SIM Only Deals Cashback UK: I Paid £1.48 for a SIM and TopCashback Is Paying Me £17

Last verified: 16 September 2026 · By The Cashback Chap

I needed a new SIM this week. Before I went anywhere near a network's website I typed "sim" into TopCashback's search box, the way I do for everything now. Seven SIM offers came up. One of them was a flat £17 for any SIM purchase through Confused.com's SIM-only comparison. The SIM I picked cost £1.48.

The next morning the earnings row read: purchase £1.48, cashback £17.00, pending, estimated payable 6 weeks.

That is the whole post in one screenshot. The rest is how to repeat it, which of the seven SIM offers pays what, and the catches I would want spelled out before I did it.

Disclosure: cashback links are affiliate links. Free for you, they fund the testing. New TopCashback members who join through my link get a £10 sign-up bonus on top.

Why a SIM can pay you more than it costs

Most cashback is a percentage, so a £1.48 order would normally earn about a penny. SIM offers are different: several are flat bounties. The network or comparison site pays TopCashback a fixed fee for each new SIM customer, and TopCashback passes most of it to you regardless of what the SIM cost.

Cheapest qualifying SIM I could find through Confused.com: £1.48 Flat bounty on the Confused.com Sim Only listing: £17.00 tracked Net when it pays: about £15.50 in my favour

The same arithmetic paid me £12.60 on a £3.68 Uswitch eSIM last month and £120 for switching to Three before that. The difference this time is the wait: Confused.com's estimate is 6 weeks, against 26 weeks on the Uswitch play. For a small bounty, that speed matters.

Every SIM cashback deal on TopCashback, ranked (16 September 2026)

Search "sim" in TopCashback and this is what comes back. "Up to" means tiered: the headline needs a specific plan; the smaller tiers are what a cheap SIM gets.

Listing	Headline	What the cheap end actually pays	Best for
Confused.com Sim Only	£17 flat on any SIM purchase	£17, no tiers	The cheapest possible SIM, fastest estimated payout (6 weeks on mine)
Mobiles.co.uk Sim Only Deals	up to £100	£100 only on Vodafone plans £26+ a month; £30 for Vodafone up to £16; iD 1-month SIMs £5; redemption deals excluded	Someone taking a big Vodafone plan anyway
O2 SIM Contracts	up to £82	£82 needs a 24-month plan at £25+; 12-month new-customer plans £20 to £25; 30-day plans £5	A 24-month O2 contract you were choosing regardless
Three SIM Contracts	up to £80	tiered by plan; see the Three page	Three switchers
Carphone Warehouse SIM Only	up to £70	tiered by plan	Contract SIMs through Carphone
Talkmobile SIM Contracts	up to £53	tiered	Cheap Vodafone-network contracts
iD Mobile SIM Only	up to £50	£50 needs the 24-month unlimited plan; 30-day unlimited £30; 30-day £15+ plan £15; £10.01 to £14.99 plan £10; 1-month 30GB at £7 pays £5	Flexible 30-day plans with a decent bounty
Vodafone SIM Only	up to £50	new customers only; £32 on 4G Basics, £40 on 5G, £50 on 5G unlimited	Direct Vodafone contracts
Fonehouse	up to £40	tiered	Contract SIMs via Fonehouse
Sim Local	10%	percentage, so pennies on a cheap SIM	Travel SIMs, not this play

Read the table the way I did: flat beats tiered when the SIM is cheap. A £17 flat rate on a £1.48 SIM is the best ratio on the list by a mile. The "up to £100" listings only make sense if you were about to take a £26-a-month contract anyway, and then the cashback is a nice discount on a real bill rather than a profit.

How I did it, step by step

1. Search "sim" on TopCashback first. Not on Google, not on the network's site. The search box is the whole trick; the listing names ("Confused.com Sim Only", "O2 SIM Contracts") never surface any other way.

2. Open the Confused.com Sim Only listing and read the rate. On 16 September it was £17 on "SIM Purchase", one line, no tiers. Rates rotate, so read it on the day.

3. Click "Get cashback", then choose the cheapest SIM-only deal that fits. I stayed on the page TopCashback opened and did not touch any other tab or voucher site until the order was done. Same session, same browser, no unapproved codes: that is what the exclusions list punishes.

4. Buy it. Mine was £1.48 for the SIM. TopCashback's earnings row also recorded a £4.25 top-up amount against the order, so expect the tracked figures to show more than one line.

5. Wait for the pending row. Mine appeared the next day with a 6-week estimate to payable. If nothing shows within a week, TopCashback lets you file a missing-cashback claim up to 100 days after the order.

