Mobile for Online Banking Eligibility Requirements Only?

SJMALBA

Many years ago, I was given a mobile phone, which had a PAYG SIM (O2, IIRC), which I kept for emergency use, and the only requirement to keep it active was to phone into it once every 6 months; unfortunately, after years of not otherwise using it, I forgot to phone in, and that was that.

Since the pandemic started, I switched to online banking, and have started opening accounts outside of the High Street names in order to gain what little interest I can, but, increasingly have found that eligibility requirements often mention a mobile phone (for texts with pass codes, I think?), so I am wondering what the lowest cost option might be for a mobile purely for this use?

Is it still possible to get SIMs that have no other cost than the initial top-up, and if so, would they be compatible with my old phone (Nokia 3510i)?

(FYI, my landline contract has anytime calls, including mobiles, and I don’t plan to use app based banking)

Failing that, what other, lowest possible cost options are there?

While interest rates remain very low, and differences between banks etc. small, as a full-time ‘unpaid carer’, every little helps, but any potential gains would, of course, have to outweigh any costs associated with getting a working mobile phone.

flaneurs_lobster

Think that the Nokia 3510i is 2G only so 3's network can't be used.

RWG mobile sim costs £5 but gives you 50 free minutes/texts a month. Uses EE.

I would normally suggest an O2 Classic sim (lowest PAYG rates) but I believe these need a minimum top-up of a tenner every six months, regardless of usage.

For no top-up requirement other than an initial £10 to activate (but high PAYG rates) then Giffgaff (uses o2) may suit.

ASDA mobile (uses Vodaphone) has min top-up to activate of £5.

Make sure your phone is still operational before shelling out.

k_man

There are a few similar threads:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6323193/payg-for-elderly-person-with-no-data

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6338450/best-payg-sim-card-for-emergency-use-only


Usual recommended are

As above O2 Classic (not clear if £10 per 6 months is required, conflicting info)

Asda (Vodafone) requires chargeable call every 6 months

3 reward, includes free data, and can accept incoming calls and texts

RWG (EE) free calls and texts once some balance added

I don't think there are any that won't at least require some activity every few months to keep them alive.
Also bear in mind risk of a free service going away and complications of losing SMS code access.

Murmansk

I've not heard of a mobile that only needs you to phone in to it to keep it alive. I'd have thought you'd always need to use the phone in question to make a chargeable call or send a text. A friend of mine who was famous for making a £10 topup last for years told me he'd ring into it every now and then and thought this was enough, in that it proved it was "alive" but he eventually got cut off as he'd not MADE a call.

Neil_Jones

Murmansk said:

I've not heard of a mobile that only needs you to phone in to it to keep it alive. I'd have thought you'd always need to use the phone in question to make a chargeable call or send a text. A friend of mine who was famous for making a £10 topup last for years told me he'd ring into it every now and then and thought this was enough, in that it proved it was "alive" but he eventually got cut off as he'd not MADE a call.

Almost always been the case that you make a chargeable call within 90/180/270/365/whatever days otherwise you lose your credit (and your number).  Receiving a call does not count because the caller pays, not the recipient.

Easiest solution to the keep active thing is phone home, let the answer machine take the call, do some baby talk babble down the line for three seconds and then hang up.

Anyway the number/tariff is the key, not the phone itself.  The 3510i phone mentioned dates from 2002 and is 2G only, its effectively a dumb phone with WAP support, when that was a thing.  So mobile network 3 is out as they don't have a 2G network, but everybody else does until at least 2033 when this and 3G will be phased out.

BUFF

Neil_Jones said:

 So mobile network 3 is out as they don't have a 2G network, but everybody else does until at least 2033 when this and 3G will be phased out.

Whilst 2G will still exist in 2033 it nor 3G will still be on all networks by then.
BT/EE is planning to close 3G in 2023 & 2G in 2028.
Similarly, Vodafone is to close 3G by the end of 2023.

flaneurs_lobster

k_man said:

As above O2 Classic (not clear if £10 per 6 months is required, conflicting info)

Is the conflict between what O2's website says (need 6mth topup) and people's actual experience? I've held off activating a new Classic sim because of the website info.

k_man

 flaneurs_lobster said:

k_man said:

As above O2 Classic (not clear if £10 per 6 months is required, conflicting info)

Is the conflict between what O2's website says (need 6mth topup) and people's actual experience? I've held off activating a new Classic sim because of the website info.

Yes, website states 6 month top up required.

O2 community on different posts state one or more ( in different combinations) of the following are required:

Top up

Chargeable use (SMS or call)

Chargeable call (SMS not enough)

Bolt on purchase

I will post my link collection later.

FYI check the required activation date on your SIM

SJMALBA

Thanks for the responses/help.

Found the old phone, gave it a charge, and it seems to be working.

As far as I can see, RWG looks like the most promising option, but I have encountered difficulties when trying to purchase the 'Free Bundle' - It asks for a mobile number, and the only one I have is the long since inactive one on my phone; I put this in (?!), and got through to the payment stage, but, unfortunately, this is PayPal. I had a PayPal account for many years, but had to close it when they made provision of a mobile number mandatory, so I opted for payment withought a PayPal account, but this still seems to be done by PayPal, and it asks for (yep, you guessed it!) a mobile number, as they will send a security code...

I seem to be stuck, but notice similar difficulties in one of the threads linked by @k_man, so I'll email RWG to see what they suggest.

giraffe69

One thing to take into account is that banks often have rules about the minimum version of android needed for mobile banking to wok and and old Nokia might not meet this requirement so worth a check beforehand.

SJMALBA

giraffe69 said:

One thing to take into account is that banks often have rules about the minimum version of android needed for mobile banking to wok and and old Nokia might not meet this requirement so worth a check beforehand.

Thanks.

The phone will only be for security code texts for accessing 'traditional' online banking via laptop.

I shudder to think what challenges I might encounter if I were to explore the world of smartphones and app-based banking! 😱 😀