Cost downsides of payg

David_Aston

I have offered my Sister my third hand Galaxy S2, as a potential first smartphone for her. It may actually be older than her current non smartphone. She will stick with payg on vodaphone. Really, I am not sure if I am doing her much of a favour. On the assumption that she doesn't maintain much cash on her sim, I feel that I must explain clearly to her about not having mobile data enabled.
Is there anything else I should mention, does anyone think?

Frozen_up_north

Vodafone might not be good value on PAYG. O2 and Three are 3p/min and 2p/text, 1p/MB. Not sure about Vodafone.

The smart part of a smart phone is all about data, kind of defeats the purpose by not having mobile data when out and about.

BTW, there is a dedicated mobile phone forum on here that is more relevant than this general tech forum.

Neil49

I've used 3 payg for years and use data as and when required without running up the costs. I don't view utube or anything like that which consumes a lot of data but regularly look at Facebook and rarely spend more than £4 a month.

At 1p per megabyte it's not expensive and is a good way to get used to using a smartphone without incurring a big bill.

If you get set up online you can top up as little as £5 a time.

David_Aston

Thanks frozen. I will, try putting my post in a mobile forum. I take your point about mobile data being the main point. If Sis has no more than a fiver on her card, I assume data on payg would soon leach that away.

David_Aston

Thanks Neil
Have just repeated this post in "mobiles" forum.

esuhl

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

The smart part of a smart phone is all about data, kind of defeats the purpose by not having mobile data when out and about.

Rubbish! I hardly ever use airtime data with my smartphone.

The smart part of the phone is all about data processing. I can listen to music or audiobooks or the radio, watch video programmes I've downloaded, look at a map, diagnose IP network faults, take photos, record audio, make video clips, learn chess, and play games...

... all without mobile data.

I get 4GB inclusive data a month. I typically use less than 50MB.

esuhl

David_Aston wrote: »

She will stick with payg on vodaphone.

PAYG can be expensive for more than occasional use. How much does she spend a month? I have a Three SIM for £9 a month, which comes with unlimited texts & minutes and 4GB data.

David_Aston wrote: »

I have offered my Sister my third hand Galaxy S2, as a potential first smartphone for her. It may actually be older than her current non smartphone.

Same phone as me! One thing to be aware of is that there are no official firmware updates for the S2, and that it has a fairly small amount of storage space allocated for apps.

You can install LineageOS on the phone (a free Android operating system), which uses a more modern version of Android and still gets regular security updates:

https://www.lineageos.org/

You can allocate more storage space for apps by repartitioning the internal storage:

https://iwf1.com/how-to-re-partition-your-android-tablet-or-smartphone-all-options-included-change-size-fs-type-etc

Or, instead of repartitioning, you can use Apps2SD to create a second system partition for apps on the external micro-SD card:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.co.pricealert.apps2sd&hl=en

tonyh66

I have a smartphone and very rarely have the data switched on, you can use loads of apps offline and apps online via wifi wherever.
I have a 3 sim payg load it up with credit and it never expires at the end of the month so I run it down until I need more credit. Its the cheapest way for me to run a phone.

David_Aston

Thanks guys. I have put this post on the mobile forum. I reckon Sis would spend no more than two quid a month!

Gloomendoom

David_Aston wrote: »

Thanks guys. I have put this post on the mobile forum. I reckon Sis would spend no more than two quid a month!

That's more than me.

David_Aston

Gloom, if you saw my sisters messaging technique, which may be based on the Pitman's shorthand she learned so many years ago, you would wonder how she could get past 50p a month. And perhaps, she doesn't. I can only give her the phone and charger, and enquire about any cheaper pure payg that may be available to her, and then, as my Missus says, mind my own business!!!