Can you beat it? PAYG Packages for as little as £18

Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) mobiles are the right choice for those who just want an emergency (granny-in-the-glovebox) phone. They're also useful for under 18s and those with poor credit histories who can't get contract mobiles; plus it's a great way to get a cheap handset to put your existing Sim card in.

With PAYG you simply prepay for calls or messages via vouchers or electronic top up.

The Cheapest PAYG phones?

The following are the cheapest currently available PAYG deals. Yet this is just the handset price; if you're planning to actually use the phone to make a substantial number of calls always examine the tariff (the actual cost of different calls). Often cheap handsets mean expensive tariffs, so if that applies to you, instead read the Mobile Phone Cost Cutting article to find the right tariff.

The Cheapest PAYG Available Online

These are arranged in order of how much you will have to lay out, but some include airtime actually making them cheaper overall if you intend to use that tariff too.

• £21.99 (free delivery) Sony Ericsson J220i* Basic phone with a colour screen and polyphonic ringtones, available on Vodafone from Amazon.
• £22.95 (incl. £10 airtime + free delivery) Nokia 1600*. This is another basic phone with a colour screen and polyphonic ringtones. It's available on both Vodafone and T-mobile for £14.95 when purchasing £10 of airtime from Phones4u.
• £24.95 (incl. £10 airtime + free delivery) Sony Ericsson J100i*.
  Available from Carphone Warehouse on Virgin, Take5 and Mobile World networks. This is a pretty basic handset; it's not as good as the J220i above, but it still does everything it needs to.

The Cheapest In-store/over the phone

• £17.99 in-store (£22.94 delivered) Alcatel E105* at Woolworths . A basic phone with a monochrome screen. It's available from a few providers, but it's cheapest on Virgin Mobile.
• £19.99 (inc £10 airtime) Alcatel OT-E205 from Orange Retail. Similar in looks to the E105 above but with a colour screen. It is only available in Orange high street shops for this price; online it costs £10 more.
• £24.99 Siemens C72 from Sainsburys. Available on Vodafone, this is in-store only Christmas clearance stock of slightly more advanced phone, but availability is very limited.
• £29.99 (inc. £10 airtime) Alcatel E801 from Orange Retail. This is only on the list as it has a built-in mp3 player and 128mb memory card. Again, this is an in-store only price and you'll pay an extra tenner if you buy online.

Contract mobiles are cheaper for most users

If you can get a contract and you are likely to make regular calls, then it will be cheaper. For full details read the Mobile Cost Cutting System to get the best deal, or if you're fed up with the current tariff Batter Down Your Contract.


How to use these PAYG's just as a handset for your existing tariff

If you want to simply use these phones to upgrade your existing handset on a contract (or current PAYG) tarriff, it's usually quite easy to do. The only problem is most mobiles are 'locked' to a network, meaning that if you use a Sim card from another network, they won't work.

Yet it's usually (though not with every phone) easy and legal to unlock phone for free; effectively it just means typing a code into the handset. Read the full Unlock Your Phone For Free article.

For further info read the Related Articles:

• Mobile Phone Cost Cutting
• Unlock Your Phone For Free
• Batter your mobile contract down by up to £600
• Recycle old Mobiles for Cash

Martin