You can get a UK SIM only plan without a credit check, but only where the network says so for that plan, and only if you pay up front. On 4 October 2026, five networks said this on their own sites: SMARTY, giffgaff, Lyca Mobile, Lebara and VOXI. A 12-month or 24-month airtime contract, and any deal that includes a phone on finance, is a different product. Several of those still run a check.
A label on a comparison table is not enough. uSwitch’s guide at https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/no_credit_check_sim_only_deals/ was updated on 29 October 2025, while the deal tiles on that same page were marked last updated on 03/10/2026. The tiles and the article are not the same age. Read the network’s page before you order.
Prices below are only the ones visible on the network’s own page on 4 October 2026. Where a page did not show a price, none is given. Deals move. Check the page again before you pay.
What the networks say
Networks whose own pages, checked on 4 October 2026, say there is no credit check on the plan described. Prices are only included where that same visit showed them.
Network | What their page says | Plan shape they describe | Price seen that day | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
SMARTY | SIM only deals paid up front on a rolling monthly plan do not need a credit check. All of their plans are described as available without one. | Rolling monthly. Pause or cancel. Unlimited UK texts and calls as standard on the plans they describe. | Rolling monthly plans start from £6. Extra data is £1 per GB and does not expire while the plan is live. | |
giffgaff | No credit checks when you buy a plan or an 18-month contract plan. A check is made only if you buy a phone on a loan, and Klarna does that check. | Plans last one calendar month. An 18-month plan is also described as unchecked. Phone finance is not. | Not shown on the help page that states the credit-check rule. No price is given here. | |
Lyca Mobile | The pay-as-you-go page says there is no credit check. The same page says a pay-monthly SIM only deal does require one. Read both lines before you choose. | PAYG bundles last 30 days, then you renew or pick another. Pay monthly is a contract with termination fees, and it is credit-checked. | On the PAYG page: 5GB at £3.50 per 30 days; 30GB at £5; 75GB at £7.50; 120GB at £10; Unlimited at £12.50. Fair-use rules apply to unlimited allowances. | |
Lebara | Lebara’s own article says its SIM only plans do not involve credit checks, and that the rolling plans have no credit checks. | Month to month, no handset in the plan they describe. | Not shown on the article that states the rule. The deals page did not return plan prices in a form that could be checked, so no Lebara price is given here. | |
VOXI | VOXI’s blog describes its SIM only offer as “no credit check + endless social data + rolling contract”. The plans page itself does not use the words “no credit check”. It does say the plans are rolling 30-day subscriptions you can cancel. | 30-day rolling. No contract, on the plans page. | On the plans-page summary: cheapest SIM deal £10 a month; unlimited social media £10 a month; unlimited data £35 a month. Other tiles were on the page but were not clear enough to pair a data amount with a price, so they are left out. |
If a network is missing, that is deliberate. It is not a verdict that they always credit-check, and it is not a verdict that they never do. This guide only includes a network when its own page says the plan skips the check. Do not treat a tile that says “No Credit Check” on someone else’s website as the network speaking.
Why a SIM can skip the check when a phone contract cannot
A handset contract is a loan in all but name. The network, or a finance firm sitting behind it, is trusting you to pay for a phone over a year or two. They look at your credit file because they are taking a risk if you stop paying and keep the phone.
A SIM only plan that you pay for before the month starts is closer to buying credit for a pay-as-you-go phone. If you do not pay, the service stops. There is no handset to recover. SMARTY puts it plainly on its no-credit-check page: because you pay up front, they do not need your credit history. Lebara’s article makes the same point about rolling SIM only plans. There is no device, so the network is not lending you the cost of one.
That is also why “SIM only” on its own is not a promise. A 12-month or 24-month SIM only contract can still be billed in arrears, and the network can still want to know you will be there for the term. Lyca’s pay-as-you-go page says you have to pass a credit check to buy a pay-monthly SIM only deal, and that breaking that contract can mean termination fees. giffgaff is the outlier in the other direction: its help page says no credit check is carried out when you buy a plan or an 18-month contract plan. The check appears when the phone is bought on a loan.
If you only remember one distinction, make it this. Paying for this month’s calls and data, before you use them, is not the same as financing a phone.
What each page actually commits to
SMARTY
Page checked: https://smarty.co.uk/no-credit-check-sim
SMARTY’s page is titled as a no-credit-check SIM and answers “Do SMARTY do a credit-check?” with a no. The reason they give is the rolling monthly plan paid up front. They also say every SMARTY plan is available without a credit check, and that you can stop, start, or change the data. They say you can pause or cancel.
The same page says rolling monthly plans start from £6, with unlimited UK texts and calls as standard, and that extra data costs £1 per GB while the plan is live. The page showed other monthly prices, but the data allowance sitting next to each one was not clear enough to repeat. Use the live page for the allowance, not a remembered figure.
