1pMobile 1-year deals: are they worth committing to?

Pay up front for a whole year of usage

1pMobile’s 1-year SIMs are easy to understand. Instead of paying a monthly amount for an allowance of minutes, texts and data, you’ll pay for your whole year up front.

In exchange, you’ll get unlimited calls and texts for the whole year. And you’ll get a set amount of data to use each month. Here are the latest prices and data amounts:

In this guide, we take you through the ins and outs of whether it’s worth taking one of these annual plans. And whether there are any better alternatives.

Useful link: Benefits | Disadvantages | Compare plans

You’ll sort everything out for the whole year

If you’ve got the money spare now to pre-pay for an entire year, you can sort out your mobile usage for a full 365 days - without having to think about it again. No monthly top ups. No direct debits. No contracts.

You’ve also got the advantage of knowing you can’t accidentally overspend either. If you never top up your SIM, you can’t ever accidentally go over any limits and start having to pay extra.

It also means you know there aren’t going to be any price rises for a year. Many mobile networks are in the practice of raising your monthly plan price once a year. With these, you’re covered against that.

All of which make 1pMobile’s 1-year plans a really good SIM to hand over to children of any age. Or if you’re someone who struggles to budget month-to-month, they’re one less thing to think about.

Useful link: Read our full review of 1pMobile

They come with unlimited minutes/texts as standard

At the time of writing, 1pMobile have removed unlimited minutes and texts from their cheapest 1-month plans. They’ve gone back to a system of having a limited number of mins/texts. See latest 1-month SIMs here:

1pMobile's 1 month plans

That means that despite the shorter commitment with those, you could be running the risk of running out of minutes or texts. Equally though, many people barely use SMS or traditional calls nowadays, so could be fine.

Here’s the current cheapest way to get unlimited minutes and texts on 1p:

In a way, 1p have just made their 1-month plans less appealing to make their 12-month deals look better. But they do work out very reasonably if you calculate their cost spread out monthly.

Useful link: Compare all SIM only deals

You’re committing for longer, obviously

The clear downside of the 1-year plans is that you’re paying for something up front, which you might not end up liking. Or maybe your mobile usage changes and you’re stuck on something not fit for purpose.

To this we’d say that you are entitled to a 14-day moneyback guarantee when you buy the SIM plans online. That means you can try 1p’s service out risk-free and get a refund if you cancel in time.

We’d also say that we rate 1pMobile very highly in our full network review of them. If you take the sensible precaution of checking their coverage up front here, you reduce your chances of disappointment.

But it is still true your needs might change. That is always the risk with longer-term deals. You can’t move these plans up or down either once they’re started. So it’s worth thinking about before you join.

See 1p’s commitment free SIM plans

Useful link: See other mobile networks on EE

A nice cheap way of getting unlimited minutes/texts

Generally, we like 1p’s annual SIMs. They’re a really nice, cheap way of getting unlimited minutes and texts and the quality of EE’s network. You will need the money to pay up front though.

Anyone worried about committing up front should be comforted by the fact you can get a refund if you cancel within 14 days. Or you could just join on a 1-month plan now and ‘upgrade’ to an annual plan later.

All 1p’s SIMs compared

Despite their cheap and cheerful branding, we’ve always found the actual mobile network service you get with 1pMobile genuinely impressive. We wouldn’t be worried about committing to a year with 1p.

Useful link: Read 1pMobile’s FAQs