Advice please - light but particular user

exkingzog

Hi all. Would be very grateful if anyone can offer some insight into finding a mobile deal that will match my quite specific needs and keep the cost down.

I have been with Orange for about four years, on a tariff that gives me far, far more inclusive minutes and texts - in theory at least - than I ever use. The problem is that most of the calls and texts I do make are not inclusive!

I only use the phone extensively when I am travelling overseas on business, which amounted to about 60 days last year - when I'm in the UK I really don't make that many calls. The base tariff cost is £25/month but my bills have been £50 plus quite regularly.

I got my current phone - an Orange E650 smartphone - a couple of years back. I go out of contract next month.

I need a phone that will sync my Outlook contacts with the laptop. I use the phone occasionally for email, but not that often. Activesync is fine, I don't at the moment see the need for push email. I'm pretty happy with the phone.

If I could find a deal that would allow me to keep my number and phone but reduce the fixed cost, and ideally give me the best roaming costs, I would be a happy man. Anyone have any thoughts?

cheers

treb1971

I expect you have a Travel Bundle added, to reduce costs?

redux

There's an article by Martin about roaming, and a related discussion thread is at the top of the board.

I'll reply in more detail later, but meanwhile can I ask which countries you go to most?

proplusplus

orange.co.uk/bestplan would be my fisrt suggestion. This will automatically rate your talkplan with your best usage and give best cost-effective plan.

Othwerwise the following options:

SIM-only tariff with Travel Bundle added (reduces costs when abroad as advised above) + buy a handset seperately.

18/24 mth contract + handset + travel bundle. (longer contract generally means cheaper line rental - there are plans on Orange for £15 incl. a phone).

Buy online direct from manufacturers for the cheapest deals without 'cashback' offers.

call customer services (150 as you're on Orange) and ask them to recommend a plan based on your usage.

proplusplus

exkingzog

redux wrote: »

There's an article by Martin about roaming, and a related discussion thread is at the top of the board.

I'll reply in more detail later, but meanwhile can I ask which countries you go to most?

Unpredictable. I go to the States generally twice or three times a year, but otherwise not easy to guess. Last year I visited 14 countries, sometimes at very short notice.

treb1971

Have you looked at the option of buying payg SIM cards locally in your destination, and unlocking your phone? That might work out cheaper...

simon211175

Roaming is never going to be cheap until networks bring the prices down - the above advice is probably the best - getting cheap PAYG SIM cards when in the foreign countries, or if that's too much hassle, try haggling the international calling bundle as part of your upgrade. I've just signed in to an Orange contract for the HTC S740, I traded in a QTEK 8500 / Smartflip for £100 credit spread over the 18 month contract. They did this so I could get the 500Mb Data bundle for free. The phone I traded in costs £35 new.