After being told I was going to pay £14.25pm for my O2 pay monthly contract, I belatedly (as in decades later) decided to do something about this. After all I hardly use any data or make calls or texts any more, so why pay so much? My VOLT package is of no use when I am never going to make use of it. I checked my data usage and it was a maximum of 113MB a month as I'm mostly at home and use WiFi or wired broadband.
So, PAYG makes sense but all the old systems have gone whereby you could top up, pay peanuts and keep the credit for ages. I didn't want a virtual operator as from experience there are some drawbacks, so it had to be O2, Vodafone, EE or Three. To cut a long story short, I finally found O2's Classic PAYG which charges 3p per call, 2p per text and 1p per MB. You have to make a chargeable activity, i.e. use some credit, every six months to keep your numnber. It's no longer available but there's a man selling the SIMs on eBay at 20p for two SIMs! So, I paid up and the SIMs arrived a few days later. However, it wasn't straightforward to get it working - note: this isn't a scam.
The web page https://www.o2.co.uk/help/pay-as-you-go/classic-pay-as-you-go tells you how to top up. I put the SIM card into a phone, created a web account and I tried with three payment cards on my PC's Firefox to top up (all failed), switched to Edge (all failed). I tried multiple times using 4444 (all failed). I called O2 and after some delay the agent said she'd got it activated. I tried to top up again but no success. So, I called O2 again and another agent said that there could be a problem with the initial top up but a top up at an O2 store would succeed and subsequent top ups would work.
So, I drove 4.5 miles to an O2 store, got a £10 voucher and topped up, called my backup mobile for a test and it worked. Soon afterwards the phone went dead as I had called O2 to migrate my contract phone number to the PAYG number. I wasn't told that both numbers would die until the next day. However the next day when the phone worked again (with my old number) I tried the 4444 for my payment cards and still had no success. I called my bank because the top up resulted in a "Declined" message, and I was told that this was due to the SIM change. This sounded unlikely to me. I've subsequently had no problem in using the two other cards for online payments.
I've not tried another top up as I've still got £9.97 remaining and it's going to last ages, quite possibly a year or more at the rate I'm using my £10 credit. Also, I've now discovered that I can get a voucher from a supermarket like Tesco both online (it's emailed to you) and from store checkout and wherever you see Paypoint or Payzone at outlets like convenience stores, newsagents and post offices. So, no need to visit the O2 store, but I guess the CS agent in South Africa wasn't to know that.
Overall, I'm pleased with the SIM card and prices, but top up has to be easier.
I seriously considered MVNOs like 1pMobile but, apart from Giffgaff, I don't know them and didn't want the hassle if the one I chose caused a problem (like going out of business). I quite like being able to get WiFi on the London Underground, something's that's only possible if you are with an MNO like O2.
I have a few small updates.I've disabled mobile data as I don't want the risk of some background apps devouring my data, something which admittedly I never had to be concerned about when on Volt. And as for using data: I used Google's Map as I got lost when going to a funeral last week, 24MB used so that cost me 24p. And finally I got an email from O2 today saying that "We have processed your refund of £4.91". This is probably about right as O2 bills you in advance, so by quitting my pay monthly contract before the next billing date O2 owed me money.
