PAYG mobile for under a tenner; can you grab one?

aMIGA_dUDE

Sorry Martin Lewis you are wrong about Orange and to keep active by toping credit up every 6 months.
You have to make chargeable out going call within every 6 months. Incoming calls do not count, Freefone calls do not count, Texting do not count.

In other words make out going call that they charge you for.

I make a quick phone call to your own land line and must answer the call and talk to your self. Well you could make long call but dont blame me if people think your going :money:

Few pence every few months keeps line active. I do this and works a charm, I use Yahoo calender to remind me every few months that I have to talk to my self. Well that my excuse and I am sticking to it.

jicms

I want to stay with O2 and keep my number by buying a new contract with a third party rather than through O2 who give a comparitively poor deal. This is currently impossible. However it seems the way to do this is to port my number onto a PAYG sim from another network e.g. Orange and then port it back again to O2.

Seems a hassle but the best deals for the Nokia N73 phone I want seem to be with O2. Would buying one of these cheap PAYG phones with a SIM be the best way to go about it.

Any advice would be great.

boobbby

jatos wrote: »

One thing to weary of, getting a too much your money.

Some of the phones that have a lot features for less then might expect have a nasty tendancy to go wrong with 1/2 years, occassionally even earlier.

For example, I bought a Nokia 3510i a while back, for £70. Which when I was fairly cheap for what I got. Within 24 hours of buying it, I had to make a warranty because some of the keypad buttons stopped working correctly.

The replacement, I have had for I would guess 2/3 years, still works, however I have the same problem with the keypad.

In short, if its very cheap, they costs will have to been cut somewhere. It would be wise to try and find out before you buy it.

Personally, the way I save money with electronics, is by buying from reputable second sources. Got to be a bit careful here, but if you are, you can save a lot of money!

I also purchased my second hand 3510i about 3 years ago through ebay for about £10...I top up for about £10 every 2 months and have never had a problem with the phone. I would use this route again for a PAYG phone as it is just a matter of fitting the sim card from the old phone and away you go.

kchok

yes, Tesco may also use T mob network like virgin certainly do.

HonestJohn

kchok wrote: »

yes, Tesco may also use T mob network like virgin certainly do.

Tesco use O2

jchung07

Another good idea is to use these phones for trade-ins in the high street retailers like Carphone Warehouse who are currently offering 100 pound tradein on working phones providing you take out a £35p/m tariff.

When i was in Carphone last they are also doing a Motorola F3 for 14.95 providing u top up 10. But they allow you to trade in an old handset for £10 so its only £14.95 with 10 credit...Fantastic

crossleydd42

Usually mobile phones are locked. Someone told me that O2 do not lock their phones, but whether this is true, I can't say.

I do know that since Tesco's mobile phone system piggybacks off O2's system, an O2 mobile will work with a Tesco simcard.

Tilsit999

I can't remember fror certain, but I think T-Mobile (and O2) run the Tesco phones via their networks. Therefore a SIM card for T- Mobile should work in the Tesco phone and vice versa.

Last week Tesco Direct were offering a free phone (Nokia 1110 or Alcatel OTE225) provided that you bought a £30 call time voucher.

Welliesorter

Tilsit999 wrote: »

I can't remember fror certain, but I think T-Mobile (and O2) run the Tesco phones via their networks. Therefore a SIM card for T- Mobile should work in the Tesco phone and vice versa.

Tesco Mobile is a joint venture between Tesco and O2 (now part of Telefonica). There's no connection with T-Mobile, which is part of Deutsche Telekom.

Getting back to the issue of locking phones: historically O2 and Vodafone didn't lock their contract phones, the other networks always have done. All the networks lock phones sold as pay-as-you-go. There are always exceptions though. I believe that Carphone Warehouse used to sell some unbranded (and unlocked) phones with PAYG SIMs. I don't know whether they still do.

pubniall

although you have to source your own phone ( not too hard through Ebay) get yourself a o2 online ( genie ) simcard costs £5-£10 put 15 pounds on it a month and get 300 free texts anytime and 150 off peak minutes x- network + your £15 quid credit at a good rate during the day to o2 and landlines. I have never run out of minutes texts or credit in a month yet!! just be careful whilst abroad very very expensive ( apparently that set to change though )

cheers