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Some of the most well know brands and companies are three, EE and also O2. You may wish to look into them and see what you like. I have personally never heard a brand called "LIFE". I could be just me.
Original post by ishb_
Hello there. As an international student that is going to start his studies in UK next month, I would like to know what SIM card brand is the best (reasonable price for a good deal). I have surfed the web and found that "LIFE" offers the best deal, but, in order to be sure, I would like to ask for some of your opinion.

Thanks in advance.


It depends what you want from it - whether it be the best coverage, or as much data as you can get... Whether you want to do PAYG or on a contract?
Reply 3
Might want to go with giffgaff, they use o2's network and are contactless, so if you don't want to pay a certain month you don't have to


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Reply 4
Original post by Sgt.Golden
Some of the most well know brands and companies are three, EE and also O2. You may wish to look into them and see what you like. I have personally never heard a brand called "LIFE". I could be just me.


Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check them out! :smile:
Reply 5
Original post by mobbsy91
It depends what you want from it - whether it be the best coverage, or as much data as you can get... Whether you want to do PAYG or on a contract?


I think most data deal will suit me better. Anyway, which is more beneficial, PAYG or contract in your opinion?
Reply 6
Original post by ozziew
Might want to go with giffgaff, they use o2's network and are contactless, so if you don't want to pay a certain month you don't have to


Posted from TSR Mobile


Alright, I'll check them out. Thanks! :smile:
Reply 7
O2 is good if you want cheap international calls cause they have an international sim. I called my grandma the other day, talked for half an hour, didn't even spend a pound.

EE is good otherwise, they give quite a bit of minutes, texts and data just for £10 a month and you can increase any one of those if you keep using it for 3 months
Original post by ishb_
I think most data deal will suit me better. Anyway, which is more beneficial, PAYG or contract in your opinion?


I go with contract, because it works out as being the most cost effective, especially as you can then also get a phone with the contract, rather than having to buy it separately... 'Three' have quite good prices for contracts when it comes to having as much data as you can gte for your budget, but I'm not too sure on their coverage! Definitely worth looking at EE! Might also be worth going onto Carphone Warehouse and looking there, as that'll show you the deals from the major providers (EE, 3, Vodafone, o2...) and will give you an easy comparison of price.
Original post by ishb_
I think most data deal will suit me better. Anyway, which is more beneficial, PAYG or contract in your opinion?


Hello there :smile:

Usually, in terms of the best value for money on data packages, Three UK are good, being the only main network to offer unlimited data. (Some other smaller networks may offer unlimited data but there are always some downsides to those packages.) EE are more expensive but offer faster data speeds and have the best coverage of any UK network (certainly for 3G/4G).

Contract SIMS are usually much better value for money than PAYG SIMS. The only reasonable PAYG SIM for data is Three's 321 plan, which is 3p/min, 2p/text and 1p/MB, making it ideal for low to medium data users. Users that need a lot of data are best going on a contracted SIM.
Also, in terms of contracts, 12 month contracts (or 24 month contracts) are better value for money than 1 month rolling contracts, so long as you don't mind staying with that network for 12 or 24 months. In terms of the best contract at the moment. EE are doing their 16GB SIM at a reduced price, which is definitely one to consider.

Before you choose a network, you'll want to check their coverage - so don't forget to go to each network's website to check what their coverage is going to be like in your area. Some networks have better coverage than others!

Hope that helps!
Original post by ishb_
Alright, I'll check them out. Thanks! :smile:


What I will add is that Giffgaff are the most flexible option, they don't have any long contracts, everything is on a 1 month basis - and you can choose to have more data or less data each month.

I'll also add that Giffgaff may not be the fastest network - the O2 network (that they use) has a priority system in which O2's customers are given a higher priority on the network, than Giffgaff, Tesco or other networks that run on O2. Though if that's not an issue for you, then Giffgaff may well be a good choice.

@mobbsy91 Three UK are the only operator that does unlimited data deals, and although their prices used to be quite cheap, they have slowly started increasing in price. Though if you need quite a lot of data, then Three will be your best bet. 4G coverage on Three isn't great but they have a lot of 3G coverage; the only network that has better 3G/4G coverage than Three is EE.

EE are a good network, in terms of speed and coverage - usually they are also quite expensive but check their website at the moment, as they've reduced the price of their 16GB SIM (£35 pm down to £20 pm).

Haven't had much experience with Vodafone or O2 - they are improving their coverage all the time, but there are still quite a lot of areas outside of towns/cities that do not have 4G, or even 3G.
Original post by spotify95
What I will add is that Giffgaff are the most flexible option, they don't have any long contracts, everything is on a 1 month basis - and you can choose to have more data or less data each month.

