundle: 100GB data with unlimited minutes & unlimited texts.
- £40 Big Value Bundle: Unlimited data with unlimited minutes & unlimited texts. 5G ready.
The only real benefit of choosing a ‘Big Value Bundle’ over ‘Pay As You Go Plus’ is the fact that you’re able to roll over your unused data into the following month’s bundle. For instance, if you have 2GB of unused data left on the £10 bundle, your data allowance in the following month would be boosted to 7GB + 2GB = 9GB data.
If you’d still like to sign up for a Big Value Bundle, you can do this by choosing the “order a free SIM card” option on Vodafone’s Pay As You Go website. Once you’ve done that, you can choose your Big Value Bundle by texting BIGVALUE followed by the monthly price to 2345. For instance, to buy the £10 Big Value Bundle, you’d text BIGVALUE10 to 2345.
Pay As You Go 1
If you’re looking for a classic Pay As You Go plan where there’s no need to top-up every month, Vodafone has an alternative plan known as Pay As You Go 1.
From the 11th December 2024 onwards, you’ll pay £2 per day to use your mobile phone on Pay As You Go 1 (prior to this, it was £1 per day).
This £2 daily charge gives you unlimited UK minutes, unlimited UK texts, and 50MB of mobile data. Crucially, you’ll only pay it on the days where you actually use your phone. For this reason, it can be a better value option if you use your mobile phone for less than 5 days per month. However, most other users will likely be better off with a bundle.
In the past, Pay As You Go 1 used to be a pretty good option if you were a light mobile user and you only needed to use your phone from time to time. However, a succession of changes has made it a less attractive deal, and there are now far better options out there for light users.
When it originally launched, you could get 500MB data for £1 per day on this plan. In January 2021, this was reduced to only 50MB data for £1 per day. A further change in December 2024 saw the daily charge increasing to £2, meaning you’ll now get just 50MB data for £2 per day.
If you’d still like to sign up for Pay As You Go 1, you can do this by ordering a free SIM on the Vodafone website. Once you get it, you’ll need to text PAYG1 to 49503. There’s no monthly fee for keeping your SIM card active on this plan – you’ll just need to make a chargeable activity at least once every 180 days.
Vodafone Pay As You Go Features
No Contract & No Credit Check
On all of Vodafone’s Pay As You Go plans, there’s no contract and no need for a credit check. This means you can easily sign up without providing lots of information. You’ll also be able to change, pause, or cancel your plan at any time.
If you’re willing to undergo a credit check, the Vodafone Basics plans are a good alternative to Pay As You Go. On Vodafone Basics, you’ll get more data for less (e.g. 6GB data for £7, 40GB data for £8, and 60GB data for £10). However, you’ll need to sign up for 12 months and there’s a credit check required on it.
VeryMe Rewards
As a Vodafone Pay As You Go customer, you’ll have access to VeryMe Rewards. This excludes customers with a VOXI Pay As You Go plan, who’ll get access to the VOXI Drop instead.
VeryMe Rewards is Vodafone’s customer loyalty programme, giving you exclusive offers, discounts and freebies each week. As part of that, you’ll get discounted meals and coffees, powered by ‘Eat Local’ from the Gourmet Society and ‘Local Blend’ from the Coffee Club (these are cut-down versions of the full membership, including only independent stores). You’ll also get a Kids Pass membership for discounted family days out, as well as other offers through the year such as discounted cinema tickets.
In our opinion, having access to the VeryMe Rewards programme is a nice bonus that can save you a fair bit of money. However, the best deals and freebies often have limited availability, so it’s easy to miss them if you’re not checking the app fairly regularly.
Auto-Renew
For convenience, you can set your Vodafone Pay As You Go plan to renew automatically every month. To do this, you’ll need to provide them with your credit card or debit card details. The payment for your Pay As You Go bundle will then be taken automatically each month, in the same way you’d pay for other subscriptions like Netflix or Spotify.
There’s no obligation to use the Auto-Renew feature and you can choose to switch it off at any time. If you do so, your plan will continue until the end of your current 30-day bundle. You’ll then revert to their ‘Pay As You Go 1’ rates, unless you buy another bundle.
eSIM
On Vodafone’s Pay As You Go Plus service, you’ll be able to get your plan on an eSIM. Essentially, this is a faster way to get connected to Vodafone’s network as you can simply download the plan onto your eSIM-ready phone. In most cases, it also allows you to use dual-SIM technology, so you can have two phone numbers on your device at the same time.
Unfortunately, eSIM technology isn’t currently available on VOXI Pay As You Go, Big Value Bundles, or Pay As You Go 1. If you’re on one of these older plans, you’ll need to upgrade to the latest Pay As You Go Plus plans to get an eSIM.
