Pre-paid Data and OOB

[irBosOtter]

Pre-paid data has no OOB, is that the case I take it?

Can one still get a sim with lets say 1Gb data, and if that data is gone before the end of the month it stops working.
I want to give a laptop to a friend, but she will be paying for the data. I don't want her to get a OOB surprise at the end of the month. She must buy her data as she needs it, "pay as you go" sim obviously

I thought about using a cellc sim that I had lying around, but that seems to much of a mission to get data loaded on the sim. (Still haven't figured out how to mind you)

What would be the best option, she will probably start off with 1Gb a month, and then after the first month she'll have an idea how much she would have to buy. Mostly just to browse and check mails.

Telkom seems to have a few nice deals
Laptop has HSDPA modem built in, so only need pre-paid sim with data. And not the cellc sim's that expire after the data is used up, that's the stupidest thing I have ever seen.
Rather looking for a month to month kinda thing, ie just a sim to top up every month, no contracts with OOB surprises

Thanks

 

[ginggs]

Pre-paid data has no OOB, is that the case I take it?

Provided you don't have airtime loaded.

What would be the best option, she will probably start off with 1Gb a month, and then after the first month she'll have an idea how much she would have to buy. Mostly just to browse and check mails.

Start with a Cell-C 3GB / 365 day bundle for R299 and see what her usage is like:
http://www.cellc.co.za/data-prepaid-packages

I thought about using a cellc sim that I had lying around, but that seems to much of a mission to get data loaded on the sim. (Still haven't figured out how to mind you)

Cell-C 3GB bundles can be bought at a Cell-C store. The till slip contains a code you enter via USSD.

Laptop has HSDPA modem built in, so only need pre-paid sim with data.

If you do consider Cell-C, make sure the built in HSDPA modem supports UMTS @ 900MHz.

And not the cellc sim's that expire after the data is used up, that's the stupidest thing I have ever seen.

They only expire if you don't use them for a certain period of time, not as soon as the data is used up.

 

[InTheCube]

You can also topup on data via internet banking. I know FNB supports it, not sure about the other banks, but they probably support it too. With Cell C, you can also monitor your SIM account online from the Cell C website. IIRC, you can also topup from the Cell C website via credit card. To register on the Cell C website, put the SIM card in the phone, then goto the website, and go through steps of registering an account.

After that, she won't need to remove the SIM card from the laptop to top up.

The best method by far though, is to register for Afrihost Mobile, on a month to month account. Prices start at R58 per GB, and top-ups are R99 per GB. The service is capped. So no OOB surprises, unless she opts to enable the OOB service, which I would never recommend. More info and package sizes here: http://www.afrihost.com/site/product/mobile_data. You will however have to make payment either via debit order or credit card.

You can manage your account, top up, upgrade, downgrade and cancel from the Afrihost ClientZone. You can also do quite a bit with Afrihost smartphone app.

 

[skierenw]

Afrihost will probably be the best option.

 

[kianm]

Afrihost will probably be the best option.

+1 , with no OOB.No voice calls

 

[irBosOtter]

Thanks for the info guys. I did try it through FNB but only saw an option for Vodacom and MTN.

Will also check Afrihost out thanks