There is a line drawn across this range, and it sits lower than most people assume. Above it, UK calls and texts are unlimited. Below it, there is one plan with a thousand of each. Four of the five thirty day plans sit above the line, and the lowest priced of them is the one worth knowing about.
Where the Line Falls
UK Plan Smart, at five gigabytes, allows a thousand UK calls and texts. Every plan above it allows unlimited. That is the entire distinction, and it means unlimited UK calling starts at National Plus rather than somewhere expensive near the top.
- A thousand texts sounds generous until a group chat gets going.
- Calls and texts share the allowance, so heavy use of one eats the other.
- Running out means paying out of allowance rates mid month.
The Four Plans Above the Line
National Plus
Thirty gigabytes at five pounds, down from a standard ten with half off the first month. Unlimited UK calls and texts, a hundred international minutes, EU roaming capped at twelve gigabytes. The entry point for unlimited UK calling and, for most households, the sensible stopping point.
UK Plan Super Extra
Seventy five gigabytes at seven pounds fifty. Unlimited UK calls and texts, a hundred international minutes, and roaming that covers the EU and India at twelve gigabytes. The same calling as National Plus with substantially more data.
UK Plan Mega Plus
A hundred and twenty gigabytes at ten pounds. Identical calling and texting again, identical international minutes, identical roaming cap. By this point in the range the only thing changing is the data.
UK Plan Unlimited
Unlimited data at twelve pounds fifty, down from twenty five. Unlimited UK calls and texts, a hundred international minutes, and the largest roaming cap on the list at thirty five gigabytes. Everything uncapped except the roaming.
Worth saying plainly: the calling allowance does not improve as you climb. National Plus gives you exactly what UK Plan Unlimited gives you on calls and texts. Paying more buys data and roaming headroom, not a better phone line, which is the opposite of how most ranges are built.
What Unlimited Covers
UK numbers, landline and mobile, for calls and texts. It is a domestic allowance, so it does not extend to calling abroad, which is what the hundred international minutes on every plan are for. Nor does it extend to using the phone while you are abroad, which falls under the roaming caps.
Those three things get confused constantly, and the confusion costs people money. Unlimited describes calls placed in the UK to UK numbers. Everything else on the pay as you go plan has its own allowance printed beside it.
The out of allowance position is the part people discover late. Once a capped allowance is spent, calls are billed at the published rate rather than simply stopping, so the first month you exceed a thousand texts is the month the saving disappears.
Is the Lower Plan Ever Right
For a line that mostly receives, or one carried as a backup, a thousand calls and texts is plenty and the saving is a pound fifty a month at current pricing. For a main phone it is a false economy, because the month you exceed it you pay out of allowance rates and lose the saving several times over.
Given the gap is so small, the default answer is to start at National Plus and only drop to the smaller SIM only plan if you know the line is lightly used.
One practical note for anyone switching in: the allowance applies from activation rather than from the start of a calendar month, so there is no awkward part month where the old limit still applies. The prepaid plan simply begins when it begins.
Pulling It Together
Unlimited UK calls and texts begins at National Plus and continues on every plan above it. The four plans that carry it differ only in data and roaming, so choose between them on those two things and treat the calling as settled.
Calling structures occasionally shrink, and that rarely makes news. Watch for it at BlogsBuddy, where such cuts get flagged early. All four qualifying UK plans belong to Lyca Mobile.