Lyca Mobile pay monthly vs pay as you go: prices & benefits

Lyca Mobile offer two types of SIM only plan. There’s pay as you go, where you register a payment card and buy a plan each month up front. Or now they also have pay monthly SIMs, which work like a ‘proper’ contract.

With these, you sign up to an agreement for 1 – 24 months, register your bank details for a direct debit. And you have to give notice if you want to leave.

But with more of a commitment, the natural question is what do you get in return? In this guide, we talk you through the benefits of Lyca Mobile’s pay monthly vs pay as you go and also look for the downsides.

All of Lyca’s current pay monthly options

On balance, we do think going pay monthly on Lyca is generally worth it but it won’t be right for everyone. So keep reading below for a full explanation to help you make up your mind.

Mobile networks massively prefer people to be on pay monthly, even if it’s just a 1-month contract. That’s because customers tend to stick around longer, as they’re not thinking about their plan every month.

As a result, Lyca Mobile generally (but not always) build in slightly better value into their pay monthly SIMs vs pay as you go. Often via longer half price offers.

Check the dropdown below, to see the very latest price comparison of Lyca’s pay monthly plans vs their pay as you go equivalents:

Lyca pay monthly deals vs pay as you go

Over the course of the year, we tend to see better deals on contracts. Though, this isn’t always the case. And things do change a fair amount.

On pay as you go, you are essentially buying a new plan every month from what is available. If Lyca Mobile decide to up the prices of their PAYG SIMs, they can do that at anytime. Your next renewal will cost more.

With their contract SIMs, Lyca promise not to change your monthly price mid-contract. That means you have the stability of knowing what you will be paying each month, with no surprises.

It’s a real reward for committing for longer. While inflation is still running above average, signing up to a longer 24-month contract fixes your bills for two whole years.

See Lyca’s 24-month contract SIMs

You can add in even more predictability for bills by setting up a spend cap on pay monthly. This can be set to as little as £0. Lyca will automatically prevent you doing anything on your phone that would add to your bill.

One difference you don’t need to think about is roaming. Whether you join on pay monthly or pay as you go, you will get inclusive EU roaming and even India and China roaming.

Neither type of SIM has an advantage over the other for fair usage at our last check. The larger plans tend to max out at being able to use 12GB per month in Europe (on unlimited plans there is a 5GB difference).

Our favourite offers on all Lyca SIMs

Choosing pay monthly vs pay as you go also doesn’t make a difference to how many international minutes Lyca include with your UK plan. At our last check you got 100 international minutes across the board.

This is a nice little bit of Lyca Mobile’s offering if you’ve got friends and family in Europe or even further beyond. See all the countries that are included here.

The other thing worth saying is that there is no difference in the network quality between PAYG and PAYM. There’s nothing silly like speed caps on one but not the other.

Both types of SIM give you full speed data, full coverage via the EE network. And features like eSIM let you get connected to Lyca instantly, no matter how you choose to pay.

Join instantly on these best eSIM offers

If you’re not already with Lyca Mobile, then do give your local signal a check here. We think they’re hard to beat but you will need good indoor signal, because Lyca Mobile don’t yet support WiFi calling.

But overall, if you’re concerned anything is different from a mobile network point of view, it’s not – so it isn’t something you need to think about when choosing.

The main obvious downside of a contract is you’re tying yourself in to a deal. So your usage will need to be pretty consistent. You won’t be able to choose a different plan month-to-month, like on PAYG.

If you want to keep some of that flexibility but still retain the benefits of joining on pay monthly, it’s probably worth only taking out a 1-month rolling contract. With these you’re never committed to longer than 30 days:

See all 1-month contracts on Lyca Mobile

The main difference between the 1-month rolling contract and their pay as you go bundles is essentially that the pay monthly version will continue to renew itself, until you leave Lyca altogether.

You’re still free to move up and down plans on a 1-month pay monthly deal. It’s just you can’t do things like not buy a plan one month or pause it. To leave, you have to give notice, not just not buy a plan.

Mobile networks are always concerned about customers racking up bills and refusing to pay. And because on pay monthly, you pay for any extra usage at the end of a month, Lyca need to make sure you’re good for it.

That’s why they perform a credit check when you join on pay monthly. Lyca use credit agencies to check your record of paying similar companies. It’s not as strict as if you were applying for a phone contact though.

Not confident? Choose a PAYG SIM

This can also be a benefit too. Showing credit agencies that you have a reliable reputation for paying your monthly bills properly can help you get approved for other products in future.

So if you currently can’t get a phone contract or some other financial product, joining Lyca on a pay monthly SIM (with a less strict credit check) could set you on a path to achieving that.