Vodafone Pay As You Go Drawbacks
In our opinion, there are a couple of significant disadvantages when you sign to Vodafone’s Pay As You Go service:
- Vodafone’s Pay As You Go plans are relatively expensive. At present, you’ll get just 8GB data for £10 on Pay As You Go Plus. In contrast, there’s a massive 60GB data for £10 when you sign up on Vodafone Basics (on a 12 month contract). This makes the Vodafone Basics plan much better value. Alternatively, if you’re looking for a no-contract plan with coverage from Vodafone, consider VOXI or Lebara Mobile for better value usage.
- International roaming will cost you extra. Unfortunately, there’s no inclusive roaming on Vodafone’s Pay As You Go service. To use your mobile phone in Europe, you’ll need to pay an extra £2.42 per day. This can be reduced slightly when you buy a European roaming pass (£12 for 8 days, or £17 for 15 days).
- Vodafone’s classic Pay As You Go is expensive, and difficult to find. If you’re looking for a classic Pay As You Go service where there’s no need to top-up every month, this is still available in the guise of ‘Pay As You Go 1’. However, it’s now an expensive option, with a £2 daily charge for 50MB data, unlimited minutes and unlimited texts. In addition, it’s difficult to find (you’ll need to order a free SIM from their website, before texting PAYG1 to 49503 to switch to it).
Vodafone Pay As You Go Coverage
You’ll have access to 99% population coverage on Vodafone’s Pay As You Go service. This is powered by their 4G network. In addition, there’s 5G coverage available if you’re on Pay As You Go Plus, on VOXI Pay As You Go, or on the £40 Big Value Bundle.
According to Vodafone, you can expect an average download speed of 23-35Mbps on their 4G network, and an average download speed of 150-200Mbps on their 5G network.
You’ll have access to 4G Calling and WiFi Calling on all Pay As You Go plans.
Before signing up for Vodafone Pay As You Go, it’s worth checking to make sure you can get coverage where you live. To do this, enter your postcode on Vodafone’s online coverage map:
Check Vodafone Coverage (vodafone.co.uk) →
Unfortunately, Vodafone’s 5G Ultra service (5G SA) isn’t currently available to Pay As You Go customers.
Keeping Your Phone Number
It’s easy keeping your current phone number when you move to Vodafone.
To move your phone number to Vodafone, start by asking your current mobile network to provide you with a PAC Code. You can get one through your mobile network’s website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075.
Once you’ve done that, you can order your new Pay As You Go SIM card from Vodafone’s website. Upon arrival, you can then provide your PAC Code to Vodafone through this online form. They will then schedule the transfer of your phone number (normally for the next working day).
For a step-by-step guide on transferring your phone number to Vodafone, please select your current mobile network from the dropdown menu below:
Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to transfer Pay As You Go credit from another mobile network to Vodafone. You should therefore try to use it up before the number transfer takes place. Any unused credit remaining on your old mobile network will be lost during the transfer.
More Information
For more information on Vodafone’s Pay As You Go service, please see their official website.
Andrew said:
The Vodafone £5 BVB is still available vis 2345. Vodafone hide it there so people don’t subscribe to it.
Viv Adams said:
Hi, this is interesting info. I’ve just spent the best part of an hour on chat with Vodafone and they tried their best to get me on this PAYG 1 plan but glad I’ve read this first. I have sent for a Giff Gaff sim card and it arrived this morning but the info that comes with it makes no mention of the basic PAYG plan – only the monthly payment ones and I don’t want to give them any details until I know what I’m getting into. Any suggestions please?
Ken replied:
Hi Viv,
Thanks for your comment. On giffgaff, you’ll just need to choose the option to add regular Pay As You Go credit to your account. If you do that, you’ll be on their regular Pay As You Go plan with no need to buy a goodybag bundle each month.
Hope this helps,
Ken
Helen said:
This problem of PAYG users being charged a pound when no mobile phone activity has taken place is a widespread issue that users are posting on various sites as well as this one. Looking at my purchase history I can see one pound being charged over multiple days at exactly 0026 when I am in bed. Some days there have been more than one exactly at 00.26. In response to my formal complaint I was advised to disable wifi assist ( It is already disabled). I believe, from reading and agreeing with another post elsewhere that what is happeneing is that a phone has regular low level interactions (“handshakes”?) with the network,saying in effect “I am here”. These will probably involve exchange of tiny amounts of data. When as little as 1KB of data triggers a £1 charge it amounts to a marginal cost of £1000 per MB over which you will have absolutely no control. No one appears to be denying that this is taking place the issue for me is whether it is acceptable commercial practice. I feel unable to accept their resolution and I will be asking for a letter of Deadlock which, I understand, will enable me to alert Ofcom.