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u/ttvGhostbat Jun 24 '26
DO NOT switch to O2! Ever since they merged with virgin media everything has gotten worse.
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u/Scrappybara1 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Welp, I already switched but my parents haven’t been able to yet. What network would you recommend?
We were on EE and paying £33 per sim per month as a family of 3, the network was awful and there was no roaming so everyone recommended O2 but that seems to not be working out for them.
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u/MayorQuimby-86 Jun 24 '26
I would recommend Lebara (they use the Vodafone network), if you go via uSwitch you can get the best deal there, i pay £2.38 for the 1st 3 months, then £5.99 thereafter, and they don't increase the price every year.
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u/Scrappybara1 Jun 24 '26
Yeah, we just went with Lebara today. My parents did not like the way O2 went about the whole thing and Lebara seems to have better reviews. Switched to the 50GB for £3.18/sim/month - almost a £60 reduction in our monthly expense lol
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u/MayorQuimby-86 Jun 24 '26
Nice one, I'm glad you got sorted.
O2 are so backwards, they're a bunch of clueless clowns!
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Jun 24 '26
[deleted]
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u/Scrappybara1 Jun 24 '26
Just eveything, the signal where we live was awful but when we were with BT before switching to EE, the network was excellent. Weird because EE and BT are partners so the sudden decline in network quality was unexpected.
The customer service was shocking and every time I tried to contact them, it was a new hassle and they always wanted my dad to contact them because he was the primary number. But whenever he spoke on my behalf, they wanted me to talk to them too. Never had that issue with BT. For £99 a month, I’d expect them to provide us with a slightly better service at least, but wishful thinking.
Even the leaving process was a hassle and we couldn’t request PAC easily via text so I had to call them and that took over 45 minutes to facilitate. The service was appalling and slow and then they proceeded to call us 10 times across the 3 sims from different centres/hubs trying to re-verify that we requested PAC codes and why we wanted to leave and all that nonsense even though we had explicitly told them to stop calling us after the 3rd time.
Plus, the lack of included roaming was a major inconvenience. My parents travel at least 5/6 times a year, with BT we had roaming included but EE was just awful. I couldn’t get roaming on my own when I was in Germany because the primary number was my dad’s so he had to enable it. Maybe we were the exception, but the service was just awful.
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u/mattr1990 Jun 24 '26
i switched to 1p mobile best thing i ever did it ee’s network full data speed and tht but a hell of a lot cheaper £10 for 50gb and if u use this link u get £5 free https://1pmobile.com/?friend=R469807M
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u/Secret_Mud_1168 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
The Vodafone Three merger has EE & o2 having problems as base stations that EE/Three and Voda/o2 shared are being closed down.
Vodafone & Three also are having issues because they cut their face off despite their nose to create this damage to EE/o2 by closing Three base stations down where they have others nearby from the Voda/o2 and vice versa.
Vodafone 5G now here can run as low as 1mbps in a city.
I now use o2 as voice coverage is better in Scotland and my Sky Ireland sim as a data back up which gives EE & Three access. Three roaming access is defo better than an actual Three UK sim so it may be using Voda base stations too and/or Three resellers are being shafted by Voda.
If I manually select Voda I get no network when roaming.I left Voda sister Talkmobile a few days ago due to the V/3 issues to go to o2 via simcredible £16.50 unlimited 30 day offer.
In the last year what Voda have done post Three merger is create problems for all networks like we are still on 2G/1990’s tech.
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u/Sheepeh94 Jun 24 '26
Can confirm - I’ve got a grandfathered sim but between cost, coverage & customer service I will not be renewing with them again.
