Contract Vs Pay As You Go Mobile Deals - Read this if you are not sure which deal to go for!

Contract Deals

You sign up for a contract deal for a certain period and pay a fixed sum every month.
Your contract allows you a certain number of voice, text and data usage.
Usually the contract period is for 12 or 18 months minimum on all UK mobile networks.

Pros

Your voice, text and data usage costs less than any pay as go deal.

You get a handset of your choice free when you sign up a contract.

Your billing can be setup via direct debt and you don’t have to worry about running out of credit and topping up your mobile.

Cons

Mobile phone tariffs change from time to time, in fact they get cheaper every other day and once you sign up a contract you are bound to pay the minimum monthly charges plus the extra usage amount as per your agreement. So in reality your inclusive voice and texts might cost cheaper than a pay as you go deal but your extra usage might cost you even higher than a pay as you go tariff later on.

Unless you keep an eye on your usage, you can never be sure how much you might end up paying each month.

Contract deals require a credit check prior to signing up a contract.

Pay As You Go

Using a pay as you go tariff is rather simple, it does not involve signing up a contract and you are free to use your top up in the shape of texts, calls and data usage. There is not maximum or minimum limit for using airtime, you can top up as much as you like and as often as you need to.

Pros

You are not bound to pay a fixed minimum amount even if you don’t use your phone at all, which gives you a complete control over your spendings.

As I said earlier that mobile airtime prices keep falling and most of the UK networks offer pay as you go bundles, for example topping up 15 pounds can give you 300 voice calling minutes or 500 text messages.

Cons

Pay as you go requires you to buy your own handset. Your handset must not be locked with any network unless you choose to use the same network it’s locked to, or better if it’s SIM free.

Unlike contract deals you don’t get a free mobile handset, and the handset choices are very limited.