The Three PAYG Tariff

I mentioned here before in passing that I'm now using Three for one of my two SIMs (the other remains on giffgaff). I'm using them because their newish 3-2-1 PAYG tariff is spot on for my usage pattern. So that's 3p min for calls, 2p per text and 1p/MB data.

At the time I said:

It's that last that is the clincher for me (although calls and text are very good too compared to most PAYG tariffs). Previously I was buying GiffGaff 500MB gigabags for £5 a month (as this was cheaper than their 20p for up to 20MB PAYG daily tariff, which I would occasionally break anyway) but I never used all the data in a month. The Three deal was cheaper as it was 1p/MB again but I only pay for what I use. I'm also wondering if Three count their data differently as I'm currently averaging about £2.10/month and that includes the odd phone call and text on top.

I think I can now explain some of that difference in counting. For data the tariff is even better than I described: it's 1p/MB but ... every time you top up you get 150MB thrown in. That's independent of the size of your top up and they let you top up £5 at a time (which suits me given how slowly I'm getting through money given how few calls I make and texts I send).

So the effective cost of data for me is closer to 650MB for £5 or 0.77p per MB. That's really very good.