Virgin Mobile Pay As You Go

I've been a customer of Virgin Mobile for years, since they started in fact. I don't use my phone a great deal, so don't want anything more than Pay as you Go, and I find Virgin's tariff excellent value for money. The first five minutes of calls each day cost you 15p per minute, then it goes down to 5p per minute. Text messages are 10p, or 3p to other Virgin customers. One good thing about Virgin is they don't charge you to access your voicemail, provided you have some credit on the phone. One thing that does annoy me is, that if you call customer services, there's a flat rate charge of 10p. I've only had to call them a few times while I've had the phone, but I don't see why it should cost me money to call them.

Having said that, when I have needed to call them, about a lost phone and to change my details, they were very friendly and helpful. I did have to wait a while for someone to answer though.

You can pay for your calls in several ways - by credit/debit card on the phone or online, by using an E-top up card, at some ATMs, by buying top-up cards or even by Direct Debit. I find Direct Debit a really easy way to pay because it means I never run out of credit, but still don't have the commitment of a contract phone.

If you make lots of calls, or send lots of texts, there are "bundles" available where you can buy so many minutes/texts in advance at a cheaper rate. If you don't use all your bundle, you can roll it over for one month.

The best thing about Virgin is that they reward their customers by giving you £10 off a new phone for every £100 you've topped-up with over the last two years. You can see on their website how much discount you're entitled to. If you order the phone online, it's delivered by courier and they often have special offers on new and reconditioned phones on their site.

I've never had any problems with coverage - they actually use the T-moblie network to route calls through.

Finally, if you're into music, Virgin Mobile sponsor the V Festival each year and Virgin customers can buy tickets in advance of them being released to the public.

All things considered, I'm very happy on Virgin and wouldn't leave their network.