If you’re after a pay monthly SIM, you have plenty of options. But I’d argue Three’s Unlimited Data pay monthly SIM is the best in the UK right now…
If you own your phone outright and don’t want to be locked into a contract, with another phone, then a pay monthly SIM plan could be just what the doctor ordered.
EE, Vodafone, and O2 all do pay monthly SIM plans. And so too do many of the UK’s MVNO networks like GiffGaff and Tesco and Asda. But for my money, Three’s Unlimited Data pay monthly SIM plan is the best option on the market right now.
Why Three’s Unlimited SIM is The Best Pay Monthly Around
Why? Several reasons: the first is that at just £18 a month, it is very affordable. The second, you get truly unlimited data – you can use as much as you like (and this includes tethering and hotspot too). And three, you get 5G coverage at no extra cost.
Three’s Unlimited plan also includes unlimited calls and texts too, as well as free-roaming in 71 countries around the world. This means, if and when you do travel again, you’ll be able to use your phone just as you do at home.
The other massive pro of this plan is that it lets you do unlimited personal hotspot tethering, so if you’re traveling with a laptop or tablet, you can use your phone’s internet connection to connect it to the web.
If you work remotely, or there is an internet outage in your area, having the ability to tap into Three’s LTE and 5G data is a godsend. A few years ago, when I moved house, I was without internet for a couple of weeks. During this time, I just used my phone’s internet connection for work.
At the end of the two weeks, I’d used around 100GB of data. But because my plan with Three is Unlimited, it didn’t cost me anything extra – just the same as it always does, £18 a month.
And unlike Vodafone’s plans, Three does not throttle speeds. You get the fastest speeds possible on all of its plans, as well as 5G coverage for no extra charge.
Do You Need Unlimited Data?
As always, it depends. Personally, I like having unlimited data. I like to use my phone as a personal hotspot quite a lot and I don’t like being limited when I’m traveling. With unlimited data and calls, I never have to worry about excess charges or going over my allotted monthly data.
If you definitely don’t need unlimited data, Three also does a 100GB Pay Month SIM plan which costs £16, or, if you want to cut costs even more, an 8GB per month for £5 a month.
Normally, I never use anywhere close to 100GB of data a month. But in the event that I want or need to use more than that, like when I moved house, I like to know that I have it there, waiting to go. And it’s only £2 more a month than the 100GB plan, so I figured what the heck!
The average user doesn’t tend to use any more than 10GB a month, however, and even then, that’s the upper limit. In this respect, most users would be more than fine with either 100GB or the 8GB plans.
Or, you could go somewhere in the middle and get Three’s 30GB of data pay monthly plan for £14 a month. Is 30GB of data enough for one month? I’d say it is – by a considerable margin.
For instance, the average person in the UK used 3.6GB of data per month in 2019, according to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2020. This represented a 22% increase from 2018, where the average usage was 2.9GB used per month.
This means that if you had a plan with 30GB or even 10GB, you’d have more than enough data to see you through a month’s worth of usage. If you go with Three’s Unlimited pay monthly plan, you basically don’t have to even think about data – you can just use and abuse it as much as you like.
But the reason I say Three’s is the best pay monthly SIM option in the UK is that it offers 5G at no extra cost, roaming in 71 countries, and, unlike other networks, it doesn’t throttle internet speeds on cheaper plans.
You can check out ALL of Three’s plans here – it literally has something for everybody. And be sure to check out how to change ringtones on an iPhone!
