Best £15/month mobile phone deals
Picking the best mobile phone deal can be a daunting task. So we’ve done the hard work for you!
Every month the Which? Tech Daily team trawl through all the available deals to find which ones offer the best value. This month we’re kicking off things off at the cheaper end of the market – the £15 a month deal.
£15 a month is pretty much the cheapest monthly mobile phone contract that you can buy. While it’s true that there are a few cheaper options out there, these give you so few inclusive minutes, texts and data that they’re unlikely to appeal to many contract phone users.
Don’t forget to check out our advice on choosing the best mobile phone deal.
Our research
You can get a lot more for your money from some providers
Most people get a free phone when they take out a new contract so we looked for deals that include one – rather than any that are kept artificially low by forcing you to pay hundreds of pounds for your handset. And because most of us are now smartphone users, where possible we’ve opted for packages that included a data allowance.
We’ve also based our selection on the inclusive minutes, texts and data that come with each deal. We’ve not looked at out of bundle costs so if you often exceed your monthly allowance then we’d recommend checking these before taking out the deal.
All tariffs are for 24 months unless otherwise stated.
You can also find out which is the best mobile phone network according to our research.
Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone
Three of the big four phone providers have identically priced, £15.50/month tariffs. All come with 100 free minutes but the other aspects of the deal are slightly different. Orange gives you unlimited texts and 100MB of data through its Dolphin plan; T-Mobile gives you unlimited texts and 250MB of data; while Vodafone offers 500 texts, 250MB of data plus 500MB of Wi-Fi access through BT’s Openzone.
O2 and the rest
O2′s £13.50/month deal is slightly cheaper but comes with just 50 minutes, 250 texts and 100MB of data.
Tesco Mobile and Utility Warehouse don’t have deals at this price that come with free smartphones, while Virgin Mobile’s cheapest deal (Starter) costs £20/month. However if you already have Virgin Broadband, TV or home phone then you can get the package, which comes with 200 minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of data, for just £15/month.
The best deal – Three
Despite only paying £15 a month you can still get a free Android smartphone
Three’s Ultimate Internet 500 is fantastic value. For just £15/month you get 500 minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited data. This is far more generous than the deals from the other providers.
Obviously the most advanced smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S3 or iPhone 4S won’t come free with this deal. But Three do supply the HTC Explorer which has a 3.2-inch touchscreen and runs on the popular Android operating system.
To see how the phone fared in our tough lab tests read our HTC Explorer review.
Found a better deal? Leave a comment below and we’ll update this page.
- Best phone networks – see who came top in our annual phone survey
- Choosing the best smartphone – advice on getting the right model
- Mobile phone reviews – see which handsets performed best in our labs
Post a Comment
Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked
Joe Elmslie
Dear WHICH
I have just taken out a contract with Tesco Mobile for my daughter as follows:
Sony Xperia U
£15.00 per month – phone free
500 minutes
5000 texts
500 MB
Although the HTC Explorer deal you mention has a “sounds too good to be true” for the price internet usage, I would reckon the U is a considerably better phone and thus deal.
We took out this phone deal on 5 September and I have just checked its availability and the phone is currently out of stock. However, I am sure that it will be available again soon and it could be worth highlighting this offer. We were aware that when we made this purchase that the phone uses Gingerbread not ICS, although we hope to be able to upgrade to ICS soon.
One further note is that when we took out this deal Tesco Mobile were offering identical packages for £20 a month (plus £50 for the phone and £25 a month but these deals have – not surprisingly – disappeared.
All told I think we have purchased a very good phone and deal.
Kind regards
Joe Elmslie
kevin
Three has such an amazing offer because they don’t have to up keep a 2g signal. Hence most independent companies won’t sell Three. Its a running joke between the phone retailers that the uk has a better wifi coverage than Three coverage. Obviously coverage is a personal thing I know people who are fine on 3 yet can’t get a signal on vodafone (the coverage leader).
I know you can have your choice of smart phones on vodafone on there new tariffs that for example an extra £4 gets you 600 mins true unlimited text and 500mb best value on market ….
hoppingpinkrabbit
I know its a PAYG but what about Talkmobile and GiffGaff? For £10 a month you get far more, put aside £5 a month for 2 years and you have £120 but if you consider the extra data and texts you wont be buying (unlimited for both) I’d whack that up to £150 for a handset allowance. For this you could get one of the new Sony handsets, some of the lower HTC mobiles or via ebay’s shops (not average sellers but actual shops sold through ebay) and you may be able to widen your findings even further.
None of the current £15 a month (above) would work for me because either the handsets are not good enough for what I need (speed and data use/battery) or the service they offer isn’t going to cover me and so I’d end up spending more- with the exception of 3 who do not offer a service in the area I live nor would I trust them with a barge pole after the nightmare contracts they have placed me on.