Need a Smart phone, but contract or PAYG

The_Wall

Currently I have a basic phone, calls and SMS, on the ASDA network on PAYG.

I got through £5 every 3 months approximately, and that was mostly texts. So as you can see not a heavy user.

However I have met this fantastic lady from Oz and, since texts to international numbers on the ASDA tariff are 30p, I'm now getting through £5 every couple of days.

My initial thought was to switch to Lebara. But this lady has also persuaded me to join FaceBook and since I will be at work, where we cannot access FaceBook, when she is at home I am now considering joining the 21st century and getting a Smart Phone.

That of course means that I will need a Smart phone. Given that I still would not be using the phone for making a great deal of calls and from this site I now know how to send free texts with a Smart phone, what I am trying to find out now is whether I buy one and then go for a PAYG tariff that is cheap for data, or do I get one on a contract.

In summary then I am looking for the following advice

- Should I buy a Smart phone, saw on another thread that CPW have the HTC S, unlocked, for £130 and stay on some PAYG tariff or get a Smart phone on a contract?

- If PAYG, which is the cheapest and has good coverage? I live in the South East but do go to various parts of the UK.

- If contract, are there any good deals for data usage? I don't think that free minutes and texts are going to be much of an advantage to me.

Any advice welcome.

grumbler

The_Wall wrote: »

- If PAYG, which is the cheapest and has good coverage? I live in the South East but do go to various parts of the UK.

- If contract, are there any good deals for data usage? I don't think that free minutes and texts are going to be much of an advantage to me.

Unless you are prepared to take a redemption (staged cashback)deal, this depends on the phone you chose.
Use http://www.moneysupermarket.com/mobile-phones/ as a starting point for comparing PAYG and contract deals for the phone you chose. Use the following benchmarks for the cost of PAYG or sim-only contracts with unlimited/pseudounlimited mobile internet:
giffgaff - £10, 250 minutes and unlimited internet.
chitter-chatter - 1x£6, 100 mimutes and 500Mb/unlimited internet.

The_Wall

Grumbler I am not adverse to redemption, but having read the advice on this website I am looking for the best tariff, just in case I don't get the money back.

But presumably that means that you are aware of a good deal with cashback?

Will check out the Money Supermarket website.

Thanks

boxst

Do you know what kind of phone she has? If it is an iPhone 3GS or higher, you could just get a SIM with some form of internet thrown in and use iMessage. You would have to buy the phone, but they go for £150 ish second hand for a 3GS.

(iMessage is an SMS but for free via the Apple servers. I'm quite impressed as I wander aimlessly round the world for work and effectively can text for free to other iPhone users when I have a WiFI connection and in the UK for free as data is included in my tarriff).

Steve

The_Wall

Steve that sounds like a great ideal but I don't think she had an iPhone. I will double check though just in case.

The_Wall

grumbler, or anyone else, do you know how I can calculate my potential data usage given I will primarily be using Facebook? Appreciate it will depend on the amount of text, so I am just looking for a site that can provide an approximation.

The reason being I like the look of the Giffgaff tariff, even without the Goody bags, where you get up to 20mb of data a day for 20p. But whilst 20mb sounds a lot, I have no idea if that will be sufficient. Although if not I could easy switch to the Goody bag that grumbler mentions.

I have tried Googling for the information, but any data size quoted are for emails, web browsing and photos

grumbler

This depends mainly on the complexity of the web pages and the images you see/upload, not the text.
Unless you use Wifi a lot, it doesn't make much sense to have a smartphone on a contract with less than 500Mb monthly alloance. I don't use facebook, but AFAIK it'a data-hungry application. Also smartphones are known to consume data in backgrownd without asking you. With 500Mb allowance you'll have to keep an eye on your usage if you want not to go over the limit.

Biohazard

Why not just email each other? If you buy a cheap enough android, you can use a gmail account to send email.

Another option is buying a blackberry and pin each other. This worked for me when I had a partner living in Germany.