O2 launches ‘Pay & Go Go Go’: Calls, texts & internet from £10/month, doubles after 3 months
July 19th, 2012
O2′s new “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff starts from £10/month with 75 minutes, 500 texts and 100MB data.
O2 have today launched their new Pay As You Go tariff dubbed “Pay & Go Go Go”. Starting from £10/month, the new tariff offers customers a bundle of minutes, texts and internet which is purchased from Pay As You Go credit. The bundles starts at £10/month for 75 minutes, 500 texts and 100MB internet but this automatically doubles after the first 3 months. Unlimited texts are also offered after 9 months as a loyalty bonus.
O2 are offering the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff to existing customers, new customers who purchase a phone from them and new customers who order a free SIM card from them.
Contents
- 1 What airtime allowances come with the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff?
- 2 How much do calls and texts cost outside of the inclusive allowances?
- 3 What happens if I don’t top-up in a given month?
- 4 What is the meaning of 100MB or 250MB internet?
- 5 What are the alternatives to O2 “Pay & Go Go Go”?
- 6 What is O2 coverage like where I live?
- 7 I’m an existing O2 customer. How do I switch to the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff?
- 8 I’m switching to O2. Can I keep my existing phone number?
- 9 Is it possible to get “Pay & Go Go Go” with a micro-SIM card?
- 10 Where can I get this deal?
What airtime allowances come with the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff?
O2 offers two variants of the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff: one costing £10/month and the other costing £20/month. Both tariffs offer an inclusive allowance of calls, texts and internet usage which automatically doubles when you’ve been on the tariff for more than 3 months.
On the £10/month tariff, you’ll get:
| Time Spent on Plan* | Monthly Cost | Minutes | Texts | Internet | Rewards** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 3 months | £10/month | 75 | 500 | 100MB | 5% back on top ups |
| 3+ months | £10/month | 150 | 1,000 | 200MB | 5% back on top ups |
| 6+ months | £10/month | 150 | 1,000 | 200MB | 10% back on top ups |
| 9+ months | £10/month | 150 | Unlimited | 200MB | 10% back on top ups |
For the £20/month tariff, you’ll get:
| Time Spent on Plan* | Monthly Cost | Minutes | Texts | Internet | Rewards** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 3 months | £20/month | 250 | 2,500 | 250MB | 5% back on top ups |
| 3+ months | £20/month | 500 | 5,000 | 500MB | 5% back on top ups |
| 6+ months | £20/month | 500 | 5,000 | 500MB | 10% back on top ups |
| 9+ months | £20/month | 500 | Unlimited | 500MB | 10% back on top ups |
* Note that in order to receive your tariff upgrades after 3, 6 and 9 months, you’ll need to have topped up every single month. If you don’t top up in a given month, you’ll need to wait for an extra month before receiving your tariff upgrade. There is no obligation to top-up every month: if you do not top up in a given month, it does not reset your counter to zero.
** As part of their opt-in Pay & Go Rewards programme, O2 offers 5% back on your top-ups. This can be taken as additional airtime credit or high street vouchers. After 6 months, this increases to 10% back on your top-ups. If you top-up by £10 every month, you should expect to receive about £9 from the Rewards programme in your first year and £12 in your subsequent years.
The internet allowances stated in the tables above are for downloads over your mobile network (e.g. 2G or 3G). Downloads over your home wi-fi connection do not count towards this limit. O2 does not offer access to BT OpenZone wi-fi hotspots on the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff.
How much do calls and texts cost outside of the inclusive allowances?
“Pay & Go Go Go” bundles are purchased from your Pay As You Go credit.
Outside of your inclusive allowances, calls cost 25p per minute and text messages cost 12p each. For calls to O2 mobiles and landline numbers, the 25p/minute rate drops to 5p/minute for the rest of the day once you’ve made 3 minutes of calls. Accessing your voicemail costs 15p per minute.
If you exceed your inclusive download allowance, continued usage of mobile internet costs £1/day for up to 50MB data. Alternatively, you could continue to access the internet free of charge via your home wi-fi connection.
What happens if I don’t top-up in a given month?
If you don’t top up in a given month, you can continue to use your mobile phone at O2′s standard Pay As You Go rates. These are 25p per minute for calls (dropping to 5p per minute for landline calls and O2 calls after the first 3 minutes each day) and 12p per text message. Accessing the internet will cost £1 per day.
You will also need to wait an additional month before receiving your next tariff upgrade. The stated tariff upgrade times of 3 months, 6 months and 9 months assume that you will top up every single month.
What is the meaning of 100MB or 250MB internet?
