want to buy Payg phone + SIM credit for sick friend

littlerock

A good friend has recently been diagnosed with a major health issue. He has a mobile but rarely uses it, preferring to email or use his landline. Recently he was taken into hospital at short notice and found their WiFi basically did not work and he could not use it to email us to let us know. It also turned out his mobile was an old PAYG which had not been updated recently and he had no credit to contact us on that either.

He is single, lives alone and we are his nearest local friends. We should like to remove one worry from him (and us,) by buying him a new PAYG phone which he can use in hospital or to reach us in an emergency, loaded up with enough data to keep him going for calls and texts and basic data for at least the next month.

We don't want to take out a DD or SO, he would not want that either. We just want to buy him a basic serviceable phone and load it up with a one off SIM. Can anyone recommend a deal?

elsien

Why does he need a new mobile? Can't be put a PAYG sim in the one he's already got?

littlerock

His phone is very old and very basic. He is in and out of hospital at present where there is limited WiFi. We want to give him an up to date one ready loaded to go for calls texts and data, including our phone numbers, to use in hospital or an emergency. A present from us to him and one less thing for him to worry about.

[Deleted User]

517 threads now..

grumbler

If it's a present, you have to say, how much you want to pay for the phone.
The cheapest I know will cost you £23 from CPW - that includes the phone +500Mb +500 minutes + texts for the first month (Vodafone, but not locked)

It's pretty basic but I guess will cope with e-mails - https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_1-9052.php

YBR

I think my PaYG O2 sim was free, and the calls/txts rates are great - I don't use data over mobile so you'd have to check that it's the best deal for what you intend.
I bought the phone that suited me separately (Amazon, probably).

Frozen_up_north

For occasional use, either O2 or Three PAYG. 3p/min, 2p/text, 1p/MB. The credit doesn’t run out provided a call is made at least once every 6 months. Realistically a “test call” once a month isn’t costing much and is a reassurance the phone still works.

However, and here’s the rub, for data the 1p/MB can turn out very expensive. For example, my iPhone had 4 or 5 apps that had an update this morning... they totalled about 550 MB of data, that would have cost £5.50 on one of the above PAYG SIMs. Not an issue if the user turns off the mobile data and uses free WiFi.

[Deleted User]

Buy a suitable sim free phone from Argos perhaps and take out a Plusnet sim in your name. You can set the monthly overspend cap to £2 minimum and they currently do a 1.5GB, UL minutes & texts for £6.50 a month. It's a rolling monthly contract so you can stop it at any time if and when they recover. They'll still have their old phone and sim and can swap sims if it suits so they keep the new phone.

Edit: less than 10 days for that offer though so get a move on.

grumbler

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

Buy a suitable sim free phone from Argos perhaps and take out a Plusnet sim in your name. You can set the monthly overspend cap to £2 minimum and they currently do a 1.5GB, UL minutes & texts for £6.50 a month. It's a rolling monthly contract so you can stop it at any time if and when they recover.

Edit: less than 10 days for that offer though so get a move on.

You can get three months of up to 8Gb (every month) and unlimited calls+texts for free by buying Smarty SIM through Topcashback.

derrick

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

For occasional use, either O2 or Three PAYG. 3p/min, 2p/text, 1p/MB. The credit doesn’t run out provided a call is made at least once every 6 months. Realistically a “test call” once a month isn’t costing much and is a reassurance the phone still works.

However, and here’s the rub, for data the 1p/MB can turn out very expensive. For example, my iPhone had 4 or 5 apps that had an update this morning... they totalled about 550 MB of data, that would have cost £5.50 on one of the above PAYG SIMs. Not an issue if the user turns off the mobile data and uses free WiFi.

Are you sure about this re O2?


Mobile T&Cs

7. Our Rights to Bar or Disconnect Your Mobile Phone

• 7.1. If you do not carry out any chargeable activity at least once in any 6 month period your Mobile Phone will be disconnected and you will lose any remaining credits balance on your Account. If you wish to be re-connected after this time you will be given a new Mobile Phone number.

But then gets contradicted if using Classic PAYG:

O2 Classic PAYG: "Classic Pay As You Go When you join Classic Pay As You Go, you pay for what you use, as you go. The minimum top up requirement is £10.
If you don't top up, or add a Bolt On at least once in any six month period, your mobile will be disconnected and you'll lose any credit on your account. If you want to be reconnected you'll be given a new mobile number."






.

Mister_G

derrick wrote: »

Are you sure about this re O2?


Mobile T&Cs

7. Our Rights to Bar or Disconnect Your Mobile Phone

• 7.1. If you do not carry out any chargeable activity at least once in any 6 month period your Mobile Phone will be disconnected and you will lose any remaining credits balance on your Account. If you wish to be re-connected after this time you will be given a new Mobile Phone number.

But then gets contradicted if using Classic PAYG:

O2 Classic PAYG: "Classic Pay As You Go When you join Classic Pay As You Go, you pay for what you use, as you go. The minimum top up requirement is £10.
If you don't top up, or add a Bolt On at least once in any six month period, your mobile will be disconnected and you'll lose any credit on your account. If you want to be reconnected you'll be given a new mobile number."

.

I agree, it is confusing but I have been on Classic PAYG for over a year now and have not topped up at all. In fact , I've only spent less than £5 of the original £10 that I put on it originally. However, I do make the chargeable calls that are required.