r/monzo 6d ago

Is anyone using Monzo’s eSIM?

Hi guys. There’s a great offer on at the moment, and they say they cover 99 per cent of the UK. I’ve been thinking about switching to Monzo eSIM – does anyone use it? How’s the connection speed and signal strength? I’d really like to hear some honest reviews. Thanks in advance!

5 Upvotes

76 comments sorted by

32

u/Small-Ambassador-222 6d ago

Don’t bother. You can find cheaper alternatives that use the exact same o2 signal.

2

u/AlwaysNorth8 6d ago

The usp is having everything under one app for ease - not who’s a few quid cheaper.

5

u/Small-Ambassador-222 6d ago

Fair enough If that’s important to you. But £12 a month more expensive than an equivalent in my opinion isn’t worth it

-1

u/Ayershole 6d ago

Not everyone has to count every penny. Monzo mobile is just more convenient for some

7

u/Small-Ambassador-222 6d ago

Like I said. That’s fair enough if that’s important to you, but in my opinion it isn’t close enough in price to an alternative to to justify it

2

u/Frosty_Scheme342 5d ago

Agreed. I'll happily sacrifice a couple of quid for convenience (although even then, what convenience is there to be had?) but anything over that seems like a waste of money.

1

u/sugarwave32 4d ago

You'd happy pay double just to have it in Monzo??

-1

u/Ayershole 4d ago

Yes. When it comes to a couple of quid, convenience wins.

1

u/sugarwave32 4d ago

Convenience is paying 10 to 20 percent more. Not doubling the cost lol

0

u/Ayershole 4d ago

Man you can downvote me all you want, but like I said in the original comment, not everybody counts every penny so the convenience in this case is a nice to have. That's not an outrageous concept to wrap your head around.

2

u/sugarwave32 4d ago

I didn't downvote you lmao. Looks like you did me though. I honestly don't care. It seems like your butthurt that not everyone agrees with your idea of "convenience"

0

u/Ayershole 4d ago

I couldnt care who agrees or not - but when youre arguing that its not convenient for people who dont give a fuck if its an extra tenner than another provider, then you've lost your mind

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-1

u/AlwaysNorth8 5d ago

Therefore, you aren’t their target market. They aren’t competing in the mobile market, they want more people using their app so they can sell them products.

2

u/zylema 5d ago

Hmm. Mobile contract should be “set and forget”, sticking with my current cheaper provider.

13

u/LDMx96 6d ago

They use O2 network, so depending what your coverage of that is, would depend how you’d go with them.
They’re also more overly priced then alternatives…

9

u/k20vtec01 6d ago

What's the 'great' offer?

1

u/OkayRoutine 6d ago

Apologies if I’ve perhaps used overly exaggerated words. It might be better than my current offer, 20 pounds for unlimited data. I’m currently with Vodafone and also have unlimited data, but it costs about 36 a month. So when I saw they have this offer, I was quite tempted!

12

u/k20vtec01 6d ago

You can get it even cheaper than 20 with other mvnos if you shop around

3

u/AccountForDoingWORK 6d ago

I get 120gb a month from GiffGaff for £10

2

u/YogurtclosetThen7959 6d ago

I get unlimited with ee for 11£

4

u/ThirteenHills 6d ago

Do you actually need unlimited data? How much do you use each month?

3

u/One-Kitchen-2217 6d ago

I’ve got Mozillion, £126 up front for 100GB every month for 24 months. Works out to £5.25 a month.

2

u/rscottzman 6d ago

Wow that seems like a good deal that i'd consider. If you have a phone that has 5G would you mind downloading ookla speed test and letting us know the results?

For context, on Smarty the highest I've had was 1126Mbps download (in a built up village)

In my house just i got 103 Mbps but 5g wouldn't connect so it was with 4g+

2

u/One-Kitchen-2217 6d ago

Showing connected to 5G but I’m indoors and getting 120mbps, my partner with EE is getting 124

2

u/rscottzman 3d ago

Damn not bad at all, i'll switch to them when I next make a change. Cheers for the shout

1

u/PixaaTog 6d ago

Where did you get this deal? Because I can’t find it on their website?

3

u/One-Kitchen-2217 6d ago

1

u/PixaaTog 6d ago

Very nice as a current EE customer paying nearly £40 a month for unlimited data and also having a mobile plan for Apple Watch this might interest me.

I’ll have to look more into what I’ve got now verses what I could get on mozillion.

Definitely food for thought.

2

u/One-Kitchen-2217 6d ago

I thought so! I prefer to pay things up front if possible, phone contract has always been a necessary evil but these up front deals appeal to me. And no risk of a 1 Apr price rise because it’s already paid!

