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Cheap unlocked phone wanted

littlemoney
littlemoney Posts: 818 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
I am thinking of taking up the Ovivo offer. My 8 year non smart phone in locked. Where can I get a cheap unlocked phone I intend to use the phone mainly for calls and text, smart would be a nice to have depending on the additonal cost.

Comments

  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Why not just unlock your existing handset? An 8 year old model isn't likely to cost much to unlock, depending on model, and for calls and texts you don't need a smartphone.
    Who is it locked to? Ovivo runs on Voda.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • bubieyehyeh
    bubieyehyeh Posts: 592 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    I am thinking of taking up the Ovivo offer. My 8 year non smart phone in locked. Where can I get a cheap unlocked phone I intend to use the phone mainly for calls and text, smart would be a nice to have depending on the additonal cost.

    google prepaymania, expansys, mobilefun.
  • Yorkie1
    Yorkie1 Posts: 12,256 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I got mine unlocked down the market for a fiver ...
  • cashbag
    cashbag Posts: 127 Forumite
    I just got a phone unlocked for which Vodafone wanted £19.99! Got very speedy service from https://www.mobileunlocked.com for £4.99. Picked them out after surfing the web for past three days & getting quite itchy about some of the scary stories out there.They get good reviews - in fact better than the "official" Vodafone service! Much better to unlock a phone you are happy with than ditch it.
  • gjchester
    gjchester Posts: 5,741 Forumite
    cashbag wrote: »
    I just got a phone unlocked for which Vodafone wanted £19.99!

    Vodafone unlock any contract phone for free after the minimum term.
  • Rusty!
    Rusty! Posts: 2,076 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    What's your budget? If you can stretch to a ton, then you'll be over the moon with the Moto G.
  • cashbag
    cashbag Posts: 127 Forumite
    gjchester wrote: »
    Vodafone unlock any contract phone for free after the minimum term.

    In which case perhaps I should have bought a contract from them & waited until out of contract sometime in 2015! I don't have a year to spare & that would have ultimately cost more than £19.99. If you check around they either charge £19.99 for unlocking a PAYG or it's free for an old one, depending what you read - umpteen conflicting opinions & advice out there. My local shop wanted £19.99. Online application demanded that there be enough credit on the phone for them to take £19.99 . Help line adviser said £19.99. Did I miss out any option? And even on their own website/forum there are many complaints about people applying, paying & weeks later still not having their phone unlocked. I applied to & paid MobileUnlimited at 5pm one day & by 5am next morning the codes had been emailed to me - by 9am it was unlocked. Done in less time than I spent chasing Vodafone around for a freebie. Bargain price & efficient.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    edited 13 March 2014 at 6:02PM
    In addition to the posts above you'll also find a selection of sim free phones in your local Tesco supermarket that can be used on any network with the appropriate sim card. Just look in their SIM FREE section in store.
    Argos also stock many sim free phones nowadays.
  • Ypaymore
    Ypaymore Posts: 2,802 Forumite
    gjchester wrote: »
    Vodafone unlock any contract phone for free after the minimum term.
    They will unlock a contract phone for free after 12 months irrespective of the minimum term.
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