6. Withdraw when it turns payable, to bank, PayPal or gift cards with a small bonus.

The catches, in the order they bite

• Not free upfront. You pay for the SIM. You are out £1.48 (plus whatever you top up) for about six weeks, and pending cashback is a promise, not money, until it is confirmed. My payout times page has the pattern across merchants.
• One play per genuine SIM. TopCashback's Fair Play policy and the merchant's terms expect real customers. I needed a SIM; I bought a SIM. Doing this in a loop with SIMs you will never activate is how accounts get closed.
• Cashback is on the item price only. Confused.com's terms exclude VAT, delivery and other fees from the calculation. On a flat rate that changes nothing, which is another reason to prefer flat listings for cheap SIMs.
• Voucher codes kill it. Any code not posted and approved by TopCashback is grounds for declining the cashback. There is no code on earth worth more than £17 on a £1.48 order.
• "Up to" is doing a lot of work on every other listing. Check the tier your exact plan falls into before you count the money.
• Number transfer is on you. If you want to keep your number, get a PAC (or a STAC to cancel without moving) from your current network and give it to the new one after the SIM arrives. The cashback does not care either way.

"Free SIM card UK": what that search actually finds, honestly

If you searched for a free SIM, the honest answer is that most UK networks will post you a free pay-as-you-go SIM: giffgaff, Vodafone, EE, VOXI, Lebara, Lyca and iD all do. Those SIMs are free because they are empty; you pay when you top up, and there is no cashback on them because you have not bought anything. If you are struggling to afford connectivity, the National Databank run through the Good Things Foundation gives free data SIMs via local partners, and that is the right route for that situation, not a cashback play.

What this page describes is different: a SIM you pay a little for, through a comparison listing that pays a flat bounty larger than the price. After the payout it is better than free. Before the payout it is a £1.48 purchase. Both halves of that sentence are true and I would rather you read both.

Which one should you actually take?

• You just need a SIM, cheapest possible, and you can wait six weeks: Confused.com Sim Only at £17 flat. This is the play in the screenshots.
• You are taking a proper 24-month contract anyway: O2 (£82 at £25+ a month), Mobiles.co.uk Vodafone tiers (£100 at £26+), or Vodafone direct (£50 on 5G unlimited). Treat it as a discount, compare the monthly price first.
• You want a 30-day rolling plan with data: iD Mobile's 30-day unlimited pays £30; their 1-month 30GB plan at £7 pays £5.
• You want an eSIM you can set up tonight: the Uswitch eSIM play at £12 flat, slower to pay but no postage.

The route: join TopCashback (new members get a £10 sign-up bonus through my link), search "sim", open the listing, buy in the same session. Total time for me: nine minutes including choosing a plan.

FAQ: the questions people ask Google about SIM-only deals

What's the best SIM-only deal at the moment? For price alone, the cheapest 30-day plans sit under £8 for 30 to 50GB on iD, O2 and Vodafone's brands. For price after cashback, a flat bounty on the cheapest SIM wins: on 16 September that was Confused.com's £17 on a SIM that cost me £1.48. Both change monthly; the table above is dated for that reason.

What are the disadvantages of SIM-only deals? You keep your current phone, so there is no handset subsidy, and the cheapest plans have less data or slower speeds. On the cashback side, the "up to" listings pay their headline only on the expensive tiers, and pending cashback takes weeks to become payable.

Do I get a new number with a SIM-only deal? You get a new number by default. To keep your existing one, ask your current network for a PAC code (text PAC to 65075) and give it to the new network within 30 days. Cashback tracks the same either way.

Can I just buy a new phone and put my old SIM card in it? Usually yes, if the phone is unlocked and takes the same SIM size or an eSIM. That is the cheapest upgrade there is, and it is a separate decision from the SIM plan; this page only covers the plan.

Who gives free SIM cards? giffgaff, Vodafone, EE, VOXI, Lebara, Lyca and iD Mobile post free PAYG SIMs, and the National Databank provides free data SIMs to people who need them via community partners. None of those pays cashback, because nothing is bought.

Is TopCashback SIM cashback reliable? Every SIM bounty I have taken has tracked within a day and paid in full: £120 on Three, £12.60 on Uswitch (still pending on its 26-week timer), and now £17 on Confused.com pending on a 6-week timer. The full account of what has and has not paid is on the site.

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Figures from my own TopCashback account (screenshots shown). Rates and listings checked live on 16 September 2026; flat bounties rotate, so verify the listing on the day you buy.