Posts tagged PAYG

Some users have recently been experiencing issues using My3 to top-up or just check in on their account. 3 are all hands to the pump to get this fixed and it should be all back and working in the next few days.



Want more information on this? Then take a look at Justin’s article on the 3 blog yesterday with suggested alternatives to top-up and check your account.

“If you have a Pay As You Go mobile and you want to top-up or check your balance you can call 444 free from your phone. For Mobile Broadband balance, top-up or usage queries you can call us for free on 0800 358 4843.”

He also states that this should only be affecting computer access so it should still be possible to check account information through Planet 3 on your phone.



Keep an eye on the Noticeboard for further updates.

3UK has launched 3 Free Agents, a programme that asks consumers to give free 3 PAYG SIMs to their friends and colleagues alike, with a cash incentive of £5 paid into a paypal account when a friend uses their SIM in a 3G handset and tops-up. The new SIM card holder also receives £2 extra credit.

The initiative encourages the ‘Agents’ to use their social networking presences as Ash Roots, head of online at 3 states,

“There is nothing new in giving away free SIMs as SIM only is a growing section of the PAYG market. But 3 Free Agents is the first UK initiative available now that rewards customers with cold hard cash for promoting and distributing SIMs using the internet.”

Numerous sites have posted about the project; the Guardian tweeted towards their article, with other news sites Mobile News and MarketingMagazine featuring the initiative. Pocket-Lint has more from Ash, GoMo divulges all the details around the tariffs involved and The Register has been quick to put it alongside O2’s giffgaff to see how it fares.

If this isn’t enough, 3g.co.uk, iXplora, Money Saving Woman and Mobile Choice have also all posted on it. And, should you want to get involved with the 3 Free Agent scheme you can do so here!

At the StudentRoom J4GGYBoss has started quite a debate by enquiring about free internet and mentioning getting access to Bebo and Facebook.

Fellow contributors to the boards are quick to help, and while a sort of sub-thread has developed on the meaning of ‘free’, members such as Illusionary, Vokes and Noodles offer advice covering the details of SIMs from a variety of operators.

To add your own thoughts and to see what the StudentRoom members are saying follow the link.

A quick update from UKGadgeteer who has taken note of 3 reducing some of their PAYG prices,

“A PAYG Mobile Broadband Dongle is now £19.99
Taking the 1 month at a time contract, the dongle now just costs £9.99 upfront
The Mobile Broadband Starter Kit loaded with 3GB of data is now £39.99”

They believe these are all worth considering if you’re an occasional Mobile Broadband user…

Money Saving Expert contributor young_victor_meldrew has began a thread titled 3 Mobile introduce £0.00 per month contract, “Seems crazy, but 3UK will soon launch a new tariff called SIM ZERO. SIM ZERO will cost £0.00 per month, and Skype calls will be free.”

Kingofherts then followed up bullet pointinig the details of the offer, and adding “this is ideal for anyone who hardly uses a phone or wants one for emergencies as the SIM never expires and never needs a top up.”

Besides MSE there is also SIM ZERO discussion at Talk3G with members solo12002, handson, gorilla and ben all getting involved.

UKGadgeteer has written a short post that links to a handy table relating to 3’s latest PAYG tariff.

The table makes a comparison across the networks on what you’ll get for a £10 top-up. To see how everyone stacks up click through. And to take in UKGadgeteer’s thoughts on 3’s tariff change and leave him your reaction jump to here.

3’s new PAYG tariff has been laid out in detail by UKGadgeteer. It has all the degrees of what each top up will get you in terms of free texts as well as the included extras that’ll last for 90 days.

UKGadgeteer also make a point of mentioning the benefit of the automatic 150MB internet allowance applied when you top up, that makes phones “like the INQ1 a very popular and sensible decision on the new 3Pay PAYG scheme, giving you the power of the Social Networking facilities potentially without any internet costs at all.”

My3G.co.uk have also covered the tariff, “It seems 3 just can’t help giving things away these days! […] All in all this has to be one of the best pay as you go offerings I’ve seen on the market.” More of their thoughts through this link.

Mobile News has covered 3’s new PAYG tariff that came into action today.

The ‘3Pay’ deal includes free texts and web use dependent on the size of the top up that’ll last for 90 days even if your credit expires.

