Is there a phone contract which you can freeze months etc.?

mattw89

Basically I'm a sea farer so work for 4 months and then 2 months I'm off.

I have a really old phone and wouldn't mind getting an iphone or blackberry but its just so impractical with circumstance to be paying £50pm when I'm barely using it for 8 months of the year.

So wondered if there was a way around this. I'd look at just buying the headsets and go on pay as you go but this way I barely get to use any of the features such as the internet and all that...

Therefore was considering (very unlikely to exist) a way of having a contract for 2 months im home, turning it off while away, then just putting a PAYG sim in while I'm on the ship for essential texts or what not. Then reactive when I'm home.

Kind of like I do with sky TV.

Otherwise I guess the better option is PAYG and just buy a mediocre phone. But really do like the iphone and bb. My current contract is sim only 25pm but can negotiate them down to 10pm if i don't go to pay as you go.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

If you can afford to buy the phone outright, you can get a "monthly contract" sim from any of the main networks. Make sure that it includes data, but is only a 30 day contract.

Whenever you are off to sea, you ask them to switch you to PAYG and top up a tenner (or more, if you need it) and turn the data settings off on the iPhone so that it's not connecting to the internet. You've then got the tenner to use for texts and the like and if you leave your top-up card with someone on dry land, they can top you up as needed.

When you come back, a simple call to the network will mean you can go back on to a 30 day contract with the data enabled. They'll even use any PAYG credit towards the cost of the first month if you speak to them nicely!!

thatsean

Orange and TMo both do PAYT on iPhone or Blackberry which include the data plans that you need to use the phone when you're here. Otherwise the poster above has come up with a pretty good idea.

Note that in the case of Orange at least, the switch to PAYT from PAYM requires 30 days notice, and new sims every time (both ways), so not the smoothest experience, but cheaper than wasting a lot of cash on line rental.

ioscorpio

You could try GiffGaff and just buy a goodybag when you need one.

http://giffgaff.com/

boliston

I'd say buy the handset sim-free then use a payg sim where you only pay for what you actually use. I would never dream of buying a phone on contract anyway as you often pay over twice the sim free cost over 24 months, but I guess not many people can afford £500 up front for a half decent handset, even though they will happily pay £30+ per month over 24 months for the same phone on contract with the disadvantage of being tied to a specific network.