Phone help 3 January 2021 at 11:45PM in Phones & TV 7 replies 81 views

alap987

Any techy type people out there able to help me? My mother has an old brick as a mobile phone, we worked out its almost 20 years old. She rarely has it switched on and only used it to take with her when she's going to meet my sister just incase  he's running late etc. She uses Vodafone PAYG and t rarely needs to top it up..

I have sent her my old phone an iPhone 7. She will hopefully at least keep this one switched on. She will use as the previous one along eith maybe using the covid19 app. Check her email daily and maybe send a text occasionally. It will mostly be used in her home so will be connected to get WiFi. She will only use data maybe twice a week when out for a couple of hours each time. She won't actually use the phone while out unless a phone call to my sister to say sh'll be a bit late. The phone is locked to Vodafone and since she's already with Vodafone she's happy to stick with them. She went onto the shop to ask them to order a nano Sim for her and told the guy she is happy to still use PAYG because he was trying to talk her into having a monthly contract. He told her that topping up £10 that it would be gone within days. Bearing in mind how little the phone will be used would this be the case? £10 just now on her old phone lasts her for months. 

I've always had a contract so not sure how long data would last on PAYG on a smartphone. My sister feels this guy has just tried to take advantage of an old woman when she went on asking about the sim card when it would be obvious then she had no idea what she was really talking about 

elsien

From their website:

What are the standard Pay as you go rates?

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Our standard Pay as you go rates are 20p a minute, 20p a text and 20p per 5MB of data. This means you won't pay a penny when you don't use your phone. Spending just £1 on the days you do will give you unlimited minutes and texts plus 500MB of data to use until midnight.

The following services are not included in your Pay as you go 1 allowance:

• Premium and non-geographic calls or texts
• International calls
• Calls, messages or data usage from outside the UK or Europe Zone

We'll let you know each time you dial a number that's not included in your allowance so that you can choose whether to continue with the call.

Please see our Terms and conditions for more information about what's included in your Pay as you go 1 plan, as well as a full list of charges for any excluded services.

Will she be using the internet while out and about, because if not she can leave the data turned off and just turn it on if she needs it. I can’t see her getting through the £10 that quickly unless she has apps running in the background when she’s not on WiFi. 

Having said that, a lot of people (ok, my mother) who’ve not had a smartphone before start using it a lot more when they realise how handy it is, and that’s when the costs start to mount up without them realising. 

She could try it and see how it goes and if it is expensive look at one of the networks who piggy back off Vodafone. 

alap987

Thanks. I haven't a clue what that all means from their website. That will be the same costs whether using her old phone or her new phone yes?  She has a tablet at home so uses that look at anything on Google or check emails etc. So I doubt she will use the phone anymore often than she does her old one. The only difference being (and the whole reason this has all started) is she wants the covid 19 app. I guess there will be apps running in the background that are pre loaded on the phone which could use up data? 

I didn't think about her being able to just turn the data off when out because no she won't be using the Internet when out and rarely in the house tbh. The more I'm trying yo think of it the more it is all frying my head lol. 

Thanks for your help 

elsien

@alap987  To give it some context, I used to have a 1gb a month plan. I rarely used the full amount but did use it for emails, checking faceache, google, general searching while I was out and about and I tried not to use it a lot - that data does vanish quickly with general surfing. I was out most days and had it for some work use as well. I didn’t use it for music or anything that really eats data.
 

A back on the envelope calculation shows that on your mother’s plan using the full amount i would have used 30-35 mb a day. Less if I was being careful. Which would cost your mum £1.20-1.30 a day.
which if she used that amount regularly would be cheaper on a monthly plan, which is what the chap in the shop was saying. 
But if she is careful, and it sounds like she will be, she could use it quite a lot less as in the house it will hook up to her WiFi. She will need the data when she’s out and about for the covid app but you can make sure there’s nothing she doesn’t need on the phone. I’d still suggest see how it goes but she does need to expect with her smartphone that her £10 probably isn’t going to last for months. 

JJ_Egan

If using wifi then data from network should be turned off .

Covid app not much use unless you are visiting a lot of venues .

jsmith9

Vodafone have two kinds of PAYG (I think - check this)

The first is the kind your mother has - you only pay when you use it.  However, the rates are quite expensive but if you don't use it much that may not matter.

The second type of PAYG (and I suspect that this is what the salesman wanted to switch you to) is bundles - you pay eg £10 a month and get a bundle of calls, text, minutes. This works out cheaper if you use them, but if you don't they 'expire' each month and you pay another £10. Obviously this is what Vodafone would rather you were on, but you should keep the original PAYG.

As above, turn data off otherwise you will use all your credit in a few seconds ad data runs in the background!

Also, make absolutely sure you make a chargeable event (call, send a text etc) every few months otherwise you risk the number being made inactive and disconnected.

Chino

elsien said:

She will need the data when she’s out and about for the covid app but you can make sure there’s nothing she doesn’t need on the phone. I’d still suggest see how it goes but she does need to expect with her smartphone that her £10 probably isn’t going to last for months. 

It's not clear that the Covid-19 app needs to be online continuously, only at intervals during the day:

The app requires an internet connection at regular intervals throughout the day.

In any case, apparently operators will not charge for the app's data usage:

Major phone operators in England and Wales, including Vodafone, Three, EE, O2 (including giffgaff and Tesco mobile), Sky, and Virgin, are supporting NHS COVID-19 app users by ‘zero-rating’ data charges for all in-app activity. This means customers will not be charged for data when using the in-app functions, or if they are directed out of the app to nhs.uk websites.

https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01164/en-us

alap987

I wonder the non data charges for using the covid app is the same for Scotland?  

Thanks for your help folks. We have decided to give it a ey in PAYG with Vodafone (data switched off for most of the time)  and it if works out too expensive it looks like a change to gif gaff and a £6 bundle woukd fo the truck.