Best SIM deals and phone plans for UK students April 2023

When you’re a student, the last thing you want to worry about is a big phone bill denting your bank account. Luckily, being in college entitles you to special discounts from many retailers and phone networks.

If you already have a handset, we’ll highlight some of the best SIM-only deals for students, and if you’re looking to buy a new phone on a contract, we’ll also go over the student discounts you can claim from everyone. major UK networks.

There are great SIM deals out there right now that pack loads of cheap data while also bundling other benefits. Find out which plan is right for you here.

If you’re a parent looking for a SIM-only plan for your child, check out the best deals of the month separately here.

If you spend your time glued to your social media feed, you’ll need a SIM plan that can keep up. We recommend the following:

If you are a social media addict, by Voxi plans are by far the best option for you. Its endless social media and unlimited video benefits allow access to a variety of services without consuming data allowances.

Except for video calls, the Vodafone-owned service offers unlimited access to Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Messenger for as little as £10 a month, which includes 30GB of data this month ( double the amount usually available) .

Best plan right now: You can now get 60GB of data for £15 a month, which also includes Voxi’s Unlimited Video Pass. This includes unlimited access to Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, My5 UKTVPlay, TVPlayer and TikTok. This also includes a new Unlimited Music pass, with free access to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TIDAL, Napster and Primordial Radio.

We think this offers better value for money and will certainly save you from going over your data limit.

If you don’t mind locking yourself in for 24 months, you can also get Spotify, Amazon Prime, or YouTube Premium for free with Vodafone plans. Unlike Voxi’s plans which require you to already have subscriptions to the streaming service, Vodafone’s plans build the cost into the contract itself.

Best plan right now: Get 60GB of data and an entertainment pass on Vodafone for £25 a month.

O2The plan bundles Apple Music and Disney+, Amazon Music Unlimited, or Audible for up to three months.

Best plan right now: O2’s best value plan offers 75GB for £9 per month for the first three months, then £18 thereafter (24 month term). This comes with three months of Disney+, Amazon Prime, Amazon Music Unlimited, or Audible. There are also plans with more data available.

Also see: The best technology for college and university.

Best student SIM deals with lots of data

If you don’t really spend much time on social media and just want a generous data plan instead, Three often offers some of the most competitive unlimited data deals.

Best plan right now: Currently, students can get unlimited data for £9.50 per month for the first six months (over a 24 month period). You also get up to £100 if you refer a friend to Three.

Three’s Smarty sub-brand offers unlimited data for just £20 a month. This includes unlimited tethering if you want to double your mobile data for Wi-Fi. The other advantage of Smarty, unlike Three, is that you can cancel at any time.

What sets Smarty apart from other providers is that its data discount plans also give you money back on your next month’s bill for any unused data at the end of the month.

Best plan right now: Get unlimited data for £20 per month.

The best cheap SIM plans for students

You might not really care about having a big data plan, especially if you spend more time using Wi-Fi. In fact, a few gigabytes a month might be enough to get you by when you’re outside. If that sounds like you, we recommend a few affordable SIM plans:

Tesco Mobile has a range of affordable SIM deals, starting at £7.50 a month for 2GB of data. Tesco’s SIM only plans also allow you to collect extra Clubcard points, where every 150 points adds up to £1.50 in vouchers to spend on groceries and more – perfect for students!

Best plan right now: Get 30GB of data for £12 a month with a Clubcard

Lebara Mobile offers some of the most affordable SIM plans on the market with plans starting at £5 a month for 3GB of data, and you can cancel anytime. You also get 100 international minutes to countries outside the EU, making it ideal for international students in the UK – and roaming is free in India and Europe.

Best plan right now: Get 3GB of data for £5 a month

GiffGaff offers low-cost data plans in its “goodybags”. Its cheapest plan offers 1GB of data for £6, which is double the usual 500MB.

If that’s not enough, you might prefer GiffGaff’s new “golden goodybags”, which offer better value for money when recording a credit or debit card payment – you can currently recover 20GB of data for £10.

Best offer right now: Right now GiffGaff has a new goodybag just for students which offers 20GB of data for £10, plus £5 bonus credit. You will need a valid ac.uk email address to register.

1pMobile operates somewhat differently than other contract providers. The service runs on EE’s 5G network and, as the name suggests, it only charges 1 pence for your usage per minute, per text or per MB of data with 5G connectivity. Start with a £10 top-up for 10GB of data.

Best phone and contract discounts for college students

EE student discount

EE offers a 20% student discount along with a 500MB safety net every month. That’s half a GB of free data every month just to keep you from going over your data plan, and 20% off your monthly rate, every month.

You can also choose from six months of Apple Music for free. This offer is available to new and existing EE customers.

You will need a Student Beans promo code to redeem the offer.

If you’re an EE customer, simply log in, view your upgrade options, and enter your student discount code at checkout. New customers will simply need to choose a phone or SIM card offer and use the student discount code at checkout.

O2 student discount

Like EE, the O2 student program offers you a 20% discount on your package. The catch is that the discount only applies to the Airtime plan, which includes your calls, texts, and data, not your Device plan. The latter is the monthly cost of your device (O2’s monthly plans are a total combination of these two bills).

The 20% discount also applies to accessories.

To benefit from the O2 student discount, you will need to log in to Unidays, the Unidays GradLife app or Totum, to obtain your discount code. Then buy the new phone specifically on the O2 Refresh tariff and add your discount code. If you forget to add your code, log in to UNiDAYS and get a “store code” and text it to 61202.

You can find all the information about O2’s student mobile phone deals here, including how to redeem your discount in store.

Vodafone student discounts

Vodafone’s student discount program gives you 10% off monthly airtime plans, tablet plans and SIM-only plans. If you attend a participating university (there are plenty), you can take advantage of the 10% discount on Vodafone airtime plans, tablet contracts and SIM-only contracts.

After purchasing a Vodafone monthly plan, complete the online discount form to claim the student discount.

Three student discounts

Three cuts to the chase with its student contract offers. You can choose from select handsets, laptops or tablets – including the latest iPad Pro with M1 – or grab unlimited data for £9.50 a month (24 months). Check out Three’s student plans here.

And while you’re trying to find the best student cell phone deals, be sure to check out our roundup of the best cell phone deals this month. We’ve also separately rounded up the best cheap SIM-only deals of the month.

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