EasyMobile Sim
Wednesday 1st June 2005 12:25:00 PM
I ordered an EasyMobile sim card yesterday feeling the pinch of my current network T-Mobile. Seems like it will be a good deal, here are the pro's and con's of EasyMobile, if there's anything I've missed let me know.
Pros
- Special offer untill the end of June, sms messages are 2p and calls are 6p per minute to any network any time.
- After this period sms messages are 5p and calls are 15p per minute to any network any time. T-Mobile charge 10p for messages and 40p for calls to the same network and 50p to others.
- Calls are charged per second but are quoted to the minute, once again making every penny count which Easy are great at.
- You can choose your number from those available, gold numbers are available for £25. I chose a normal number that is close to gold and is easy to remember. EasyMobile numbers begin with 079624 so I decided to make it 07962 44 XX 4X which is good enough. Your present number can be transferred over if you wish.
- Buying a sim costs £5 and you receive £5 free credit, which is cool.
- Recommend a friend to receive £5 free credit but they have to enter your mobile number at registration which I don't think many will.
- Auto refill your account automatically when your credit is below £2, the minimum is £10. I have decided to have this feature enabled so I don't run out of credit.
- An up to date itemised invoice can be viewed online or if you prefer you can request one to be posted for a charge of £2.
- It uses the T-Mobile network so it's coverage is one of the best, over 99% of the UK.
- Next day delivery by Royal Mail.
Cons
- Available to purchase online only, they say this is to keep prices low. If EasyMobile don't reach their desired number of customers I think this will be the reason why.
- If you don't have auto refill enabled increasing your credit will cost you 25p.
- If you use less than £5 in a three month period you will be charged 75p. Not a problem for me as I use way more than this!
- If you loose your SIM card and need a new one, you will be charged £3.
- Change of ownership costs £10.
There are two controversial costs and I will quote them from the EasyMobile website
- Account blocking fee £5
easyMobile allows customers to have a negative balance of up to £10 for up to three days. But we will tell customers in advance that their account balance is close to zero. Warning will be sent by email and SMS. easyMobile believes this is a good service for customers, however if your negative balance remains for longer than 3 days, or you exceed the £10 limit you risk having your account restricted which will cost £5 to restore full service.
- Reopen a lost or stolen phone £5
If you have recovered your phone after having it reported as lost or stolen we charge you a fee to reactivate your phone. This fee covers our expenses regarding reactivating your phone.
I am not too fond of them allowing customers to have a negative balance of £10. The avarage consumer is likely to think this is ok, not knowing that if they have a negative balance for more than three days they will presented with a fine for £5. Not consumer friendly nice at all. Obviously this can be avoided by enabling auto refill.
As with every other service the rule of thumb is watch out! Keep in the know and avoid getting screwed over because all businesses want to do is make the most they can from each customer. I should be recieving my sim card tomorrow and I'll let you know how good thier service is. Is EasyMobile really the cheapest at the moment?
I also posted about
EasyMobile when it first
launched in March.
Posted by Piniyini in
Mobile
Blog Posts
I think the negative balance thing is good because if you are out of credit and it's an emergency you can still call, the only problem is if people go into negative a lot without good reason.
Your right easyMobile are selling ?10 notes for ?5 in order to get margket share!
I have had my sim for exactly 2 months now and have not had a single problem with calls or texts. Setting up the voicemail was the hardest thing to do and that took about 2 minutes. Can't fault them, I'm very happy with the service.
Will easyMobile service survive in UK?
I just wonder how they could be soooo cheap?