I'm currently on the Simplicity plan where I top up £10 a month and get 100 minutes plus unlimited texts. I recently changed my number and only gave it to a handful of people, so there is no way I need that much allowance.

I have been looking on their website to find out how to go back to actual PAYG, where I can top up and pay for each text and call as I make them, but they don't seem to have that any more. I would like to avoid calling customer service as I find them a nightmare.

Can anybody tell me if PAYG even exists now and if so, how I get back on it? If I just top up £5, will it be PAYG?

As I understand it, they've now set up a monthly cheap PAYG-a-like and they've also got Pay & Go, both on Simplicity.

The monthly one allows you to do small amounts like 10 quid a month every month on direct debit. The Pay & Go one allows you to top up whenever you like. The more you top up, the more things you get for free. eg if you put 10 quid on you get about 100 free minutes and 500 free texts. Might as well take the free things if they're giving them away but I'm not sure if they have a time limit, otherwise, for instance, you'd never need to top the phone up again cos 500 texts would probably last you for a long time.

Each allowance only lasts for one calendar month.

Ah I suspected as much

The thing is they deduct the £10 as soon as I top it up and give me the 100 minutes and texts in exchange. If I paid for each text and minute I don't think I would spend £10 a month so I am worse off on the plan

If you go on a PAYG plan, they'll still take the £10 immediately when you top up, there aren't any plans where they only debit you the cost of the text or call when you actually make it.

Nonsense, its only Simplicity for Pay and Go that 'takes ' your credit (and that's once a month, notwhen you top up). On all the other tariffs you pay for the cost of the call or text plus you get a free allowance.

Its easy to change, and you can change once a month. Either log in to My O2, use the contact stored in your SIM, use the option in the O2 menu on your handset or use the text shortcodes listed on the O2 website.

Thanks prking, I was reading the tariffs on the site wrong. I missed where it said "on top of your credit you get" and I assumed it was like simplicity, where they would take the £10 in exchange.

That's sorted then

You have to pay up front. Every company works like that. They always have. You spend £10 on credit and then your calls and texts are deducted from that amount. You don't have to put £10 on it every month. The Pay & Go scheme just lets you put some credit on the phone and then you use it up as you go along. When you get to zero (or close to it) stick another tenner on it. It doesn't matter if it takes you a year to do that.

I know, that is why I wanted an actual PAYG scheme rather than the Simplicity plan.

What was happening is I would top up £10, it would be deducted and I would be given 100 minutes & unlimited texts for the month. The month would go by without me using anywhere near that much but I would have £0 credit until I topped up again and had another monthly allowance. I have now switched to a plan where my £10 can last a year, as you said, if I don't use it. So I'm better off

It shouldn't work like that. You should have £10 regardless of whether you use up the free bits and still have the balance of the £10 at the end of the month. That's how the O2 pay and go works.

The free text and mins run out but the £10 don't unless you use it
You don't have to top-up every month that's only if you want to get the free mins and text

so long as you make or receive a call every 6months you don't have to top-up

But say you top-up 3mths from now you will get the free mins and text as usually

So really all you have to do is top-up £10 and make or receive a phone call every 6mths and your £10 could last you for years.

just throwing it out there, but you could change to giffgaff and pay 10p per minute for calls and 6p per texts rather than 25p per minute calls and 12p texts.

bear in mind you'd still technically be on the o2 network.

disclaimer: im not trying to sell you anything for my own benefit. giffgaff is not a pyramid scheme

That's right for normal pay and go, but the OP is on Simplicity Pay and Go, which has a bigger allowance but a monthly charge. (Basically - you are talking at cross purposes )

But she's asking if you can go back to normal PAYG and the answer is yes you can and it works exactly how she wants it to. That's what the first reply says.

You top up by £10, that £10 goes out of your bank account when you do the topup. There are no plans where you sign up and the cost of the call goes off your bank account as you use them.

The only difference between topping up manually once a month for £10 or being on a contract for £10 a month, as far as the money in your bank goes, is that you choose when the money goes out with a manual top-up.

That's what I put in my first post. It's not "nonsense" you just didn't read it properly.

I put an old o2 sim into my old phone as I knew I had credit on it, it hadn't been used for over two years but it seems to still be able to text sms and browse plus make calls.

Question is, will I have to top up soon being that it's back in a phone?

Can you buy additional one-off data bundles on O2 Pay as you go & if so how much please? Thanks

I live and work within my postcode so I use Favourite place on O2 I get 500 minutes a month to landlines and O2 mobiles and 0300 numbers etc and still keep the £10 top up. But you must top up a tenner a month to keep it but you can leave it a few months use your credit and top up again and it's reactivated.

I'm confused, this doesn't answer my question about one-off data bundles

They don't show any on their web page, so probably not.

http://www.o2.co.uk/tariffs/payandgo

https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/tariffs/bolt-ons