To buy or go for contract?

Susan1942

My current contract with O2 is almost at an end and I am swithering what to do.
Currently I have a Nokia 530 and am on a contract for £12.50 This gives me unlimited texts 100MB and 200 minutes per month This is plenty for my needs
I get the Which magazine and there is an article in the current June edition
They are comparing various price levels
The first being phone for £10-£19 and which is best and worst in that price guide
My phone is the worst with 43% saying one to avoid The best is Samsung GalaxS4 with 73%
the cost of the lumia is £68 £15 per month and the Samsung is £170 £18 a month also suggest the Motorola G 4G at £150 £11 per month I would not buy the nokia again as it is very poor on battery life and also camera is not great I can afford to buy a phone rather than take a contract but I don't want to spend the kind of moneyit costs for iPhone I am elderly have a desktop a laptop and a Hudl Tablet all bought for me by my family
Just wondered what the best choice for me If I actually buy a phone how much would this reduce the cost of monthly Or should I stay with the sort of contract I have currently I know the price I will pay depends on the phone I choose The next price bracket is £20 - £29 compairing an Apple iphone 5 16GB
£27 50 to a Vodafone Smart 4 Turbo £21
Would appreciate your advice as I have read that when you have a contract you may actually pay more for the phone overall in a contract rather than buy outright Thanks for advice Sue

keith1950

Hi, you really need to research more phones to see what you actually like.


In the £10-£19 bracket the Moto G and the S4 are both very good phones for the price.


I have always gone for top end phones but I find that I am paying for a lot of features I don't need so I now look for slightly cheaper contracts but still keeping top end specifications.


One such phone is the Sony Z3 Compact , which is around the same size as the iPhone 6 with roughly comparable performance.


I find that the battery is usually only down to around 70% after 16 hours use although I have never left it uncharged overnight to find out how long it will last.


It has a very good display, a fast processor and a 20 mb camera.


It is available on 3 with 300 mins/1gb data and all you can eat texts for £21/month.


I was lucky enough a few months ago to purchase a couple at £18/month plus I got cashback by going through topcashback.


As you are used to the windows operating system you need to check out how you like or dislike the Android and Apple iOS operating systems.


Only you can answer your other question, There are plenty of good sim only contracts available if you want to purchase a phone outright but for most people it depends on the amount of disposable cash they have.


As an example the Z3 Compact is available for between £280-£350 depending whether it is sim free or locked to a network. With your quoted usage you could get a sim only contract for around £10/month but remember the better/faster the smartphone you get the more data you are likely to use.

DCFC79

As you have used a windows based phone you could look at Tesco Mobile, the network runs on the 02 network.

jagorcevina

First you need to know how much you need min/text/data, and you can find really good PAYG bundles ( giffgaff, thepeoplesoperator, phone.coop (which I recommend), and usual PAYG as THREE- 321 tariff, or delight mobile.

Second you need to know what is important to you about phone- camera,flash(for the camera or for torch) operating system, screen, price. etc?

If you satisfied with Windows phone, you can find cheap on carphonewarehouse under - payg new sim, or payg upgrade, microsoft lumia 535 and 640(this one is better)- this one is 109 pounds +10 topup.

There is phones which is better to buy on contract and others which is better to buy outright.

For example : if you use Sim only contract or PAYG bundles, cheapest you can get is 7.5, but mostly it would be 10 pounds, and for some phones which worth 200 pounds you can get on contract for 14 pounds, in that case better option is contract.

it all depends which phone you want and how much you need min/text /data.

I would recommend Nokia lumia 735 on carphonewarehouse for 15.5 pm, and you get 600/5000/1Gb

Or you have MIcrosoft lumia 640 on CPW for 10.5 pm and you get 150/5000/500mb or 13.5 pm - 300/500/1gb

If you want android phone I can give you suggestions but first decide what you want from phone. and if you have any question just ask.
Hope something of this will help you.