3’s head of PAYG, Liz Richardson, said of the changes, “We want to change mobile forever and with a network designed and built for the Mobile Internet, we can offer our prepay customers free mobile internet and free internet calls with Skype, not just the standard text and talk bundles”

The Mobile News article has all the details and GoMo News has also offered their thoughts, “Getting completely unlimited SMS for a 25 quid top-up that you’d almost certainly be getting anyway is actually a pretty nice deal for pre-paid.”

In 3’s sister-network countries you can use 3 Mobile broadband as if you were still in the UK? Richard_M44 from Yacht & Boating World was unsure of this so ask the following to his community:

“I know Lemain has a ‘3′ mobile broadband PAYG deal. I wonder if this works “as if you are still in the UK” thus using the prepaid UK allowance in Italy?”

As fate would have it, Alyssa, has the answer, and the answer is ‘yes’. She also has some more useful facts about 3 Mobile Broadband; cklick here to read them.

If you nip over to Expansys for 20 of your English pounds you can currently get a 3 PAYG SIM card with £30 worth of credit.

As they say on the site “simply put your new SIM straight into a mobile phone and you’re up and running with £30 of credit to spend on calls, texts or whatever you want.” Also the Flat12 tariff doesn’t expire and you check in on voicemail for free.

Full details at Expansys.

In their words not ours, Electric Pig have ‘manhandled’ an INQ1 and “can report it’s incredibly clever, and a solid bit of kit.” This is certainly good news and only topped by the fact it is now on sale with “astoundingly cheap tariffs.”

Electric Pig give the details of the contract and PAYG deals as well as pointing to Omio should you want to investigate further, before signing off with, “it’s great value, especially when you see its awesome software in action…”

At Overclockers, HarryPainful asked fellow contributors about getting himself some mobile broadband access. After initial confusion involving <F0rb> over whether a question had actually been asked people began to offer a few options.

In the end HarryPainful plumped for 3’s service, and is by the evidence of his posts, happy: “went for 3 in the end, £15 a month for 3gig, 12 month contract. Seems like the best one out there, the others are all 18/24 month. And I can use Skype over it :)” When informed of the PAYG option, he explained that the free dongle and short 12 month contract were the pull that made him discount the top-up alternative.

To read the full Overclocker thread, click here.

3 have launched mobile broadband starter kits for all those who want to get everything up and running in one smooth hit.

The kit comes with a ZTE or Huawei e220 dongle pre-loaded with the necessary data and offers the opprtunity to be mobile broadband capable super quickly without requiring any organising of one’s own top ups. This is because the bundle is available with 3, 12 and 24 months worth of prepaid credit, which can be extended further as with a regular PAYG dongle once the limit or time expires.

So why would you go with the starter kit? Because as MobileTechAddicts states despite already being a market leader in it’s own right, the standard 3 PAYG Mobile Broadband service is set be undercut in price by the starter kits to the tune of about 20%.

Satellites.co.uk, TelecomPaper and TechRadar are also covering the news.

There’s an interesting question on Yahoo! Answers from Noodles, a new customer of the 3 dongle. Firstly Noodles asks if she can send SMS texts from the dongle to a mobile phone, and then asks for more details on charges.
Though there are some answers, (kiki informs her that you can indeed send messages), a full explanation can be found on the mobile broadband section of the 3 website here, and states:

Can I send SMS messages using the E220 Modem?

Yes. Simply open the 3 DataModem Software and select the Envelope icon at the bottom of the screen.
For both Pay monthly and Pay As You Go customers, when you send text messages this way, you will be charged a standard rate, or it will be taken out of your allowance if you have a text Add-on.

Take a look at the question at Yahoo! Answers and let Noodles know if you have anything to add.

If you’re considering jumping on the 3 Mobile Broadband wagon, head on over to Andy’s blog VoIP Watch. He has an enthusiastic little article on the recent price changes in which he reports “The price of the dongle has been halved and the plan prices are very tasty.”

Andy has linked to Into Mobile’s feature on the half price PAYG Dongles, where author Ben believes “The dongle war appears to be hotting up”. He also includes information on the different price plans available to 3 customers, declaring the 3GB for £15 “the most popular”.