SMARTY is explicit that a bad credit history is the situation they are writing for, and that a long phone contract is the thing people get refused. Their suggestion if you want a handset is to buy the phone outright, including a refurbished one, and put their SIM in it.
giffgaff
Page checked: https://help.giffgaff.com/en/articles/234194-everything-to-know-about-a-plan
giffgaff’s help article says: “No credit checks are carried out when purchasing a plan or 18-month contract plan.” The next lines matter just as much. They will carry out a credit check if you buy a phone on a contract with a loan, and Klarna does that check. Buying a phone outright is not credit-checked, on the wording of that article.
A plan, which giffgaff used to call a goodybag, lasts one calendar month. It expires at 23:59 on the day before the same date next month. If the plan is not set to renew and you run out, you drop onto pay-as-you-go rates taken from credit. That is a practical point if money is tight. An unchecked plan can still become an expensive week if the data runs out and the phone keeps using the internet.
The help page that states the credit rule does not list current plan prices, so none are given here.
Lyca Mobile
Page checked: https://www.lycamobile.co.uk/en/bundles/pay-as-you-go-sim-deals/
This page says “No credit check” in the introduction to its pay-as-you-go SIM deals, and the question “Does Lyca check my credit score to buy a SIM-only bundle?” is answered no. You buy a plan, choose a SIM type, and activate it.
The same page then draws a line. On pay-as-you-go, the bundle lasts 30 days and you can renew it or pick another. On pay monthly, you have to pass a credit check, and the contract can charge you if you leave early. The introduction also mentions 12-month and 24-month pay-as-you-go options with discounted pricing, in the same breath as “no credit check”. The grammar on that line is loose. If you are choosing a longer Lyca plan, read the checkout and the terms. Do not assume a 12-month or 24-month option is the same product as the 30-day bundle.
Prices visible on that PAYG page on 4 October 2026, each for 30 days:
UK Plan Smart, 5GB, £3.50, with 1,000 UK calls and texts and 100 international minutes
National Plus, 30GB, £5, unlimited UK calls and texts, 100 international minutes
UK Plan Super Extra, 75GB, £7.50, unlimited UK calls and texts, 100 international minutes
UK Plan Mega Plus, 120GB, £10, unlimited UK calls and texts, 100 international minutes
UK Plan Unlimited, £12.50, unlimited UK calls and texts, 100 international minutes
Roaming data caps differed by plan, from 5GB up to 35GB on the unlimited plan for EU and India, as written on the page. Unlimited allowances are subject to a fair-use policy. Those are the network’s words, not a promise that every gigabyte is unmetered.
Lebara
Page checked: https://blog.lebara.co.uk/how-does-a-phone-contract-affect-your-credit-score/
This is Lebara’s own article, not a retailer’s tile. It says handset contracts can leave a mark because the provider may run a credit check, whether or not you pass. It then says: “If you want a phone plan but aren’t keen on the idea of it affecting your credit score, Lebara’s SIM-only plans do not involve credit checks.” Later it says the standout feature of the rolling plans is that they do not have any credit checks, because there is no device.
The article does not list this month’s bundles. Lebara’s deals page at https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/best-sim-only-deals.html carried the title “Lebara SIM Only Deals from £5” but did not return the plan grid in a form that could be checked line by line. The “from £5” title is not repeated here as a live price. Open the deals page yourself, and look for the words “no credit check” on the plan you are about to buy, not only on the blog.
Lebara also says that if you skip a month you are not tied in, so a missed bundle is not the same as a missed contract payment. That is their description of their rolling plans. It is not advice about an IVA, a mortgage, or any other credit product. If a lender asks what you pay for your phone, answer with the truth. “No credit check” does not mean the bill is invisible to a human underwriter who asks for bank statements.
VOXI
Pages checked: https://www.voxi.co.uk/blog/how-much-should-phone-contract-cost and https://www.voxi.co.uk/sim-only-plans
Treat these as a pair. The blog, published on the page as 27/07/2026, says people looking for cheap SIM only deals will find VOXI’s combination of “no credit check + endless social data + rolling contract” hard to beat. That is the sentence that puts VOXI on this list.
The plans page, checked the same day, does not repeat “no credit check”. What it does say is that the plans are rolling 30-day subscriptions you can cancel, that there is no contract, and that you can order a free SIM and choose a plan afterwards. Its own summary table lists the cheapest SIM deal at £10 a month, unlimited social media at £10 a month, and unlimited data at £35 a month. Social, music and video “unlimited” data on that page is unlimited on selected apps, not a blank cheque for every site, and the page says making and receiving voice and video calls are not included on Unlimited Social Media. Read that line if you actually use the phone as a phone.