Susan1942

Thanks for your replies You have given me a lot of food for thought My Daughter told me today that I should look at different phones The Nokia I have at the moment is the only smart phone I have harm
It was suggested by the sales asst in the O2 shop He said not was simple and inexpensive so I just went with that I discovered last week that I'm can call mobile no's on my home phone as part of the package
I suppose what I would like is a phone that looks a little smarter
My Grandson 19 just got another Sony my Granddaughter got the iPhone 5 I think 17 paid form by Parents at school and University
I will read your suggestions and read up a little bit on them also look at costsm
I do very much appreciate all the advice and suggestions
Thanks again Sue

mrsyardbroom

Oh dear. I'm also elderly and I've just bought a Nokia 530 and I'm with o2. I've gone for the slightly cheaper option of paying £9.50 a month for 100mb and 100 minutes. I could have gone for a one year contract and only paid £8.50 a month but I have no idea how much I'll use the phone. It might be a flash in the pan for me, in which case I'll just go back to pay and go.
I also have a laptop, a Kindle Fire and access to an ipad. I use the laptop more than anything.

Susan1942

I have had the Nokia for almost 2 years and it has been OK The battery life is the biggest problem I don't know if you go online with yours I do but I keep the mine mobile and sim switched off when I am at home so all the use is on the wifi so I use very little data In a month I might only have gone down from 100 to maybe 98-95
Since I got my tablet I use it most of the time I use the laptop to type long emails and I also do online banking and doing my grocery shopping online as well I use the laptop for all of these as I don't have any security on the tablet I do use a password I was told that was all I needed
I do FB email and text on the phone and photo's I read the papers on both the phone and the tablet. I have had a look at some phones online but I really need to see them to get a better idea
Thanks again Sue

Susan1942

I am going back to this again as my 02 contract is now due next month
I took note of the phones you recommended and spoke to o2 yesterday. The girl looked at my minute use and it is approx 80-90 mins a month . Currently I have 200mins unlimited texts and I MB data
They are now doing 100 mins or 300 mins. I would not be happy just to have 100 but think that 300 would be good for me and it has more data
I didn't have time yesterday to think properly about it
She gave me details on 3 phones which might be suitable for me.
1 is the Sony A3 Compact at £21 50 per month and £60 upfront cost > This is one of the phones recommended in my origional post.
Nokia 635 aat £14 50
Samsung A3 500 mins tariffe £9 99 upfront and £20 50 per month
I didn't take a good look at them as I was not very well and needed to get home
Some of the phones were very large not sure if this is good or not
These 3 models seemed to be smaller and much the same size as the Nokia 520 that I have. The battery and the camera on the current phone are not great which is why I thought I would change. I think I am now paying £14 50 and would be happy to pay a bit more for a phone that I was happy with
I had cancelled my Which subscription as I was not always reading the magazine or rather maybe small parts of it .> I find also that I can get good information on other web sites as well as this forum .
I was paying £6 95 for the magazine so that gives me this money to spend on a new phone.
My Granddaughter has got the iphone 5s at a very good price as it is an old model. I could get this for just over £21 or £22 for the 300 mins tariffe. Would this be a good buy or is it now out of date?
My Daughter goes to Carphone warehouse for all the family phones. Hers my two grandchildren and her husband . She says they can find the best deal and have a lot more phones. I don't find the o2 shop in Harrogate all that helpful, I have never managed to set up a microsoft account. I went in one day to ask if they could help me but the chap said just follow the instructions ,
So it is still not set up.
When I got this current phone my first smart phone I was to play about with it and then make an appt to see a Guru,
That was a disaster he was not interested in showing me or explaining anything to me. I am 73 and he made me feel stupid. Needless to say I would not go back to ask any further questions. I want to stay with o2 as it means I have the same phone no. I can make mobile calls on my home phone as I have got a package for anytime calls so can make mobile calls on my home telephone
Again I would appreciate advice on how I can find out a bit more. I have been reading some of the reviews on some of the phones. Should I be concerned about a phone that is bigger than I have currently.
Many thanks again for previous advice and would appreciate further views. Sue

DCFC79

You don't have to stay with 02, you can port (move) your number to another network.

Does your current phone still work, if so why not stick with it. Its a personal choice, depends if you fancy a change.

If the current phone is windows based then why not stick to windows based phones to make it easier.

Susan1942

Thank you I didn't know that, My current phone does work but I would like to change it after 2 years
Sue

DCFC79

Susan1942 wrote: »

Thank you I didn't know that, My current phone does work but I would like to change it after 2 years
Sue

Whether you port your number from 02 is a personal choice, its all about getting a contract your happy with.