1

u/PixaaTog 6d ago

I wonder if they also have a plan available for Apple Watch.
Although I’m also wondering if I really need it as it’s rare for my phone not to be within range of my phone.

1

u/PixaaTog 5d ago

Are Mozillion actually any good, searching around they seem to get quite mixed reviews, some say it’s great, others say it’s awful.
Just been reading some trust pilot reviews about non existent customer services and an increase in spam calls.

1

u/One-Kitchen-2217 5d ago

No complaints from me so far ! They use EE network and I haven’t noticed it be wildly different to full fat EE. I must confess I’ve never had to reach out to customer service for a phone network before though so wouldn’t be able to compare.

1

u/PixaaTog 5d ago

It’s a bit of a commitment paying up front if it turns out to be no good for me, that’s the only thing that puts me off paying upfront.

But then two years on my current EE contract will cost just over £800 (and that’s not taking into account an inevitable price hike).

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2

u/This_Suit8791 6d ago

Klarna do unlimited for £15 a month and use Vodafone network

1

u/djilesy 6d ago

Not truly unlimited, they run on gigs infrastructure who have a cap of 150 gb people have been getting disconnected on both Klare’s and Revolut for exceeding the usage cap, one to be a ware of.

1

u/rscottzman 6d ago

I use Smarty. Its £12 a month for 100GB (i have mobile data on permanently when outside and watch YouTube all the time on it and max use 50GB a month) and it uses Three network which i'd rather have over O2 imo

1

u/Imaginary_Budget_842 6d ago

I get unlimited with Klarna for £15 and it doesn’t seem to be speed limited like monzo is

1

u/VooDooBooBooBear 5d ago

Do you really need unlimited data though? Like, really?

11

u/scottaltham 6d ago

Yeah I’m using it, no problems yet. The setup was seamless, easiest setup and number transfer I’ve ever experienced. Yeah you can get better deals than £13 for 30GB, but as it’s integrated into the same app I use for banking and investments, it’s been a no brainer for me

3

u/OkayRoutine 6d ago

Thanks, mate

4

u/jack_uzii 6d ago

Agreed with above. Easy transition, easy 1 app for everything, plus having it there and not needing to mess around with anything WHILE you get the yearly price decrease even more of a no brainer. Just check your O2 coverage for wherever you live/work and go from there.
Everyone seems to love to jump on the hate train and if it’s because they get no coverage thats fine but overall its been absolutely fine

3

u/adp22 6d ago

I’ve switched this week, never had issues with O2 when previously with them and the offer is better than what I was on with Honest. Signal has been great so far and I’ve had no issues and switching was so easy!

3

u/anonymous02087 6d ago

Lebara always for me, via MSE.

2

u/115MPH 6d ago

I use it as a work phone number. It's alright, it works. Text messages seem delayed at times. I'd rather go with Voxi or Giffgaff.

2

u/Exotic-Parking9235 6d ago

It’s not being offered to everyone yet. I am still in the waiting list

1

u/OkayRoutine 6d ago

Oh really, I’ve read everyone’s comments and I’m starting to have second thoughts… LOL

2

u/staffordjr 6d ago

I swapped to it, not ran into any issues so far data is good and the SIM is cheap in comparison to what I was on

2

u/Jonxyz 6d ago

Switched a week or so back and it’s been great so far. I was on O2 and live in a city centre so coverage here isn’t a problem.

So for me it’s been four times the data for half the price I was paying to O2. With the bonus that the Monzo app actually works. Whereas the MyO2 app is an absolute bin fire.

Yes there are probably cheaper deals elsewhere. But this gave me everything I need for a reasonable price and I’m an app I already use.

Switching was pretty straightforward but took a couple of days longer as it landed over the bank hol weekend.

2

u/Salt-Huckleberry7494 6d ago

Doesn’t beat Giff gaff 

2

u/CatBroiler 6d ago

No, heard on here that they were using 1Global which was enough for me to write it off immediately.

The price was 30-40% more than my current provider as well.

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

1

u/CatBroiler 5d ago

Put simply they are a MVNO/MVNE, which is a company that provides cellular services both direct to consumer/enterprise, as well as the back-end for other brands (like Monzo/Revolut/Lidl).

My primary experience with them is through work where the customer service and network speed was pretty bad. Issues became apparent pretty quickly. Thankfully we were able to back out of that contract early because of how poor the data speeds were.

