A SIM-only (SIMO) or bring your own phone (BYOP) plan is the easiest way to save money on your phone bill. Here are the best UK and US deals
If you’re buying a new phone, it often makes sense to get it on contract. This splits the total cost of the handset into smaller monthly payments, and provides you with an allocation of calls, texts and data to use.
But this can get very expensive, especially if you opt for a flagship smartphone. If it all possible, it makes more financial sense to buy the device outright and get a SIM-only plan, also known as ‘bring your own phone’ in the US.
Not only does it mean you own the phone straight away, you end up saving a lot of money in the long run. While high-end phones are expensive, you can get a great budget or mid-range handset for much less.
And you don’t have to worry about losing your current phone number, either. All networks let you transfer your current number to a new network, and the process is even more straightforward if you use the text-to-switch service.
Here are the best offers in the UK and US at the time of writing.Best SIM-only deals in the UK
Below are the top SIM-only plans available in the UK right now. Use the sliders to adjust how much data and how many minutes you’re looking for.Best bring your own phone deals in the US
If you’re based in the US, you’ll see the top 10 plans with at least 3GB of data below. But if you’re outside the US, head to the next section.How to choose the right SIM-only deal for you
You might think that choosing which phone to buy was the hard part. But deciding which SIM-only plan to go for can be just as difficult.
As you’re probably aware, there are three main elements: calls, texts and mobile data. Data is by far the most important, as most contracts will include plenty of calls and texts or impose no limits at all.
We set 3GB as the minimum in the US widget above, and that’s a good baseline to aim for. If you’re on Wi-Fi most of the time, and only use mobile data occasionally while out and about, this should be enough. Some contracts offer less than this, but we wouldn’t recommend them for most people.
Networks and operators offer a range of contracts with more data, from just 4GB all the way to unlimited data.
The latter is great if you want to use mobile data for lots of video streaming or to replace your home Wi-Fi, but it can also be very expensive.