I'll also add that Giffgaff may not be the fastest network - the O2 network (that they use) has a priority system in which O2's customers are given a higher priority on the network, than Giffgaff, Tesco or other networks that run on O2. Though if that's not an issue for you, then Giffgaff may well be a good choice.

@mobbsy91 Three UK are the only operator that does unlimited data deals, and although their prices used to be quite cheap, they have slowly started increasing in price. Though if you need quite a lot of data, then Three will be your best bet. 4G coverage on Three isn't great but they have a lot of 3G coverage; the only network that has better 3G/4G coverage than Three is EE.

EE are a good network, in terms of speed and coverage - usually they are also quite expensive but check their website at the moment, as they've reduced the price of their 16GB SIM (£35 pm down to £20 pm).

Haven't had much experience with Vodafone or O2 - they are improving their coverage all the time, but there are still quite a lot of areas outside of towns/cities that do not have 4G, or even 3G.

And you're telling me because??
Original post by ishb_
Hello there. As an international student that is going to start his studies in UK next month, I would like to know what SIM card brand is the best (reasonable price for a good deal). I have surfed the web and found that "LIFE" offers the best deal, but, in order to be sure, I would like to ask for some of your opinion.

Thanks in advance.


I like three payg, its really cheap for data, texts and calls. You can buy packs which give you cheaper data prices too like £5 for 500mb of data
Reply 13
Original post by Devify
O2 is good if you want cheap international calls cause they have an international sim. I called my grandma the other day, talked for half an hour, didn't even spend a pound.

EE is good otherwise, they give quite a bit of minutes, texts and data just for £10 a month and you can increase any one of those if you keep using it for 3 months


Thanks! :smile:
LIFE is owned and operated by EE, and they have excellent customer support. Everything good you hear about EE, apply it to LIFE as well.

If you do go with LIFE, try to get an exclusive offer from a comparison site. Right now, for example, you can get 3 GB of data on th £9.45 offer (instead of 2 GB) if you get it through Uswitch.com.
Reply 15
Original post by mobbsy91
I go with contract, because it works out as being the most cost effective, especially as you can then also get a phone with the contract, rather than having to buy it separately... 'Three' have quite good prices for contracts when it comes to having as much data as you can gte for your budget, but I'm not too sure on their coverage! Definitely worth looking at EE! Might also be worth going onto Carphone Warehouse and looking there, as that'll show you the deals from the major providers (EE, 3, Vodafone, o2...) and will give you an easy comparison of price.


I see... I'm checking out the Carphone Warehouse now. Thanks! :smile:
Original post by mobbsy91
And you're telling me because??


Were you already aware of this then? Oops! :biggrin:

Just thought I'd add it in incase no one else had covered it, or you didn't know...
Reply 17
Original post by spotify95
Hello there :smile:

Usually, in terms of the best value for money on data packages, Three UK are good, being the only main network to offer unlimited data. (Some other smaller networks may offer unlimited data but there are always some downsides to those packages.) EE are more expensive but offer faster data speeds and have the best coverage of any UK network (certainly for 3G/4G).

Contract SIMS are usually much better value for money than PAYG SIMS. The only reasonable PAYG SIM for data is Three's 321 plan, which is 3p/min, 2p/text and 1p/MB, making it ideal for low to medium data users. Users that need a lot of data are best going on a contracted SIM.
Also, in terms of contracts, 12 month contracts (or 24 month contracts) are better value for money than 1 month rolling contracts, so long as you don't mind staying with that network for 12 or 24 months. In terms of the best contract at the moment. EE are doing their 16GB SIM at a reduced price, which is definitely one to consider.

Before you choose a network, you'll want to check their coverage - so don't forget to go to each network's website to check what their coverage is going to be like in your area. Some networks have better coverage than others!

Hope that helps!


This does help, thanks! :smile:
Original post by spotify95
Were you already aware of this then? Oops! :biggrin:

Just thought I'd add it in incase no one else had covered it, or you didn't know...


Nah, was just wondering because you'd tagged me specifically...
Reply 19
Original post by JollyCynic
LIFE is owned and operated by EE, and they have excellent customer support. Everything good you hear about EE, apply it to LIFE as well.

If you do go with LIFE, try to get an exclusive offer from a comparison site. Right now, for example, you can get 3 GB of data on th £9.45 offer (instead of 2 GB) if you get it through Uswitch.com.


Noted. I'll consider this as an option. Thanks! :smile:

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