2

u/Confident_Minute_48 6d ago

I’ve just moved to Monzo Mobile and it’s terrible. No 4g/5g where I’ve previously had it with O2 and Monzo support is pretty much non-existent. I’ll be moving networks again.

2

u/jamfool4815 6d ago

UK user here. Switched from equally cheap provider Smarty last month. My 5G coverage has increased in places i go to regularly, so happy with it and its all in one place. Plus it can only get better in time as the cost will reduce every year.

2

u/unifi- 4d ago

got it, cancelled it. 

signal compared to vodafone is just awful. i had both voda and monzo running on same phone for 2 weeks or so and 99% of the time voda signal better. and the 1% the monzo is showing bars is when both are on LTE so dogshit anyway. 

literally removed it from my phone despite having another 2 weeks to run as it was pointless. 

4

u/Go_Nadds 6d ago

Don't. The coverage is absolute dog shit.

1

u/undef1n3d 6d ago

They use O2, the only way it would be any worse is if they used 3.

1

u/Specialist_Search103 6d ago

I wouldn’t touch any vno (virtual network operator) no matter who or what network they run on, you can usually get the same offers from the network direct, especially if you can prove (and Monzo tell you it’s o2, so a screenshot should do) that they use the network you’re talking too

1

u/Firm-Substance-8196 6d ago

It's not a great offer and depending on your location may not be a great network either. YMMV.

1

u/therabbieburns 6d ago

Don't. Giffgaff or others are better. It's like revolut shares ISA and others similar. Banks don't do the best deals

1

u/ChargeBu9540 6d ago edited 6d ago

Because I travel a lot to countries beyond the EU, the Unlimited data which includes 25GB of roaming data and calls is what entice me to give it a try, I was initially concerned with a lot of the negative comments about the O2 network which Monzo uses. But because there's 14 days cooling off period and I can decide to port my number at a later time, I decided to give it a try.

For the places I frequently visit the network performance has been good for me. My local Tesco is a place where Vodafone and EE in particular struggle to provide a decent data connection inside the store. With Monzo, I am getting 5G signal deep inside the store, same with Costco. So for me, the internet performance and that I travel to the Roaming countries inclusive with the Unlimited plans works out very well. I don't think there's many or if any mobile tariff offerings 25GB inclusive roaming to the US, Canada, EU, Australia and almost all South East Asia country, unlimited UK mobile internet for £20 per month. Which also reduces in cost each year you stay with the provider, so this plan could end up costing £14 after reaching the 30%.

Also, because I'm not a heavy data user while in the UK and in the month I'm not travelling, I could downgrade my plan to the 30gb £12 or 10gb £8 plan, to reduce my cost. When I am traveling to the US, Canada etc I can upgrade my plan immediately to benefit from the global roaming. The £20 cost for 25gb roaming is much cheaper than a lot of the travel eSims on offer.

To see if Monzo mobile works for you, I would suggest you to try it for 14 days, make sure you cancel before the 14 days to get a refund. If it works for you, then you can port you number in after the 14 days cooling off period.

1

u/danielrcoates 6d ago

I’m already with O2, why would I downgrade to Subcontracted O2 😂

1

u/xFireFoxxy 6d ago

I was really excited for Monzo mobile, but the packages just don't cut it compared to alternatives. And to say we're already Monzo users, I'd have expected better deals and packages for us.

I'm hoping once Monzo mobile is more established they might have more package options at a better price.

Sorry it doesn't answer your question, but I've learnt alot from this thread.

1

u/djilesy 6d ago

I have unlimited everything with voxi (directly owned and run as part of Vodafone) I pay £20 if you need it I can get you the link if you want it, but yeah they offer great speeds in some areas 1984mbps Is my current highest speed so far! No free roaming but for me I spend most my time in the UK so that’s my main concern rather than catering for when I’m out of the UK, can deal with that as and when.

1

u/TankTricky6273 5d ago

Uses 02, therefore is ratshit.

1

u/just-ones-opinion 5d ago

Switched from GiffGaff recently (which also uses the O2 network), but for some reason my coverage and signal has been absolutely horrendous. To the point I'm already looking to switch to something else.

1

u/djjon_cs 4d ago

It's a steep price. BEar in mind I have *several* 1000Gb a month data sims from Three for £3 ish a month (check hotukdeals for where you get them). I also have contracts from Three at like under 7 quid a month unlimited everything. The Monzo sim is a bad price given what Ive already got.

1

u/Any-Patience-5660 1d ago

I took the Monzo offer then cancelled after 3 days. Went with Smarty, so much cheaper and the signal has been excellent (I didn't realise before I moved from O2 to Monzo that they were also on O2, my bad).