I only make a about a dozen or so calls a week on my pay as u go phone, and most of these calls are very short, often only 30 seconds to 1 minute calls.
I have been with orange for about 4 years now and used to find this very good. If I bought a £50 (rather than smaller amount) top up I got half price calls which were only 5p a minute off peak and not over expensive at peak rates. Therefore I very rarely used up m nore than £1 each week. However, last year, shortly after topping up with another £50, Orange changed their charges and it is now 25p for the first 3 minutes each day. This has put up my calls from less than £1 to over £5 a week. This was after only a few weeks of buying the card - I didn't even get what was left on it at the original rate.

When my current card runs out I am thinking of changing to another network. Can anyone suggest one that is cheaper for jsut a small number of very short calls each week. Also how easy is it for me to keep my number if I do change.

For the sake of simplicity I am assuming that you make 14x 1 minute calls per week, or 2 per day. As you said 5p per minute somewhere in your message I am also assuming you are calling landlines or same network mobiles. I couldn't work out whether you wanted a peak/offpeak package or a fixed rates all day sort of package.

If you don't want to read the boring stuff, my suggestions are at the bottom of the page.

So on Orange you must be on the the "Talk and Save" plan, this is not ideal for low users at all. Based on 2 minutes of calls per day, you are paying 50p per day, this works out at £14.00 per month for just 56 minutes worth of calls. If you switched to the "Fixed Rates All Day" price plan on Orange it would cost you 20p per minute at all times, so your 2 minutes of calls per day would set you back 40p, or £11.20 per month for the same 56 minutes of calls. Finally, if you can confine yourself to talking at off-peak rates, then the "Choose your Off Peak" plan could be considered, basically you get off-peak rates between 11pm and 7am weekdays, and all day w/end and b/hol. You also get a choice of 4 additional off-peak charged hours, which can be taken anytime during the day. So, assuming you talk in off-peak charged times, your 2 minutes of calls would be just 10p per minute, costing you just £5.60, which I think is fairly reasonable.

If you can't keep to off peak times or are intent on switching to another network. Virgin can be considered. Although abit like Orange's "Talk and Save", they charge 15p per minute for the first 5 minutes. If you only talk 2 minutes, it would cost just 30p (£8.40 p/m), cheaper than 2 of the 3 Orange options. T-Mobile has no significant saving on Orange either, your usage would put you squarely in the £10 to 20 price band, which is charged at 20p per minute. Although this 20p per minute is to other networks as well.

O2 Online PAYG "Talkalot" is exactly like Orange Talk and Save - 25ppm for the first 3 minutes. The Offline "Talkalot" is the same. The offline "Original" plan is the same as the Orange "Choose your own off peak" plan - 10ppm off peak, 35ppm peak. However you don't get to choose your off peak hours.

If you are calling specific numbers, then Tesco allow you to nominate 3 numbers for a 50% discount. This brings down call charges to 10ppm at any time, so your 2 minutes a day would cost £5.60 per month.

Finally, Vodafone. "Smartplus" is a peak/offpeak tariff, cheaper than any others covered so far. 5ppm off peak, 30ppm peak. So if you can confine your usage to off-peak hours, you could spend as little as £2.80 per month. Using a 30-day pack will mean you are spending a minimum of £10 but recieve 20 off peak minutes per day (however it might be a little much for your usage habits) "Smartstep" is another of the "Talk and Save" plans, however this is even more expensive - 30ppm for the first 3 minutes.

So! My suggestions. If you can confine yourself to off-peak hours then choose Vodafone "Smartplus". If you want the flexibility of being able to choose some off-peak hours then go for Orange's "Choose Your Own Off Peak". If you need to talk at anytime, then I suggest Virgin. The 2 minutes of calls you make a day would cost 30p, cheaper than any other networks' offerings. If you only call specific numbers then Tesco can also be considered, especially if you want to call at any time.

Current Orange: £14.00 per month

Switch to Smartplus: £2.80 per month
(Based on Off Peak calling Only)

Switch to Orange Peak/OffPeak: £5.60 per month
(Based on Off Peak calling Only)

Switch to Virgin: £8.40 per month
(Anytime)

Switch to Tesco: £5.60 per month
(3 Nominated Numbers Only, Anytime)

Good luckl!

Virgin Mobile, no 5p minimum charge, and same cost peak or offpeak, only have to top up £5 at a time, or can go on direct debit, at no extrra charge.

Virgin Mobile

Orange have three "tiers" of PAYG, you are on "talkalot" where the rate goes down after 3 minutes. You can call customer services and change to "choose your own off peak" or "flat rate all day" where there is no peak or off peak, calls are one flat rate.

Just call 450 from your Orange handset Hope that helps

Orange? 20p a min all the time, or a offpeak of 4 hours? Orange are a joke, also have a 5pmin call charge, and 12p for texts.

Get everyone on virgin, once your on virgin, get ya mates on, you get £10 credit for everyone you add, and can add 8 a year. Also, flash your virgin phone in virgin megastore and get 10% free credit back from how much you spend. So spend £20 an get £2 for free. Also , yeah there's more, If you happen to be a heavy user one month, and spend over £30, you get 10% back free the next month.( if you top up by credit/debit card.

The saving would most likely be negated by getting a new handset, porting over the number etc...

Also, Virgin piggybacks on the tmobile network which still only provides 97% population coverage, unlike Orange's 99% coverage.

Also, what are roaming agreements etc... like with Virgin? Orange is cited as having great customer services, fantastic voicemail, good roaming etc...