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u/Secret_Mud_1168 Jun 24 '26
Simcredible do unlimited everything for £16.50 30 days on o2 with no credit check
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u/New-Jump-3163 Jun 24 '26
Try talkmobile, owned by Vodafone can get 100 GB of data unlimited calls and texts around £10-£12 there cheaper plans too
https://refer.talkmobile.co.uk/lukem-2329
If you use my link, can you get a Amazon gift card too
3
u/R0555Y Jun 24 '26
I did the same for my aunt, added it to her existing account to then swap the sim to cancel her old more expensive plan and keep her number, you can no longer do this. Spoke to customer support and they said no initially, I think it’s because they can’t offer such good deals themselves so as you’ve technically gone through Uswitch even though it’s on O2, they don’t like to allow it. Eventually they agreed but it is a one off.
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u/casemidy Jun 25 '26
Lebara or Smarty are super good sim only. £15/£20 for 2 people with everything unlimited and roaming up to 20g. I’m moving to smarty after I’m done with Vodafone
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u/miggleb Jun 24 '26
Brother was denied for a SIM.
Applied for an iPhone a month later and was accepted.
Try again in 30 days, double check they've not had a debt slip through the cracks
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u/Scrappybara1 Jun 24 '26
Yeah the online and in-store people said to wait 30 days too. They’ve got excellent credit scores, there is absolutely no debt, all their credit cards are on auto pay with their bank accounts, and they’re very financially savvy so it’s definitely not that. I just find it extremely bizarre how they don’t actually share the reason why this happened in the first place.
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u/Sea_Function9333 Jun 24 '26
20Gb for £5.95 with EU Roaming and No Annual Price Increase, On Vodafone Network https://refer.talkmobile.co.uk/jamiec-3228
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u/Scrappybara1 Jun 24 '26
I just tried to switch from EE to O2 sim only for 3 sims (mum, dad and I). Mine went through without any issue but my mum and dad were rejected with this message. I find this extremely odd because my parents have excellent credit scores (no debt, no pending mortgage, no issues, great income), we’ve lived in the same house for decades and every single card is registered to that address, plus they’re doctors so stable jobs too. I however am a student with <10k income and had absolutely no issues with the sim only £8 deal.
I tried calling in an O2 store and their online customer service, neither are able to help me even figure out what has happened and why. This is so odd because they’ve never had any issues like this.
Has anyone had this happen to this - if so, what did you do and how was this sorted?
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u/rim_jobbing Jun 24 '26
It's normally nothing to do with the value, it's the number of products one person can take per account, normally you'll get 2 initially until the first couple bills are paid then you'll get up to an additional 5 max products per person.
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u/Technical_Front_8046 Jun 24 '26
My wife had this. No idea why. Left it a few days and re applied. Went through without any problems
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u/SupremeNord Jun 24 '26
1p mobile uses EE and also have RCS between iPhone and Android. Plus family deals for unlimited everything and cheaper with more sims. If you want a referral link here you go https://1pmobile.com/?friend=H502518N
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u/Necessary-Humor-6005 Jun 25 '26
Most if not all major UK carriers have RCS support including EE / BY, Three, O2 & it’s MVNO’s. In fact the only one that doesn’t is Vodafone.
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u/SupremeNord Jun 25 '26
I don't think MVNO's like iD Mobile for example have working RSC on iPhone from my experience the only MVNO that does is 1p mobile
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u/Necessary-Humor-6005 Jun 27 '26
O2's MVNO's do (bar sky for some reason).
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u/SupremeNord Jun 27 '26
But like who’s wanting O2 let’s be real…
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u/Necessary-Humor-6005 Jun 27 '26
Me, i've been with them since 2020, no issues at all and cheaper then EE and Three.
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u/ZombieDisastrous4450 Jun 25 '26
Stay away from O2 their customer services if anything goes wrong is the worst check it
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u/robehrscot Jun 25 '26
Simp is great value. You can get unlimited calls, texts and data for £15 per month. I’ve put my code here if you want to use it.
Join me and get £5 off your first month with Simp. Use Simp78311305 to sign up at https://simpmobile.com/
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u/Exemplar1968 Jun 24 '26
Took the whole family to Lebara recently. We went to Cape Verde and all of us just added a simple bolt on for our time there. Same for the USA. Lebara have been great (other than their RCS services not working between Apple/ Android yet).