VOXI also says it runs on the combined Vodafone and Three network, which it calls the Nation’s Network. Coverage is still a postcode question. A network name does not mean every village gets the same signal.
What a comparison site cannot settle
uSwitch’s no-credit-check guide is a useful map and a stale one. The body was updated on 29 October 2025. The deal list above it was stamped 03/10/2026. In the body, the named list is short and then a later section names giffgaff, Lebara, VOXI, SMARTY, Spusu and Honest Mobile together. Other names that turn up on comparison sites are not in the table. They stay out until their own page says, in plain words, that the plan skips the check. Leaving them out is not the same as saying they always run a check.
The same caution applies to any big network that sometimes sells a rolling SIM and sometimes sells an 18-month or 24-month contract under one brand. The plan name in the basket matters more than the logo.
Keeping your number
You do not have to take a new number to avoid a credit check. Ofcom’s 12 September 2026 switching note says that for mobile you text PAC to 65075, and you do not need to speak to your current network. VOXI’s plans page says the same text, and that the code comes back within 60 seconds. You then give the code to the new network with your old number and the temporary number on the new SIM.
Do this while the old SIM still works. If you cancel the old plan first, you can lose the route to the code. Put the new SIM in only when you are ready to activate, and keep a note of the temporary number the new network shows you. Transfers are usually one working day, not weekends or bank holidays. That timing is the ordinary porting window VOXI describes, not a guarantee from every other network.
Your phone also has to be unlocked if it is still tied to the old network. A locked handset will not use the new SIM, credit check or not. Ask the old network for the unlock before you rely on the new plan. If the phone was bought outright, it is often already unlocked, but “often” is not a test. Put the new SIM in and see if it asks for a network unlock code.
If you want a phone as well
This is where people get caught. The advert says no credit check. The checkout then offers the phone over 24 or 36 months, and a lender runs a hard search.
giffgaff states the split in its own words. Plans and 18-month contract plans are not credit-checked. A phone on a loan is different. On its loan help page, giffgaff says Klarna does a full credit check, that you need to be 18 or over, and that the check can influence your credit rating. If the loan is declined, giffgaff says no payment is taken. A decline can still be a footprint, because they also say the check can influence the rating. If you cannot face a search, do not start a finance application just to see what it says. That page is https://help.giffgaff.com/en/articles/258295-buying-a-giffgaff-phone-with-a-loan
Buying the handset outright, new or refurbished, keeps the SIM decision separate. SMARTY’s page makes that suggestion directly. You can use a phone you already own. The SIM plan and the phone do not have to come from the same company.
A deposit-based contract from a specialist lender is another market entirely. Those firms may accept a thin or damaged credit file and then charge for the privilege, with a deposit and a higher monthly price. No lender is named here, and no deposit figure is given. If someone asks for a deposit, you are no longer in “no credit check, pay for the month” territory. Slow down and read the credit agreement.
How to choose without chasing a teaser price
Confirm the credit line on the network’s page for the exact plan, not the homepage banner. Screenshot it if you are comparing two offers an hour apart.
Check whether you pay before the month or after, and whether leaving early costs money. Up front and 30 days is the pattern SMARTY, Lyca’s PAYG bundles, Lebara’s rolling plans and VOXI’s plans page describe. giffgaff’s 18-month plan is the one that breaks that pattern while still claiming no credit check, so read that term before you treat “18 months” as risk-free.
Ignore a cheap first month until you can see the price after the offer. A three-month discount that was on a comparison tile is not repeated here unless the network’s own page showed it on 4 October 2026. None of the network pages above was used as a source for a “£1.48 then £4.95” style offer. Those figures live and die on tiles.
Match the data to the way you actually use the phone. VOXI’s £10 social plan is a bad fit if your data is maps, email and video calls, because the page says voice and video calls are not in that unlimited social allowance. Lyca’s £3.50 plan is 5GB. That is a light-use plan, not a commute of video.
Roaming is capped even when the advert says it is included. Lyca prints a data cap next to EU roaming on each plan. Going over it, or leaving the countries named, is a different price.
Set a renewal reminder. A rolling plan that is convenient can also renew onto a card you meant to stop using. SMARTY says you can pause or cancel. Knowing you can is not the same as having done it.
Coverage still decides the purchase. A plan that does not work in your house is not cheap. Check the network’s coverage tool with your postcode, indoors if you can, before you port your number. Ofcom’s Map Your Mobile tool, mentioned in the same 12 September 2026 note, shows coverage and performance by postcode if you want a view that is not the network marking its own homework.
