New Zealand, K850i on T-Mb & Vodafone PAYG Sim

OGB03

Well fancy that! Called my nemesis of 14 years - T-Mb, and yes indeed they will do exactly as you said d123. Unlock the K850i for £15! It will take 28 working days to get to me, but now I know, I'll get my finger out. I was also told that if I go into CPW, I should/may be able to get it unlocked already, saving myself £15! :T

So, I'll save myself about £300 on the digital camera, possibly only spending £15 (or free if I'm lucky) for it to be unlocked the hassle free way and only £20 on the handset itself. :j £300 or £35? No brainer. Thanks again for that. :beer:

OGB03

Hello again all

All previous problems have been sorted out, and with just days to go I would really appreciate some advice with regard to the different price plans available on Vodafone.

I have called them several times, however, they don't seem to be in the 'advice giving' arena. :cool: I had hoped that they could/would advise me on the best tariff to use whilst I'm both in the US and NZ, specifically, whether I should stick with the older 'smartplus' tariff, or change to the new 'anytime' tariff. I have already added the Passport option onto the smartplus plan.

From what I have understood, on the anytime tariff, I pay 75p (passport), 30p for the first 3 minutes daily and then 10p per minute thereafter. Sending texts will cost me 29p. If someone from the UK calls me I will only pay the 75p passport charge, and they will only be charged as if they were calling a mobile in the UK. It will cost me 10p to receive normal texts. Is that all correct??

Vodafone operators seemed to be very unwilling to switch between screens to provide me with the information I wanted, and there isn't a dedicated department to deal with calls made overseas. I asked whether 'Evening Hours' on smartplus meant 7.30pm-7.30am UK time or Local Time, and after being kept on hold for about 10 minutes, I was told that it 'should mean local time'. No clarification was given on any subsequent calls made to Voda. :rolleyes: Because this is unclear, I can't say whether I will be using my phone in the evenings or not. If it means local time, then clearly not (with the time differences). I will be texting the UK a lot.

Is it better value to stick with smartplus with the passport added or switch to the anytime plan????

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

Hopefullyuseful1

Hi OGB03,

It does sound like you haven't been able to get hold of the information you might need to use your phone effectively while roaming and using passport. I apologies if the call centre didn't give you the full support you needed. I'm here to help with this.

First of all with Smartstep on pay as you talk, the call charges are 35p per minute for the first 3 minutes of the day and then only 5p thereafter. This applies to all UK standard landlines and Vodafone mobiles. If you call another network, the cost stays the same as 35p per minute for the whole of the day and doesn't step down to a lower rate after the 3 minutes.

When abroad in a passport country on your tariff, it does cost 29p per text message and you would pay the 75p connection for each call. There would be no extra charges for incoming calls after the 75p connection. The charges you normally pay while in the UK would apply after the 75p connection when making outgoing calls.

The daytime and evening hours relate to the times for the country you're visiting and not the times in the UK. If you're in a country with multiple time zones, we take the time zone of the capital city for that country.

With the pay as you talk Anytime tariffs you mentioned, the charges are slightly different. It's 30p per minute for the first 3 minutes each day and then 10p per minute thereafter, this also includes other mobile networks too, (Smartstep doesn't). Again text messages cost 29p each.

For more details on these tariffs and passport terms I've also left some links for you to look at on the Vodafone website:-

Pay as you talk Anytime
Passport terms and conditions

Hopefullyuseful1
Vodafone UK

diamonds

no no no no no, !!!!!! hopefullyuseful, whom in this instance isnt............

when I was in NZ i used Vodafone prepay to call UK im sure @ cost of
$3.00 per 30 minutes

its better these days $2 per 60 minutes

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/specials-promos/2-for-60-minutes.jsp

the promo is good value they just keep changing it....but your always quids in


adding all the options on thier prepay plan domestically will save you a fortune too

OGB03

Ok, thanks guys.

I'm going to take the UK sim with smartplus and passport added and I'll buy a prepaid sim in NZ and go for the silly season offer as stated in the l link.

I think this might be the best option.... unless anyone knows any different??

redux

Given that deal that diamonds has spotted, I'd experiment looking for a callthrough arrangement that might allow for example 3 x 10 minute consecutive UK-numbered calls to be made from the one initial access.

diamonds

you can call 07744 etc numbers from Voda NZ and call anywhere in the world at the $2 for 60 mins

redux

They said landlines

diamonds

na, when I popped across to AU they had a similar deal, i was calling mobiles from VODA NZ & AU