Find a mobile deal that actually fits you.
Compare phone contracts and SIM only deals without making it complicated. One question decides which board you need.
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Phone deal, or SIM only?
They are two different purchases that happen to share a network. Deciding which one you are making is most of the work.
A phone deal
- You pay for the handset through the monthly price.
- Usually 24 or 36 months, sometimes with money upfront.
- The real cost is the monthly price, the upfront payment and any stated rises, added up over the whole term.
- Worth comparing when you wanted a new phone anyway.
SIM only
- Your phone stays; only the SIM and the bill change.
- From 30-day rolling plans to 24-month contracts.
- Your number moves with you, by text, in a day.
- The handset is already paid for, so the whole bill is the airtime.
A rule of thumb we stand behind: if your handset is paid off and still works, SIM only is usually the answer. If you were going to buy a new phone anyway, compare the phone deal against buying the handset outright with a SIM beside it, on the whole-contract cost, not the monthly.
The usual reasons people switch
Each of these lands on the right board with the right question already asked.
- A lower bill this month →Keep the phone, swap the SIM, keep the number.
- Unlimited data →Only worth it if you regularly pass 100GB. Most people don’t.
- A 30-day plan you can leave any month →Flexibility usually costs a pound or two over a contract.
- A new handset, priced honestly →The phone first, then the contracts available for it.
A monthly price is not the price.
A mobile contract is the monthly price, the upfront payment and any rises the provider has scheduled, added up over the whole term. That is the number the boards will lead with.
When every part is stated, MoneyHQ shows the whole-contract figure, rises included. A 24-month contract can cross two annual rises; the arithmetic has to include both.
When a rise is a formula, inflation plus a margin, no one can state the future number today. We show the provider’s own wording and calculate nothing.
A missing figure stays missing. An unstated upfront cost is not free, and an unstated rise is not a promise the price holds.
The brand and the masts are different companies.
Many mobile brands rent space on one of the UK’s four mast networks. Same masts, same coverage, different price.
Sets the price, the allowance, the contract and the customer service. This is who bills you.
Owns the masts your phone actually connects to. Two brands on the same host network get you the same signal.
Where a brand states its host network, the card says so. Where it does not, the card says nothing rather than guessing.
Most contracts get more expensive in April.
Providers state rises three ways, and only two of them can honestly become arithmetic.
A specific new price from a specific point in the contract. That can be added up, and we will.
A fixed amount or percentage each year from a stated date. Also arithmetic, applied as many times as it lands in your term.
Inflation plus a margin. Nobody knows next April’s inflation figure, so we show the wording and refuse to invent the number.
Most people’s fastest saving in this category is keeping the phone and switching the SIM. The masts stay the same; the price doesn’t. A new handset is a purchase decision, not a savings one, and the boards treat it that way: the phone you want first, then the honest cost of getting it.