Lebara review: Cheap and cheerful plans with bundled international calls

Lebara made its name selling phone cards for international calling, but has evolved into a budget no-frills mobile network with its own international twist. The likes of Giffgaff and Voxi will sell you cheap rolling monthly plans with lots of data, but Lebara sometimes goes even lower on price. What’s more, it bundles in international minutes, making it a real money-saver if you frequently need to call someone outside the UK. Throw in zero-cost roaming in the EU and India, and it’s a good option for frequent travellers as well.

Lebara hasn’t won anything in this year’s Expert Reviews Mobile Network Awards, but it still isn’t short of fans. More than 90% of the customers we surveyed told us they were likely to recommend the network to a friend, while over half (53.3%) said they would be very likely: a fantastic score.

Lebara review: What do you get?

Lebara keeps things simple with just six SIM-only deals. For just £5/mth you can have 5GB of data, along with 1,000 UK minutes, 100 international minutes and 1,000 texts. Beyond that, unlimited texts and UK calls are thrown in, along with plenty of data. For £10 you can have 25GB of data, while for £15 you can have 40GB; £25 gives you an unlimited data allowance. What’s more, you can get a 10% discount on all these plans if you sign up for a 12-month contract.

If you need more international calling minutes, Lebara has the deal you’re looking for. The £15/40GB package includes 500 international minutes, while the £20/50GB and £30/Unlimited packages give you unlimited international calls. The free calls don’t extend to every single country, but with more than 50 countries supported, coverage is wide.

Lebara scored high for value for money in the past two Mobile Network Awards, winning the Value award in 2022. This year it wasn’t so lucky, but 98% of users told us they were fairly satisfied or very satisfied with the network on this count, with nearly three-quarters (74%) describing themselves as very satisfied. This was enough to scoop Lebara a Highly Commended.

Lebara review: Customer service

Customer service was Lebara’s Achilles heel last year, and little has changed in 2024. Of its users, 36% told our survey they were satisfied with the network’s customer service and support, while a further 32% were fairly satisfied. However, this still leaves 8% dissatisfied, with 25% responding “don’t know”. These aren’t the worst figures in this year’s survey for customer service, and they’re actually an improvement on 2023’s results. All the same, Lebara really needs to look at how it can improve its customer support.

Ofcom’s last customer service and satisfaction study doesn’t provide numbers for Lebara, and neither does its most recent research into customer complaints.

Lebara review: Coverage, reliability and speed

Lebara is a virtual network operator, reliant on Vodafone’s core network for its connectivity. The latest performance figures from RootMetrics place Vodafone third out of the four major UK networks for speed, with a UK-wide median download speed of 42.8Mbits/sec putting it just behind the second-placed Three’s 44.5Mbits/sec. RootMetrics’ research also shows Vodafone lagging behind EE and Three, with around 48% UK coverage against 60% or more. Still, Vodafone’s 5G coverage and performance is improving, with 5G median download speeds of nearly 185Mbits/sec and maximum speeds of over 450Mbits/sec. RootMetrics also notes that Vodafone is scoring well in its video-streaming tests, and that speeds and availability have increased since last year.

Lebara’s performance in this section of our survey has also improved. Last year 78% of users told us that they always or often had fast enough speeds for web browsing. This year, the figure is 88%. In 2023, 47% said they could often or always stream audio, while 38% said the same for video. This year, those numbers have gone up to 63% and 57%. Lebara still falls slightly below the average in terms of performance and reliability, but not to such an embarrassing extent.

Lebara review: Roaming

Lebara is one of the few remaining networks to still offer free use of your plan’s calls, texts and data allowances while you’re in the EU, although there’s a 30GB/month cap on the Unlimited plan. What’s more, the same rules apply if you travel to India. Costs aren’t horrific in other regions, either. You’re typically looking at 99p to £1.49 per minute to make a call, 49p to £1.49 to receive one, 49p per text and 9p per megabyte of data. You can also cut costs in some territories with eight-day and 15-day roaming add-ons, costing between £5 and £20. These come with 50 to 100 roaming minutes, 50-100 roaming texts and between 1GB and 5GB of data for the period of the pass.

Lebara review: Other features, services and spending caps

Lebara has a built-in spending cap to prevent you from exceeding your plan’s allowances without buying an add-on. It’s also a barebones network, so don’t expect to receive any bonus benefits, rollover features or family plans.

Lebara review: Verdict

Lebara needs to work on its customer service and support but, otherwise, it’s an interesting option. Its plans offer plenty of data for not a lot of cash, and its international calling features could save those with friends or family abroad a lot of money – although this isn’t such a big deal in an age of free video chats and calls. Look to Voxi if you want more features, or Smarty for competitive cheap data deals – but if you want a cheap and cheerful mobile network, then Lebara is worth a look.