3 pays the popular

The mobile operator 3 is rewarding popular people with WePay – a tariff that pays you every time you receive a call or text. With 5p for every minute and 2p per text received, you’ll have to swot up on the art of conversation and get texting.

So what’s making a few extra friends worth? Well, a five-minute call will earn you enough credit to send two texts. If you receive 100 mins of calls and 50 texts a month you’ll earn a generous £6 credit, which you can then pump back into 3’s call, music and TV services.

It’s not just a question of getting telesales people to badger you all day, though. You need to buy a new WePay Top-up voucher to claim your popularity prize, and you only have 30 days to cash your credit before it expires. After that, you’ll need to buy a new card, or all your credit will go down the pan. Sound like a covert monthly plan to you?

3 says it’s rewarding loyal customers – giving something back, bless ‘em – but it’s also part of the company’s cunning plan to tap into the pay-as-you-go-market, which is a whopping 66% of mobile users in the UK. The company hopes the new tariff, alongside some new fancy 3G handsets by fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, will encourage customers to go 3. The offer of £10 cash credit to do so will certainly help.

If you fancy yourself as one of the beautiful people, you’ll be able to hook up to WePay from this February.

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