Is 500mb enough - Clubhouse

Mr Puffy

11/12/2011 at 15:54

I was looking for a new phone for my son, and the deal I like is 500mb of data, or an extra £2.50 per month for 1 gig.

How much internet/email account use does that equate to?

Pop-Up Schmunks - The List Fairy

11/12/2011 at 16:02

For general browsing 500mb would be plenty. Websites like YouTube would eat into the allowance, but general internet/e-mail would be fine. Don't forget that smartphones are also wi-fi enabled so your Son can always run it off home broadband (if he is not at Uni) when at home or find a library/MaccaD/Coffee shop that gives free wi-fi

I have 1gb allowance and I never ever use more than 25% in any given month.

There is an android app called Watchdog which monitors your allowance usage. T'is good for tracking allowance use although I appreciate you would have had to sign up to the allowance beforehand

RunningInPleasePass

11/12/2011 at 16:09

I have 500meg and get nowhere near the limit. Not a big user of video viewing though.

M.ister W

11/12/2011 at 16:20

Same here, I don't download loads of stuff or watch lots of videos and I don't use anywhere near 500Mb a month. I also use wifi whenever I can.

Intermanaut

11/12/2011 at 16:30

I never use YouTube over 3G, but usually get close to 500MB with email and occasional browsing. Refreshing email and Twitter can easily suck up 10-15MB a day.

Little Ninja

11/12/2011 at 16:58

Can you find out how much Puffyjr is using at the moment? And will he think to use wifi if the mobile doesn't prompt for it, or automatically connect to the wifi? And how much are the charges for going over the 500?

Mr Puffy

11/12/2011 at 18:31

He has a £10 a month sim in his own phone and doesn't use internet.

He would use wi fi, and the excess is 60p per minute.

So far it sounds quite a reasonable amount.

Hash

11/12/2011 at 19:05

500mb more than does me,I spend a couple of hours a day browsing by phone and don't generally use more than 200mb a month. Like others have said, avoid video streaming of any type, and turn off the option to check for e-mails every 30 minutes. Turn off FB e-mail too, downloading that takes up unnecessary allowance, and you can get the same by just having notifications turned on.

Badly Drawn Bloke

11/12/2011 at 22:50

I think teens would eat that up very quickly. Facebook with loads of pics must use a fair amount and if the teens I know are anything to go by, they all like to load new pics most days or share YouTube links. I think you can get pay as you go deals that give data allowances - might be a better way to go until you know how much gets used. Plus if it runs out, it runs out; Puffy Jnr has to learn to ration and you don't get any nasty bills.

xine267

11/12/2011 at 23:00

My usage varies from 450 - 650 MB per month, and I don't use YouTube over 3G. As intermanaut says, its refreshing email etc that seems to eat up the MBs. If its only an extra £2.50 for 1GB of memory then I would go for it.

Fit-Running-Cat

11/02/2012 at 01:19

Email doesn't take that much data, you can limit the size of full attachments.

Facebook & images can take a bit...google maps can use loads though.

500 is just enough for me, but have squeezed over a few times.

3 do 1gig data in their contracts.

popsider

11/02/2012 at 13:07

13 year old daughter has 500mb and doesn't go over it - not sure how close she gets but she's obsessed with Facebook and her phone - she is using WiFi at home though.

Having said that £2.50 a month isn't much is it.

Badly Drawn Bloke

11/02/2012 at 13:14

Lots of deals about at the moment. Tesco have some sim only deals with 1gb of data for £10 a month. Lots of texts too.

I've got my own contract with O2 down to £8.50 a month but that's a low data allowance as apparently my average usage is only 75mb.

Bruce C

11/02/2012 at 13:46

I've got my kids on Giff Gaff ... £10 a month for unlimited data, unlimited texts and 250minute UK calls (oh and calls to other GiffGaff users are free too)

GiffGaff uses the O2 network so the coverage is pretty good too.

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