Fresh - www.freshmobile.com

It was a long time ago that I was on this network and while the concept of cheap texts excited me the network itself was dire! I remember that I effectively couldn't text around the few days that the bill would come through. Well I could but I'd risk them not billing me properly and as such ending up with a bigger bill the next month.

I've used Fresh ever since I started using mobile phones about 10 years ago.

The thing I like most about it was the automated billing. They just bill me at the end of the month by direct debit; no worries about topping up.

I've never had any problems with coverage, or at least no worse than any one else and its been very reliable.

Recently they stopped international roaming and now the Fresh service is to be stopped, which is a shame, but since they did not have picture messaging and internet access I was thinking of moving anyway.

So goodbye Fresh, its been nice knowing you.

Low coverage in some places in Cheltenham (Gloucestershire) , especially at my home - really annoyng. High cost of international calls and numbers starting from 08. The contract with 3 was one of my worst deals.

Fresh Mobile is a pure con network and service. Great difficulty topping up and wasting unnecessary money trying to get through to their services. Cheap and crafty! Paid £5.00 on a voucher and only got £4.89. Where did that 11p go? Spent over £3.00 trying to get through. You don't even get a free service to find out your balance. Totally disgusting!

I can not believe that fresh is still operating as a company, I joined them shortly after they first appeared on the market thinking that it would be a money saver.

I never had a problem with the signal where I lived but the problem was the way they took money from my account. I tried to use it but was barred. So I phoned them up and was told that I was overdrawn on my credit by £10. I did not agree but paid them anyway the bar was not lifted though the next day I called them again only to be told that I was overdrawn on my credit by just over £10 I explained that I had paid the day before but this made no difference it was a new charge as the cost of calls are not deducted straight away when you make the call. In my opinion I did not owe this but again paid up. The bar was lifted. Then I noticed that nearly £6 had been taken from by bank account without my authorisation! I reported them to my bank and I was refunded. I never used them after that.

Cant understand why all the complaints about topping up, for years now I've had a direct debit on my Fresh Account, each month Fresh simply deduct my usage from my bank account, I never have to "Top UP", this method for me is the best and the simplest way to manage a Pay-as-you-go phone.

Cheap texts (5p)

However, its costs to find out how much credit you have and takes a long time, topping up takes a long time, and once you go over topping up takes over a day. Also you never get any bonuses offered by other networks, such as free weekend texts etc. Fresh is a basic network for low usage.

It's cheap but in my opinion the "Fresh" network takes more money off of your phone and credit takes ages to go on.

I do like this network but I feel they should give away more special offers so they get more customers.

Been with them for a couple of years. Service been getting worse and worse. Once they mixed my account with someone elses and sent my passwords to their email address. I couldn't even access my own account online because the temporary passwords wouldn't work either. I tried getting new passwords dozens of times and they all failed leaving me with no access to my own account. Went for Auto top-up that tops up when credit reaches £5 (simple eh!). It fails a lot of the time. Get texts in the middle of the night saying "top-up has failed". They have no explanation when you phone them just a long list of excuses. Spent a fortune on phoning their customer services number because the website is down alot (all weekend so far again). When top-up fails you have to phone them and go through all the security protocol to top up instead of the system trying again until it works. Was with Easy Mobile and went to Fresh on their recomendation when they stopped trading.

Going to ASDA mobile now. It's half the price and is backed by Vodafone networking. It cannot be any worse than Fresh.

I think their top up system is silly - even the automatic one. If you change your credit card number, it checks using your address. If you change your address, it checks using the credit card number. If you change your address and credit card number, well, that blows the whole system. If you then cancel your account, you find it isn't really cancelled - just dormant. If you then reactivate it, you find the password you've been sent doesn't work, and your old one doesn't work either. It seems they're desperate to get you to phone their 0870 number, which you also have to use to top up. You quickly find out that the only way to contact them is through that number.Oh, and you can't roam. They don't want your money, again. It's cheap, but you get what you pay for. Caveat emptor.