Buy a PAYG phone without a top up?

SaLoGo

Is there anywhere you can buy a PAYG phone without having to buy a £10 top up?

It's so annoying when you already have a sim card that you want to keep and they make you buy the top up which goes on a new sim card that you don't need!!

bevvy

If you buy instore you don't have to buy the new sim, I bought a phone the other day and she just treated it as a upgrade, took down my mobile no and I just paid the actual phone cost.

If its online then I bought a phone online with the £10 topup as I couldn't get the deal in the shop so I just phoned O2 and explained that I had a new sim with £10 credit but I wanted to keep my old no and she just transferred the £10 credit onto my original sim.

Torry_Quine

When I bought my last phone the old number was transferred along with the remaining credit onto the new sim card with its £10 credit.

iffi_2

You can buy from Woolworth online website with out to buy any credit,very cheap phones.

borderline

two times that I bought in store (carphone and phones 4 u) had to buy with £10 sim card.. I always found it very annoying and I never knew why I had to do that. They never offered me to transfer any credit or anything

Techhead_2

If you go in and tell them you are an existing customer, then you can take advantage of any pay and go upgrade offers and also will not have to buy the extra top-up.

kingofherts

The reason you have to buy a handset with top up credit is 2 fold

1. the cost of PAYG handsets is subsidised heavily by the networks, even the most basic handsets have a true value of £50+ not the £10 you actually pay for it they assume they will make the subsidy back by the purchaser buying top-up credits and using the handset as a payg handset. If you simply put a contract sim in it they instantly lose money on the sale of that handset. So by selling the credit they at least make some of the subsidy back.

2. It deters box-breakers, these are individuals who buy large numbers of mainly cheap handsets in bulk to be shipped abroad, unlocked and resold at a profit, by having to buy the top up as well, it cuts into the potential profit.

if you are an existing customer most networks offer refurbished handsets to purchase thru customer services if your has been lost of damaged, if you choose to buy a pay as you go handset expect it to come with the pay as you go package