The bottom rung of a published ladder is the most useful figure on it, because it is the one number a seller cannot dress up: it is what they will actually take. Four sellers in this record print one. Utility Warehouse publishes from only £5 a month, SMARTY publishes 5 GB at £6, Lycamobile publishes 75 GB at 7.5 GBP over 30 days and Ecotalk publishes 10 GB at £12.00. Those four numbers look like a ladder and are not one, because the data on each rung is wildly different.
The four cheap rungs, with what they buy
Utility Warehouse publishes Our cheapest SIM-only deal from only £5 a month for 10 GB, which is a from price on a bundle. SMARTY publishes 5 GB £6 on a rolling month with nothing attached. Lycamobile publishes UK Plan Super Extra 75 GB at 7.5 GBP over 30 days, which is ten times SMARTY's data for a pound and a half more. Ecotalk publishes 10 GB at £12.00 a month, twice Utility Warehouse's figure for the same allowance, and prints an ethical rationale rather than hiding the gap. Ranked by price the order is UW, SMARTY, Lycamobile, Ecotalk. Ranked by data per pound it is almost exactly reversed at the top.
What a from price is
A from price is the cheapest thing a seller can find to attach the word from to, and it is a legitimate way to advertise a range. It is not a price you can rely on. Utility Warehouse publishes both its £5 and its £23 that way, which tells you the range and not the plan, and its mobile offer is bought alongside other services rather than on its own. When a figure carries the word from, treat it as the floor of a conversation rather than as a number you can compare, and ask what the plan costs standing on its own.
The line that decides whether cheap stays cheap
Running out of data is where a cheap plan stops being cheap, and almost nobody publishes what it costs. SMARTY does: an add-on will cost just £1 per GB, and the page states this is the same amount you pay for data in your usual plan. That is the clearest statement of it anywhere in this record, and it means a 5 GB plan that runs 3 GB over costs £9 that month rather than £6, which is still less than the 20 GB tier at £9 with nothing to think about. Ask every seller for that per-gigabyte figure before you take the bottom rung.
Questions people ask about cheap sim only deal
What is the cheapest sim only deal published in the UK?
Utility Warehouse publishes from only £5 a month, and SMARTY publishes 5 GB at £6 on a rolling month. The UW figure is a from price on a bundle; the SMARTY figure is a plan you can buy on its own.
Is a cheap pay as you go sim worth it?
Lycamobile's 75 GB at 7.5 GBP over 30 days is the most data per pound at the cheap end of this record, and it is pay as you go with no credit check. The trade-off is that a 30 day price can move at 30 days notice.
What happens if I run out of data?
It depends on the seller and almost none publish it. SMARTY does: an add-on costs £1 per GB, the same rate as the data in the plan. Ask every seller for that figure.
Why is Ecotalk twice the price for the same data?
Its published 10 GB plan is £12.00 against £5 from Utility Warehouse for the same allowance, and Ecotalk prints an ethical rationale for the difference on the same page rather than obscuring it.