UK SIM cards
March 3, 2010 3:18 AM   Subscribe

Are the free UK pay-as-you-go SIM cards that are offered on UK telcos' web sites also available from retail shopfronts, or only via the post (to UK addresses)?

These offers seem pretty good in terms of pricing, but most of them require you to enter UK address details to get the SIM delivered. Can the same SIMs, with the same tariffs, be purchased from shopfronts? Are there any strings/conditions/pitfalls one should be aware of?
posted by jedro to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
You can buy payg sims now priced from £0.99 from most little corner shops that sell beer, newspapers, chocolate etc. The tarrifs will be the same as you'd get free from the websites unless there's some special introductory offer going on.

I've seen sales people outside the branded Orange, o2, Vodafone etc. shops handing out free sim cards when they're not busy. They'd probably give you a free sim if you walked into a branded shop and asked.
posted by selton at 3:36 AM on March 3, 2010


Seconding selton. In addition, Tesco and Asda who offer by far the best PAYG deals, stock SIMs in their stores. There are little to no pitfalls especially in comparison to contract details - just be aware that any the "free" credit from companies offering to triple your top-up often expires after a month or so.
posted by turkeyphant at 3:52 AM on March 3, 2010


Response by poster: Yeah, the ASDA deal seems very good.
posted by jedro at 3:53 AM on March 3, 2010


These offers seem pretty good in terms of pricing, but most of them require you to enter UK address details to get the SIM delivered.

Note that even pay-as-you-go services often ask you for an address when they set up the account.

I don't know that they go to much effort to validate the address you give them, though.
posted by Mike1024 at 4:40 AM on March 3, 2010


I bought my tmobile uk sim off ebay.uk before i was there 10 days. i had problems topping it off with a USA Credit Card address, but bought more minutes on ebay and got a top off code. if you are traveling i was happy with how it worked out.
posted by thilmony at 4:47 AM on March 3, 2010


I recently went into a Vodafone shop asking for a free SIM and was told that they're only free online. The only SIM that Vodafone shop were willing to give me cost £5. The tariffs offered for the free web SIM and the £5 shop SIM were identical. The people in the shop aknowledged that this is weird, but said they were obliged to charge for them.

So, as several people have said, you can definitely get a SIM with no problems but you might not be able to get one for free. Somewhere like Carphone Warehouse or Phones4u will have a range of SIMs from the big networks (Vodafone, Orange, O2, 3) to compare. The supermarket chain Tesco has its own phone service and will probably sell the other networks' SIMs too.
posted by metaBugs at 4:55 AM on March 3, 2010


Mike1024: "Note that even pay-as-you-go services often ask you for an address when they set up the account.

I don't know that they go to much effort to validate the address you give them, though.
"

I've used several PAYG SIMs over the last however many years and have never had to supply any address or personal information to activate them. Many come with some credit pre-loaded which I could use immediately without any registration. Even if some do ask for this, it should be trivial to find ones that don't; in any case, you're probably right - they won't verify.

thilmony: "I bought my tmobile uk sim off ebay.uk before i was there 10 days. i had problems topping it off with a USA Credit Card address, but bought more minutes on ebay and got a top off code. if you are traveling i was happy with how it worked out."

You don't need to use a credit card, you can use top-up cards or buy vouchers in any corner shop/supermarket/post office with cash. Most networks allow you to top-up at ATMs too.
posted by turkeyphant at 5:39 AM on March 3, 2010


The Orange SIM that I picked up for 99p a few months ago from a corner shop has never required any registration info, and was activated within 30 seconds of being put into the phone. I top up using a voucher or the swipe card tat came with it, and have no problems.

The only downside is that I think the operator might have trouble locking the number if th phone got stolen.
posted by Solomon at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2010


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