If you have been refused, or you have no UK file yet
A refusal from a handset contract does not mean every SIM will refuse you. The networks above are describing plans that do not ask for the file, or that say they do not check it, because the plan is paid up front or, in giffgaff’s case, because they have said even the 18-month airtime plan is unchecked.
No UK credit history is a common reason a contract application fails, including if you have just moved here or you have not borrowed before. A pay-up-front SIM does not need that history, which is why SMARTY and Lebara talk about bad credit and about people who do not want a search. It does not build a credit score by itself, on anything these pages say. Lebara’s article is careful on the other side: a normal phone contract can help or hurt a score depending on whether you pay. A rolling SIM that never goes near the credit file will not, on their description, leave the hard search a contract would leave. Do not take a SIM plan in the hope it will “repair” a score. That is not what these pages claim.
If you are in an IVA, on a debt management plan, or about to apply for a mortgage, a hard search is the thing to avoid, not the phone itself. Lebara’s article says many providers treat an IVA as a reason to refuse a contract, and that a new hard search is a poor idea while a mortgage is in progress. A rolling SIM that does not search is the boring option, and boring is the point. This is not regulated debt advice. If the debt is serious, speak to a debt adviser before you take on a new monthly payment of any kind, checked or not.
You will still need a way to pay. These plans are not free because they skip the credit check. A card payment that fails will stop the service. If the only card you have is one you cannot control, sort that before you port the number, or you can be left with a SIM that will not renew and an old plan you have already asked to close.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a SIM only deal with no credit check in the UK?
Yes, if the network says that plan is not credit-checked. On 4 October 2026, SMARTY, giffgaff, Lyca Mobile’s pay-as-you-go bundles, Lebara’s rolling SIM only plans, and VOXI’s blog all said this in their own words, though a different plan from the same brand can still be checked. Lyca says pay-monthly SIM only deals are checked, and giffgaff says a phone bought on a loan is checked by Klarna.
Does “no contract” mean the same thing as “no credit check”?
No. No contract usually means you can leave after the current month, or on 30 days’ notice, without an early-exit fee. No credit check means the network is not searching your credit file for that purchase. Most of the plans above are both, because you pay up front, but they are still two different sentences.
Will a no-credit-check SIM appear on my credit report?
The pages checked here say these plans do not involve a credit check, and Lebara says a skipped month on a rolling plan is not a tied-in contract payment. They do not publish a line-by-line account of what a credit reference agency stores. Do not assume the plan is a credit-building product, and do not assume a lender who reads your bank statements will ignore the payment.
Can I keep my mobile number if I switch to one of these SIMs?
Yes. Text PAC to 65075 from the old SIM, which Ofcom describes as the way to get a porting code without speaking to the current network, then give the code to the new network when you activate. Keep the old SIM working until the code is in your hand.
I failed a credit check for a phone. Can I still get a SIM?
Often, yes, because the phone contract was a loan and the SIM is not. SMARTY’s page is written for that situation and suggests you use a phone you already have, or buy one outright, then take a SIM plan paid in advance. Do not apply again for handset finance on the same day just to test it. giffgaff’s loan page says Klarna’s full credit check for a phone can influence your credit rating, even though the SIM plan is not checked.
Are 12-month SIM only deals free of credit checks?
Not as a rule. Lyca says a pay-monthly SIM only deal requires a credit check and can have termination fees. giffgaff says its 18-month contract plan is not credit-checked, which shows you have to read that network’s rule rather than a general one. If the page in front of you does not say “no credit check” for the 12-month option, assume there may be a check until you see that it says otherwise.
Do I have to use a physical SIM?
Not always. Lyca’s pay-as-you-go page offers an instant eSIM, and VOXI’s plans page says plans are also available with an eSIM, with a free plastic SIM posted if you want one. The phone has to support an eSIM and still has to be unlocked, and the credit-check rule is about the plan, not whether the SIM is plastic.
What should I do if the checkout suddenly asks for a credit check?
Stop, because you are no longer on the plan described above. It usually means a longer contract, a handset loan, or a pay-monthly product has been added, so go back to the pay-up-front plan or leave. Starting the application can be enough for a hard search, which is the outcome you were trying to avoid.
Before you pay
This suits you if you already have an unlocked phone, you can pay for the month before it starts, and you want to avoid a credit search. It is a poor fit if you need the handset on finance, or if the plan in the basket is a longer contract the network says it will check.
Pay up front, on the exact plan the network’s own page describes. Read that page on the day you order: the price, the data, how long it lasts, and whether you can leave without a fee. If the checkout asks for a credit check, stop. You are no longer on the pay-up-front plan this guide is about. Go back to that plan, or leave. Do not start a finance application just to see what it says.
Prices, data caps and the credit-check line were taken from the network pages named above on 4 October 2026. They will change. The page you pay on is the one that counts.