The “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff comes with a download allowance of 100MB per month on the £10/month tariff and 250MB per month on the £20/month tariff. These are fairly modest figures – it’ll be fine for some basic web browsing and e-mail but downloading multimedia such as music, games, apps, video and photos will quickly use up your allowance. 100MB and 250MB approximately correspond to:
| 100MB corresponds to… | 250MB corresponds to… | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic webpages (mainly text) | 1,000 | 2,500 |
| Rich webpages (with multimedia, e.g. BBC) | 300 | 750 |
| Basic e-mails | 100,000 | 250,000 |
| Rich e-mails (with attachments) | 200 | 500 |
| Downloading/streaming music | 20 songs | 50 songs |
| Downloading/streaming video | 12 minutes | 30 minutes |
| Skype voice call | 3 hours | 7.5 hours |
| Skype video call | 0.4 hours | 1 hour |
| Listening to online radio | 1.6 hours | 4 hours |
| Downloading/updating apps | 8 apps | 40 apps |
Source of estimates: O2 [1, 2]. Our testing found a Skype mobile voice call consumes around 0.55MB/minute (70kbps). Skype video call uses 4MB/minute (500kbps). Online radio calculation assumes 128kbps bitrate. Average size of app is 6.1MB (based on top 20 free Android apps).
O2′s subsidiary giffgaff provides better value from day 1.
Note that we have listed what 100MB and 250MB correspond to rather than providing a shopping list of everything that you can do with your download allowance. Consuming any of the items on the list will use up the entirety of your monthly allowance. Your data allowance will automatically double to 200MB or 500MB once you’ve on the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff for at least 3 months – at this stage you should double all of the values in the table.
What are the alternatives to O2 “Pay & Go Go Go”?
For a better value alternative to O2′s “Pay & Go Go Go”, we recommend giffgaff’s goodybag bundles. giffgaff is a low cost subsidiary network of O2 – you’ll have access to the same masts and coverage of O2 but customer service will be provided by giffgaff (see our full review of giffgaff).
giffgaff tends to provide much better value than O2. For example, £10/month would buy you 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet. This compares to the 75 minutes, 500 texts and 100MB you’d get on O2′s “Pay & Go Go Go”. Even accounting for the fact that your allowances double on O2 after 3 months, the improved allowance of 150 minutes, 1000 texts and 200MB still falls far short of what giffgaff would offer.
Giffgaff’s Goodybag packages are as follows:
| Monthly Cost | Minutes | Texts | Internet |
|---|---|---|---|
| £5/month | - | Unlimited | - |
| £10/month | 250 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| £15/month | 400 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| £20/month | 800 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| £25/month | 1,500 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| £5/month (Hokey Cokey) | 60 & 1 min per min of calls received | 300 | - |
You can order a free giffgaff SIM card here. Alternatively, if you’re willing to consider Pay Monthly, you may find that taking out a cheap SIM only tariff will provide even better value. They’re available from £7/month.
What is O2 coverage like where I live?
O2 have provided a coverage checker on their website. You should ensure that you can receive coverage from O2 at home and work before switching to the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff.
For a better value deal that also runs on the O2 network, we recommend giffgaff. Giffgaff also uses O2 signal and masts but offers improved allowances of 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet for £10/month. Check out our full review of giffgaff or grab yourself a free giffgaff SIM card.
I’m an existing O2 customer. How do I switch to the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff?
If you’re already an O2 customer, you can switch to the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff by calling O2 on 2202. Calls are free from your O2 mobile phone. Alternatively, text GO 10 to 21300 for the £10/month tariff and GO 20 to 21300 for the £20/month tariff. You can also change your tariff by logging in to the My O2 website.
I’m switching to O2. Can I keep my existing phone number?
Yes. You’ll need to ask your current network for a PAC code which you should then provide to O2 once your new SIM card has been activated. The entire process of transferring your phone number to O2 should take no more than 24 hours. Our PAC Code Finder tool provides a step-by-step guide to transferring your mobile number to O2.
Is it possible to get “Pay & Go Go Go” with a micro-SIM card?
Yes. If you have one of the latest handsets such as the Apple iPhone 4S, the Samsung Galaxy S3 or the HTC One X, your phone may require a micro-SIM card instead of a standard sized SIM card. If you’re unsure about whether you need a micro-SIM, check out our detailed guide to micro-SIM cards. There are no price or tariff differences between the standard SIM and micro-SIM versions of the “Pay & Go Go Go” tariff.
If your handset requires a micro-SIM card rather than standard SIM card, you should select the “micro SIM” option when ordering your new SIM card.
Existing O2 customers who are upgrading their handset can exchange their SIM card for a micro-SIM card free of charge in an O2 retail store.
Where can I get this deal?
You can order up to 2 free “Pay & Go Go Go” SIM cards from the O2 website.
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About Ken
I'm a freelance writer specialising in mobile technology. I've been blogging at Ken's Tech Tips since 2005 with the aim of demystifying mobile technology for the rest of us.
Before writing about mobile technology, my background was in space & atmospheric physics. I have also worked in software development. Nowadays, I help companies to explain mobile technology to their customers. Please check out my portfolio or get in touch for more information. I'm also on Google+.
There is a subsidised phone that costs £15 with £10 of free credit.
Given Giffgaff pricing and same network, why on earth would anyone go for this terrible O2 offering? It's extremely expensive for what you get. Unless there's a free/subsidised phone thrown in by O2? Am I missing something here?
Thanks Ken, great info as always! Dave