PAYG vs Contract

soupdragon10

I'm in the process of buying a new phone, but am unable to decide between a payg and contract.

The options are

1. Buy an HTC Wildfire for just under £140 and look for a payg offer to use. Advantage is I'm not tied in to a 24 month contract for my phone.

What would be my options for PAYG? What are sim only deals and are they different to straighforward PAYG? I have a PAYG sim card with my current Orange phone - could I use this in my new phone so I keep the number?

2. Take out a 24 month contract (cheapest I've found is £25 per month) and get a free phone.

In either case I will need insurance either added to contents insurance or specialist phone insurance e.g. phones 4 U policy at £9.99

I don't know what my monthly usage will be at present (In the process of setting up as a sole trader) but don't use text much atm, will need to receive calls and use the internet for e-mail and accessing online diary.

As I get older I find the sheer number of options very hard to wade through and make sense of which is why I submit my problem to those more in tune with these things.

Sorry for the long post.

Stuart_W

You get get the HTC Wildfire "free" on a 24 month contract that is much less than £25 per month.

£12 per month with Talkmobile for example. There are plenty of others about.

However, I would be completely wary of a 24 month contract when you don't know your usage will be over that time. You might end up stuck in a contract that will cost you a fortune if you end up regularly going over your included usage (calls can be as high as 36p a minute just to call an ordinary landline number if you've used all your inclusive minutes) A SIM-only contract can usually be changed to a different tariff easily, not always the case with handset contracts.

100 minutes, 100 texts and 100MB of data only £5.11 per month
100 minutes, 100 texts and 1GB data internet booster only £6.00 per month

Both of these are 30 days notice SIMs that you can move onto a higher tariff if needed (and then back again) when you wish. Much more flexibility.

If you can be sure of staying within the 200 minutes, 200 texts and unlimited data on the £12 deal, that will virtually be exactly the same as buying the phone upfront and using the £6 SIM deal above (presuming you have the funds to buy upfront). The difference with going via the SIM-only deal rather than the 24 month contract is that you will have the flexibility card to play at any time and you can switch tariffs (and networks for that matter) if a better deal for your usage comes along - or if your usage dramatically changes.
It is easy to transfer current number to new contract. Just ask supplier for a PAC.

JJ_Egan

I would not bother insuring £140 >> phone insurance e.g. phones 4 U policy at £9.99 = £120 a year total cost of insured phone £260 .

stand the bet yourself .

jje