Nowadays, we consume more mobile data than ever, and many of us enjoy a good mobile deal that includes a boatload of data in our monthly allowance.
But if you don’t use all that data, where does it go? Why should we pay for data that we don’t end up using?
On the other hand, most of us have heard horror stories about people getting huge, unexpected bills for exceeding their data allowance. So where’s the middle ground?
If you regularly pay for more data than you use, but you’re concerned about signing up for a contract with less data in case you go over your limit and get charged crazy expensive fees, a plan that includes data rollover might be the answer.
What is data rollover?
Simply put, networks with data rollover options allow you to take unused data from one month’s billing cycle and add it to your allowance the following month.
The effect is that you have more flexibility with your data. You’ll be less concerned about going over your allowance if you have some leftover data from last month. Alternatively, if you know you’ll be using more data than usual next month, for exampl, if you’re going on holiday, you can save up your data this month so you’ll have extra when you’re away.
Regardless, it’s always a good idea to monitor your data usage so you’re never caught out by surprise mobile network fees.
How does data rollover work?
When a network with data rollover calculates how much data you’ve used in one billing cycle, it determines the difference and adds it to next month’s allowance. Some providers have a limit on how much can be carried over, and typically, the extra allowance is ‘used up’ first, before your standard allowance. This is because the data is usually only carried over once, or in other words, it’s not rolled over twice into the following month.
For example, if you have a monthly allowance of 10GB of data, but you only used 7GB within one billing cycle, the remaining 3GB will be rolled over into the next month’s allowance, giving you a new allowance of 13GB for that month. If you only used 7GB again in the second month, the 3GB from the previous month gets used first, before you tap into your standard allowance of 10GB. This would leave you with 6GB to rollover into the third month.
Mobile networks with data rollover
Not all networks offer data rollover, and those that do have different variations of the offer.
Sky Mobile and Sky Piggybank
In terms of data rollover, Sky Mobile offers the most comprehensive deal.
With Sky Mobile, any unused data at the end of each month is automatically stored in an online Sky Piggybank. The data is yours to use at no extra cost, and you can share it with up to seven devices on your account, perfect for when a family member needs a bit of a top-up on their data allowance.
On top of this, you can also cash in your Sky Piggybank for a variety of rewards or even use it to get a discount on a new phone or accessory.
It should also be noted that if you’re on an Unlimited Data plan with Sky Mobile, you understandably can’t rollover unused data, and therefore won’t have access to a Sky Piggybank.
iD Mobile
iD Mobile was the first network to offer a free data rollover service, and it’s available to both new and existing iD customers on 12-month, 24-month and one-month SIM-only plans.
At the end of the month, any unused data is automatically added to next month’s allowance, and you're free to use it the following month. There is no limit to the amount of data you can rollover, but you can’t rollover unused data twice.
O2
O2 offers its Rolling plans that provide a data rollover at various prices. Each plan lets you roll over all of its data for one month, but you’ll have to use that rollover data in the next month, or it’s gone.
The O2 Rolling plans start at just £10 a month for 10GB of data, all the way up to 150GB of data for just £30 a month.
Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile automatically rolls over any unused data at the end of the month so that you can use it the following month for no additional charge. This applies only to Pay As You Go plans.
There’s no limit to the amount you can rollover from one month to another, but it depends on which tariff you’ve signed up for and how much your standard allowance provides you. However, you can only rollover data from the previous month, so you can’t stockpile months and months of unused data.
Vodafone
Vodafone offers data rollover on a service called Total Rollover with all of its Pay As You Go SIMs. Like other networks, Vodafone only lets you roll over data from the previous month, which means you have to use it that month or it’s gone.
Unlike other providers, however, Total Rollover also lets you rollover any unused minutes and texts from one month, so you can use them in the next 30 days.
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