The tariff people were talking about for Orange was "OVP Virgin." OVP Virgin has not been around for a long time. If you had it, you can keep it. I still have it and love it.

I'm not sure how Bossman passed a Virgin credit check. It is pretty thorough. I passed an Orange credit check and was turned down by Virgin. I'm not a Brit, but have UK bank account, credit card, and contract mobile (the OVP Virgin). Virgin did things like check electoral roles which made it hard on any non-citizen. You basically need an in country employer will to vouch for you and possibly provide a salary certificate to get through Virgin.


Stu

Stu,

I have never done a UK credit check. I have a Virgin prepaid (bought on ebay) which does not require any credit check to get (AFAIK, no UK prepaid requires one). The sims roam out of the box and they have GPRS activated. I do not have a UK bank acct. or credit card, so I there is no way I would have even attempted to sign up for the automatic payment option with Virgin UK prepaid. The roaming rates are a little bit lower on this option. One other thin I like about Virgin UK prepaid is that their GPRS rates are the same ragerdless if one is roaming. So, It's not a bad card to use just for data while roaming. And that's pretty much what I use it for. I buy my topups(at about a 20% discount) on ebay UK.


As for registering your details with virgin (which is not required) you can use any address. But one will definitely need a UK CC, bank acct. employment history, etc. in order to get the Pay by Direct Debit option.

the orange ovp was a contract only price plan

I have had virgin SIM for 3 years in USA. It still works. I never make call or send SMS. I do use the sim built-in feature to call the top up line free from USA. This tells me my balance. I have never topped up; still using the original balance when I was in UK 3 years ago. I have not found a way to request text delivery of balance.

I got Orange SIM last year in UK and did top up. I could then use the "free minutes" calls to many overseas locations as described in www.yourcallworld.com as "included minutes". Also got internet data access for #1/day.

My experience:

for local calls/texts and long SIM life use virgin.

for data and overseas calls use orange

what free minutes are they? I think they are talking about minutes included in contracts, or did you use add-on call packages?

Whilst YCW is useful for calling foreign mobiles, there are cheaper ways to reach landlines from payg

an Orange Call Abroad has 5 pence a minute calls to landlines in USA, from where you could use a callthrough provider to about 50 countries' landlines including UK

O2, T-mobile and Mobile World also have some int'l call rate options in the same area

For calling European mobiles from UK payg, I'd suggest use Virgin and 0871 callthrough numbers at 15 pence a minute, or try T-mobile and 07744 numbers at maybe 12 pence (this needs checking, but 07744 is incl on T-mob contracts)

top up with orange prepay gave me some "included minutes" which acted like post paid.

At the moment, there is a package of free evening calls, which dates from about a year ago, but this is only to Orange numbers

I'm surprised by your remarks, as I really don't remember such an option on Orange, though O2 had 100 free minutes on a ?10 top-up.

07744 numbers have been in and out of inclusive minutes on different networks. They were not included by Orange between mid-April and mid-September 2005. T-mobile reintroduced them recently, about the same time as O2 discontinued them

:sad:

You are right; it was O2 that gave the included minutes on prepay with topup.

I used orange only for internet access.