A good UK SIM Card for a 4G Phone

[FrodoOne]

I may soon travel to the UK for about 21 Days.

My (Australian) provider wishes to charge me the equivalent of about £5:00 per day for the privilege of using my Mobile Phone there,
for Local calls and for To and From "Home".
Total £105:00.

My current 'Phone is a Galaxy S21 G5 - with an E-SIM - and I do not whish to "fiddle" with that.

However, I have the previous 4G Galaxy "Phone", which I have used Internationally with the "Local Providers" in South Pacific countries.

My question is
"What is the Best/Cheapest option for me to purchase a Local (International capable) SIM card for a 4G Galaxy 'Phone when first arriving in the UK."

(Yes, I DO know that a UK Number will be required.)

 

[spile]

I can recommend the Lebara Sim only deal bought through Money Saving Supermarket.

 

[StephenStephen]

I'd recommend giffgaff

 

[Murdochcat]

Certainly a sim only pre payment method

But maybe check the coverage if you are going to be in the same area for much of the time as the mobile coverage in the UK varies a lot depending on the service provider

 

[securespark]

Which? magazine (the consumer association) have 5 recommended mobile providers. In order of customer rating, from the best (83%) to the worst (78%), they are:

Talkmobile
Giffgaff
Smarty
1p Mobile
Lebara

Of these, Talkmobile, Smarty and 1p Mobile are also classified by Which? as Great Value.

These providers are all Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) in the UK, who piggy-back off one of the networks in the UK, which are:

EE
O2
Vodafone
Three

The first was the product of a merger between Orange and T-Mobile and a merger took place between the last two last year, creating the imaginatively named VodafoneThree, but they are still being run as two distinct brands.

As far as coverage go, they all seem to claim 99%+ coverage, but you do get dead spots, especially in rural areas and inside buildings. Inside buildings you can mitigate by using WiFi calling, as long as:

You are logged onto WiFi!
Your phone supports it.
Your network supports it.

You can check coverage accurately by using the coverage checker, but you need to know the postcode of the location.

Signalchecker.co.uk

Back to getting your SIM. So, you could go to a phone shop outside the airport and buy a SIM then load it with an amount of cash and then convert it to a data pack for a month.

Or if you don't fancy that, you could just buy a pre-loaded SIM at the airport.
You will pay more, though.

From memory (as an example), Three do a pre-loaded SIM with 50GB of data (calls and texts included) for £20.00. This lasts for 30 days.