totally new to smartphones/contracts, worried they'll see me coming!

berkshirelady

Hi all,

after 15 years on PAYG on a little £15 Nokia, I've decided maybe I should dip my toe in the water and get a smartphone. I'm not totally thick when it comes to technology - I'll happily tweet, upload photos, videos to Facebook, YouTube etc from my Macintosh at home, but as I do a lot of campaigning work, I'd really like to be able to tweet photos, do Facebook updates and upload the occasional short video while 'out in the field' rather than waiting until i get home.

I don't need a huge amount of minutes or texts as only spend about £10 a month max on PAYG, but I think I'll need a lot of data allowance and would like to get an i-phone as I like Mac stuff.

also, I'd like to keep my current phone number (had it many years). Can I do this and is it complicated?

Insurance - if I get a 'free' or 'cheap' phone on a 24 month contract do I have to take out the seller's insurance? (concerned about this as was stung on PPI years ago and will not go down THAT road again). Are there alternative companies apart from sellers like car phone warehouse who can do good cover but much cheaper? Is a smartphone on contract covered by my contents insurance?

Sorry if these seem like really basic questions but it's all this and the masses of tariffs out there that have put me off for the past year or so. Any advice is appreciated!

thanks
BL x

grumbler

berkshirelady wrote: »

also, I'd like to keep my current phone number (had it many years). Can I do this and is it complicated?

You can and it isn't. If you change the network, ask your provider for PAC and give it to the new provider.

Insurance - if I get a 'free' or 'cheap' phone on a 24 month contract do I have to take out the seller's insurance?

You don't have to. The phone is yours, you decide.

Are there alternative companies apart from sellers like car phone warehouse who can do good cover but much cheaper?

Plenty, but the majority are dodgy and will use every excuse for not paying. There is MSE article on this. Check also this thread: Spill the beans... on mobile phone insurers

Is a smartphone on contract covered by my contents insurance?

Check it.

Tyler_Du

Three offer the best deals regarding data, you can get a sim only deal with unlimited data for £15 per month

Netwizard

Giffgaff are a good bet. Plenty of data allowance, and pay as you go, so no unexpected bills

im-lost

Threes one plan sim only has unlimited data, 2000 minutes and 5000 texts, so a 'normal' person won't have to worry about any unexpected bills, unless they use a lot of 08 numbers.

Couple that with a nexus 4 from Google for £149 or £199, and dipping your toe in to the smartphone world will be a great experience.

I'd always suggest going for a sim only contract, whether 1 month rolling, or 12 months, because IMO 24 month contracts which are the norm now, are ridiculously long and expensive if you go for one of the higher end handsets, sim only and a phone bought outright is the way forward, you can get some excellent 'spartphones' for under £100 now

Im_just_careful

If you can afford the £300 or so that the cheapest iPhone from the Apple store will cost you, buy that and get a giffgaff SIM.

Buy the smallest gigabag from giffgaff and have everything else on their Pay As You Go rates.

See

http://giffgaff.com/goodybags#data for the gigabags

and

http://giffgaff.com/index/pricing for the PAYG call pricing.

After a month or two see how much you are spending on top of the £5 for a gigabag and see if a different bundle would be better.

If the purchase cost of an iPhone is a bit much, for what you get the lower cost Windows phones can be excellent value for money smartphones. Buy using your existing PAYG SIM as an upgrade from Carphone Warehouse from around £60.

One other tip. Don't move your number from your PAYG SIM until you have nearly no credit. You won't get your money back.