Cheapest tariff for phone-phobic Mum!

JammieDodger

Hello,

My Mum has decided she will finally get a mobile phone. I have an old handset for her, and she needs the most basic package possible.

Do I get a contract and have it attached to my existing phone account (I'm with O2) so that she doesn't worry about topping up?

Or...

Do I get her a SIM card and just top it up when it's needed?

I would rather pay £5 a month and she can use a few minutes a month, and have the phone for emergencies, but I can't seem to find a tariff like this. Any ideas?

I think she'll use less than 30 mins a month, less than 20 texts and as I say, we already have a handset for her.

Thanks,

JD

grumbler

For £1 p.m. you can get 30 minutes + 30 texts.
For £5 - 100+3000
http://www.vectonemobile.co.uk/pay-monthly/30-day-plans/overview.aspx

On PAYG the cheapest calls cost 3p/6p/min:
http://www.icardmobile.co.uk/rates.php

http://mobilenetworkcomparison.co.uk/compare/

thegoodman

Go for oviv mobile
Buy the sim for £5 then nothing to pay per month.
You get 200 min and text, 500mb Internet.


http://ovivomobile.com/

grumbler

thegoodman wrote: »

Go for oviv mobile
Buy the sim for £5 then nothing to pay per month.
You get 200 min and text, 500mb Internet.


http://ovivomobile.com/

There may be a way around this, but it has to be a smartphone - something that I wouldn't expect a "phone-phobic mum" to have.

Hardly worth the trouble of getting around.

zagfles

Just get a PAYG and top it up by DD every month. If she's a low user you could top up £5 a month to start with, and after a while it would probably build up a lot of credit, you could then stop for a while and at least you've still got the credit. Rather then getting some contract where you lose any usused minutes/texts.

Also a contract is generally a bad idea if people don't know what they're doing, particularly if the phone uses data. Or she starts getting premium rate texts. Could run up a massive bill, loads of stories on here about people running up bills of hundreds or even thousands.

smartphone

We got my Mum and Dad PAYG - one is on Tesco Mobile, the other is on Three. Both have very basic Nokia handsets (with Symbian OS which is pretty straightforward), and to top up, just get a voucher when they go to Tescos. They only use the mobiles for quick texts home when they're on holiday or to tell the other they need picking up from somewhere!