With a provider there is more to consider than JUST the call cost, there is the TCO and the Customer Experience

Why get a new handset? A Virgin SIM costs £10 and that includes £5 of call credit. It costs nothing to port a number. Just get the present phone unlocked if it needs to be. Also Virign offer free voicemail unlike all the others and also have good 24 hour Customer Service at less cost than the other networks on a PAYG tariff.

Hasn't this thread now veered too far away from the simple question that was asked by Cookie? Light users aren't likely to want roaming arrangements and 2% less coverage has never been a problem to me and I don't live in a big city.

Someone seems to think they know everything.

'All mobile phone networks now offer 99% UK population coverage.
'

roaming, cheaper than all other networks. free voicemail. 10p per call to coust. serv. 24hours.

Coustomer Experience? hmmm... http://www.virginmobile.com/mobile/m...ry.jsp?id=4565

Customer services are free to call from Orange,

Calls on virgin are 15p for the first 5 minutes, and 5 p after that, orange talkalot is 25p for the firt 3 minutes, and 5p a minute after that, so a 10 minute call on both neworks would be £1

For roaming, Virgin are crap, they charge 95p a minute to make calls from europe!!

They charge 15p a minute for national calls, customer service isn't free!

For some they may be fine, but if most of your aclls are to other networks, then they may not be the best???

I did a quick google on "virgin moile UK reviews" seems they ent all as great as you make out either sean.

I'm on orange to, and cant call coust. care. free.

so, the person is a light user, so they make a 2min call , cost them 50p on orange, 30p on virgin, i'm a hevyish user make 20min of calls in a day, cost me £1.50, and on orange £1.60.

Think your wrong with what you said "so a 10 minute call on both neworks would be £1"

orange: 25 x 3 = 75 + 5 x 7 = 35 total £1.10

virgin: 15 x 5 = 75 + 5 x 5 = £1.00

Think you need to go back to do some maths at school, ANYWAY, 'Cookie' asked our opinions, they have them , and i hope his/her maths is better than joe's.

Using abroad (which was not mentioned anyway)

{Europe 1}

Orange:

make call 120p

receive call 60p

text 40p

Virgin

make call 95p

receive call 60p

text 35p

okok, i appologise for the maths!

How about though... With orange, the 25p a minute for the first 3 minutes is the first 3 minutes of the day... not of that call! Whereas virgin is first 5 minutes of the call???

First 5min of the day (resets at 4.00am)

also x-net calls at 35p a min, count towards your 5p price drop.

x-net on orange also more at 40p.

Thanks for all that - Virgin may be worth considering.

What really annoyed me about Orange was when they changed their charges, their call charges for existing customers also changed, which for me actually doubled the charges on calls that I had already paid for.

I used to be on Just Talk and if I got a £50 top up it gave me half price calls, which only worked out at 5p per minute off peak, and I could choose my off peak hours as you can now. I had only just purchased a new £50 top up when the new off peak charges of 10p came in and that did not include half price calls for those who pay £50 for each top up. I think that they could at least have let me use my £50 worth of calls first before they doubled the price for me! I know it doesn't sound a lot to grumble about but Oragne actuaslly doubled the price for me when they were advertising that their charges were going down!

Just moved from Orange Pay and go myself. There tarrif's are just a joke now. I ended up getting the anytime 100 from Yodafone. Only £15 a month with free txts

I'm on Virgin, I think they provide a great service:

Standard Calls:
5p/minute ofr the first 5 mins/day, 5p/min thereafter
Standard calls are defined as: Calls to Virgin Mobiles, landlines, and some freephone numbers and WAP calls
Text Messages
10p to other networks
3p to Virgin mobiles
Voicemail, Virgin Xtras and pre recorded information at 789
free

free phone numbers:
Standard rates, except those listed at www.Virgin.com/Mobile

Calls to other network operators
35p/min (there's the sting)

International Text Messages
20p to any location

Picture Messaging, as of July 1st
30p

And if you pay by direct debit with Virgin.

[Europe]

Make a call 60p

Receive a call 30p

Send text 25p

I'm on Virgin, I think they provide a great service:

Standard Calls:
5p/minute ofr the first 5 mins/day, 5p/min thereafter
Standard calls are defined as: Calls to Virgin Mobiles, landlines, and some freephone numbers and WAP calls
Text Messages
10p to other networks
3p to Virgin mobiles
Voicemail, Virgin Xtras and pre recorded information at 789
free

free phone numbers:
Standard rates, except those listed at www.Virgin.com/Mobile

Calls to other network operators
35p/min (there's the sting)

International Text Messages
20p to any location

Picture Messaging, as of July 1st
30p


Just as a comparision:
ROAMING: Europe to United Kingdom
Calling UK from Europe
Orange: £1.20/MIN
T-Mobile: £1.00/MIN
Virgin Mobile: 95p/MIN

RECEIVING CALLS IN EUROPE[/b]
Orange: 60p/min
T-Mobile: £1.00/min
Virgin: 60p/min

SENDING TEXT MESSAGES
Orange: 40p
T-Mobile: 40p to UK 50p to abroad
Virgin: 35P

Calling Europe from UK
Orange: 25p/min
Virgin: 20p/min



Text Messaging Europe:
Orange: 20p
Virgin 20p

Virgin Mobile charges are for the zone: "Europe", Orange: "Europe 1" (country selescted: Malta, price same in each country) T-Mobile: Malta

I will admit, yes, the calls to other networks are a bit steep, and it is free to talk to Virgin staff for some reasons.

I would definately consider Virgin Mobile as they are great in my opinion too! If you have an eBay account then buy a joining pack from there, i have seen them go for £2 odds but you have to add postage and packaging costs on top of that though, but they are brand new most of them unless they don't say brand new. Good luck!