Post Office launches pay-as-you-go 3G SIM

New pay-as-you-go provider offers standard rates from 8p and 30-day bundles from £5.

The Post Office has entered the mobile market with a new pay-as-you-go 3G SIM.

The latest mobile virtual network operator (or MVNO) will piggyback off EE’s network to provide its service.

The Post Office said pay-as-you-go is only the start and promised it will offer handsets later this year and monthly contracts in early 2016.

Rates and bundles

You can order the Post Office Mobile SIM for free online or pick one up in selected branches (find your nearest one here).

Standard rates on calls to both landlines and mobiles will be 8p a minute, while each text and MB of data will cost 10p.

To make your credit last longer, Post Office Mobile will double your top-up, so £10 will get you £20 to use. Free credit will last 30 days.

Alternatively there’s also the option of 30-day bundles, which start from £5. Below is a table with what you can get.

Price	Data	Minutes	Texts
£5	500MB	250	3,000
£7.50	500MB	500	3,000
£10	2GB	500	3,000
£15	3GB	1,000	3,000
£20	5GB	1,000	3,000

Right now you’ll only be able to use the Post Office Mobile SIM for 3G data. So if you have a 4G smartphone, it’s not really worth going for.

However, the Post Office says 4G will follow in September and since it uses EE’s network, it will have unrivalled 4G coverage.

Compare mobile phone deals with Recombu

How Post Office Mobile compares

The Post Office has entered a pretty crowded market. So let’s see how it stacks up.

First here's how the standard rates compare to other pay-as-you-go SIMs from a range of providers. The table is organised by cheapest call cost.

Provider	Cost of calls per minute landline/ mobile	Cost per text	Cost of data	3G/4G data?
Three	3p	2p	1p per MB	4G
Asda Mobile	8p	4p	5p per MB	3G
Mobile by Sainsbury’s	8p	4p	5p per MB	3G
Post Office Mobile	8p	10p	10p per MB	3G
Giffgaff	10p	6p	20p per day up to 20MB. 20p per MB thereafter.	3G
Tesco Mobile	25p	10p	10p per MB	4G
Vodafone	30p	14p	£2 per day up to 50MB. 10p per MB thereafter.	3G
EE*	30p	12p	£1 for 100 MB	4G
O2	35p	14p	£3 per MB-£1/day	4G
Virgin Media Mobile	40p	15p	£1 per day up to 100MB. £1 per MB thereafter.	3G

*In order to use data you must add a data pack of £1 lasting seven days, which comes with 100MB of data as well as 10 free texts and minutes or £10 lasting 30 days, which comes with 1GB of data as well as 50 free texts and minutes.

Post Office Mobile offers a good deal compared to Tesco Mobile, O2, EE, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile when looking at their call rates.

But there are more competitive deals from Three, Asda Mobile and Mobile by Sainsbury's.

Three offers the best deal overall charging just 3p per minute for calls, 2p for texts and 1p per MB for 3G or 4G data.

Now let's take a look at how Post Office Mobile compares on the cheapest 30-day pay-as-you-go deals. The table is arranged in order of lowest monthly cost.

Provider	Pay-as-you-go deal	Minutes	Texts	Data	3G/4G data?	Monthly cost
Post Office Mobile	30-day bundles	250	3,000	500MB	3G	£5
Asda Mobile	30-day bundles	100	2,000	100MB	3G	£5
Giffgaff	3G Goodybag	100	300	100MB	3G	£5
Mobile by Sainsbury’s**	Rolling Bundle	300	5,000	500MB	3G	£8
Three	All in One	100	3,000	500MB	4G	£10
O2	Big Bundle	250	1,000	500MB	4G	£10
Vodafone	Freedom Freebies	150	Unlimited	500MB	3G	£10
EE	Everything Pack	150	Unlimited	500MB	4G	£10
Virgin Media Mobile	Big Data & Texts	28	3,000	1GB	3G	£10
Giffgaff	4G Goodybag	500	Unlimited	1GB	4G	£12
Tesco Mobile*	Call, text and data bundle	150	5000	500MB	4G	£15

*Must combine text, call and data bundle all £5 each.

**Exclusive online price.

As you can see Post Office Mobile really stands out when it comes to its 30-day bundles, offering the most competitive deal at the lowest monthly cost.

Compare mobile phone deals with Recombu

More on household money:

Cheapest and best music streaming platforms

Lotto changes mean jackpot lottery win less likely

‘Cruel’ energy postcode lottery means poorest areas pay more