As a student, a phone is a near-indispensable tool. It can be useful in so many situations, from staying in touch with friends and family to keeping up to date with work and even documenting your life online.
But rather than being tied to a long and expensive phone contract, it’s worth considering a SIM-only deal. Provided you can afford the cost of the device itself (consider opting for a budget or mid-range phone rather than a flagship), it usually works out cheaper in the long run.
Regardless of what you’re looking for, there’s a SIM-only deal to suit you in the UK. And as a student, you’re often eligible for special discounts and perks that you wouldn’t get otherwise.
Here are the plans we’d recommend going for if you’re looking for the best possible value for money. However, if you’re a parent or carer of a child, see our separate article on the best SIM-only plans for kids.
You might also like our guide on the back-to-school tech tips you don’t know.
Best student SIM-only deals for streaming and social media
If you spend your time glued to your social media feed, you’ll want a SIM plan that can keep up. We recommend the following:
If you’re a big social media user, Voxi’s plans are hands-down the best option for you. Its Unlimited Social, Unlimited Music and Unlimited Video benefits allow access to a variety of services without eating into data allowances.
The Vodafone-owned service offers unlimited access to Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Messenger for as low as £10 per month, which will get you 20GB of data in addition to unlimited access to the apps mentioned above.
Best plan right now: You can get 105GB of data for £15 per month, which also includes Voxi’s Unlimited Music and Video. This gets you unlimited access to the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, TikTok and more.
Other plans also include a range of video streaming services, too. All are 30-day rolling contracts, so you can cancel at any time.
If you don’t mind locking in for 24 months, you can also get free Amazon Prime (including Prime Video) or YouTube Premium with some Vodafone plans. Unlike Voxi, which requires you to already have subscriptions to the streaming services, Vodafone’s plans include that cost within the contract itself.
Best plan right now: Get 150GB data plus YouTube Premium or Amazon Prime for £16.50 per month for the first 6 months, then £33 per month for rest of 24-month contract.
Elsewhere, some of O2‘s 12- and 24-month plans include one of Disney+, Amazon Prime, Amazon Music Unlimited, Audible, McAfee or others for up to six months.
Best plan right now: Get 150GB of data for £11.99 per month for six months, then £23.99 per month for rest of 24-month contract. During those first six months, you’ll also get a choice of the subscriptions mentioned above.
On top of that, you can roam for free in the EU and even countries such as the US and Australia, up to 25GB per month.
Best student SIM-only deals with lots of data
If you want a more generous data plan instead, Three has some of the most competitive data deals. Anyone can get unlimited data for £20 per month, provided you’re willing to commit to a 24-month contract. But you might be able to get it even cheaper…
Best plan right now: Students (with an ac.uk email address) can get unlimited data on a 24-month contract for just £16 per month. The 12-month plan is a bit more expensive at £22.40 per month, while the monthly rolling version (allowing you to cancel at any time) costs £24.80 per month.
Anyone can also get up to £80 in cash by referring a friend to Three.
But Smarty, which uses the Three network, is currently offering 180GB of data for just £15 per month for anyone. This includes unrestricted mobile hotspot, if you’d like to use your mobile data as a Wi-Fi replacement. Smarty’s other benefit, unlike most of the options at Three, is you can cancel at any time – all are one-month rolling plans.
Another thing which sets Smarty apart from rivals is its Data Discount Plans, which give you money towards next month’s bill for any unused data at the end of the month.
Best cheap SIM plans for students
You may not really care about having a large data plan, especially if you spend more time using Wi-Fi. In fact, a few GB per month might be just enough to get you through when away from home. If this sounds like you, there are a few affordable SIM plans we’d recommend:
Tesco Mobile (O2) has a range of affordable SIM deals, starting at £7.50 per month for 2GB of data. Tesco’s SIM-only plans allow you to collect extra Clubcard Points too, where every £1 spent gets you 1 Clubcard point, which is worth 1p.
Best plan right now: Get 100GB of data for £14 per month (24-month contract). You’ll need to be a Clubcard member to avoid paying £17 per month, but it’s free to sign up
Lebara (Vodafone) has some of the most affordable SIM plans around. 30-day plans start £5 per month for 5GB of data, or £4.50 per month if you’re willing to commit to a 12-month contract. You also get at least 100 international minutes to countries outside the EU, making it ideal for international students in the UK, while roaming is free in India and Europe (up to 30GB per month).
Best plan right now: Get unlimited data for £22.50 per month on 12-month contract, plus 100 international minutes each month
Giffgaff (O2) offers various low-cost data plans. Its cheapest plan has 2GB of data for £6 on a monthly rolling contract, or 60GB for £10 if you’re willing to sign up for 18 months
But until 30 November, any student with a UK university email address (ending in .ac.uk) can get 60GB of data for just £10 for 12 months. That’s triple the usual data for that price.
1pMobile operates somewhat differently from other contract providers. The service runs on EE’s network and, as the name suggests, it only charges 1p for your usage per minute, per text or per MB of data (4G or 5G). Alternatively, start with a £10 top-up for 25GB of data on a 30-day plan, and cancel at any time.
Best phone & contract discounts for university students
EE student discount
EE offers a 30% student discount along with a 500MB safety net each month. That’s half a GB of free data every month just to keep you from going over your data plan, and 30% off your monthly tariff, every month.
You can also get six months of Apple Music for free. This deal is available to new and existing customers, but you may need a voucher code from Student Beans to get the offer.
If you’re an EE customer, you’ll just need to log in, see your upgrade options, and enter your student discount code at checkout. New customers can just pick a phone or SIM deal and use the student discount code from Student Beans at the checkout.
O2 student discount
O2’s student program gives you a 20% discount on your plan. 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 combination of these two bills), though the 20% discount does also apply to accessories.
To get the O2 student discount, you’ll have to sign into Unidays or Totum to get your discount code. Then buy the phone specifically on the O2 Refresh tariff (which allows you to regularly upgrade) and add your discount code. If you forget to add your code, sign in to UNiDAYS, get a ‘stores code’ and text it to 61202.
You can find all the info on the student mobile phone deals on the O2 website, including how to redeem your discount in-store.
Vodafone student discounts
Vodafone’s student discount program gets you 10% off some monthly airtime plans, tablet plans and SIM-only plans. However, you’ll need to make sure that you have a university email address ending in .ac.uk.
After you buy a Vodafone monthly plan, contact the company within 60 days to get your discount. Learn more on Vodafone’s FAQ page.
Three student discounts
Three is straight to the point with its student contract deals. You can get up to 20% off selected phones, laptops and tablets, or unlimited data for just £16 per month (on a 24-month contract).
Again, you’ll need a .ac.uk email address to see Three’s student plans.
Looking for more general advice? See our guides to the best SIM-only deals and best UK phone networks.
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Author: Anyron Copeman, Mobile Editor, Tech Advisor
Anyron is Mobile Editor at Tech Advisor, where he’s been a mainstay of the editorial team since 2019. In his current role, Anyron is responsible for all smartphone, tablet and mobile network coverage on the site. A BA Journalism graduate, he has experience with a wide range of consumer tech products and services, including smartphones, tablets, foldables, wearables and more.