If you’re in school, college or university, you’ll almost certainly want a phone. If you don’t yet,
Buying a phone on contract is one option, but it means you’re stuck paying expensive monthly fees for at least a year. If you can afford to buy outright or already own your handset, it’ll work out cheaper in the long run.
That’s because there’s a wide range of great SIM-only deals available in the UK. Some are available to everyone, but others include specific perks that are reserved for those in full-time education.
Here’s our handpicked guide to the best ones available this month. If you’re the parent or carer of a younger child, see our separate guide to the best SIM-only plans for kids .
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 45GB of data in addition to unlimited access to the apps mentioned above.
Other plans also include a range of video streaming services, too. All are 30-day rolling contracts, so you can cancel at any time.
Best plan right now: Get 150GB of data for £19.99 per month on a 24-month contract. This includes one of the subscriptions mentioned above for six months.
On top of that, you can roam for free in the EU and even countries such as the US, Australia and Mexico, 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 just £20 per month for 24 months. six months, then £26 per month for the rest of the 24-month contract. But for the flexibility of shorter plans, there are other options.
Best plan right now: Students (with an ac.uk email address) can get unlimited data on a 12-month contract for just £22.40 per month . Meanwhile, 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 300GB of data for just £17 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.
Lebara (Vodafone) has some of the most affordable SIM plans around. 30-day plans start at £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 25GB of data for £9 per month on 12-month contract , plus 100 international minutes each month.
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 20% student discount (new customers only) 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 20% 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.
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 £20.80 per month (on a 24-month contract). It’s worth noting that the regular 24-month unlimited data plan is currently slightly cheaper at £20 per month , but this will be going up to £21.50 per month from 1 April 2025.
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.
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