Single Mum - Struggling to get realistic SOA

savergrant

If you don't need a new handset it is better to go for a smaller piggybacker than a major network.

Rwgmobile run on ee

Smarty on 3

Lyca on o2

Lebara on vodafone

All under £8 per month and change if you need to.

It is quite important to be honest with your daughter, money is tight but it won't be forever. If she breaks her phone again you will get her a secondhand one.

Pre_Approved_Junkie

savergrant said:

If you don't need a new handset it is better to go for a smaller piggybacker than a major network.

Rwgmobile run on ee

Smarty on 3

Lyca on o2

Lebara on vodafone

All under £8 per month and change if you need to.

It is quite important to be honest with your daughter, money is tight but it won't be forever. If she breaks her phone again you will get her a secondhand one.

Well EE were not prepared to change the plan at all, so I have cancelled my DD to them and will have to let that go to collections and add it to the DMP which is a shame, but hey ho. The payment went through for this month so I have a month to look at the other providers you have suggested.

On the upside, I have cancelled that Experian subscription which was for something called 'Credit Expert', so saving 14.99 a month there already.

MikeJXE

Are you sure your phones are not locked to EE ? I would guess your daughters is 

Yeah the meaningless credit expert good you sacked him, the experts on here will tell you where you can get the same score for free

I'm surprised EE wouldn't allow you to change the plan especially when reducing the data requirements 

Pre_Approved_Junkie

MikeJXE said:

Are you sure your phones are not locked to EE ? I would guess your daughters is 

Yeah the meaningless credit expert good you sacked him, the experts on here will tell you where you can get the same score for free

I'm surprised EE wouldn't allow you to change the plan especially when reducing the data requirements 

Yeah, they will both be locked to EE, but I did see a section on the EE website on how to unlock your phone so if they don't charge for that, I wil do that. If they do, I'll just get sim budles for PAYG.

I have another question about the DMP. If I'm putting the payments I'm not making into an Emergency fund, won't Stepchange see that and say it will have to be used for debt payments? Is there a min/max amount for the EF?

Pre_Approved_Junkie

That should have said SIM Bundles.

savergrant

I would be surprised if the phones are network locked, but iphones can have a security feature which prevents them working if the original sim is replaced. This is to stop stolen phones being used. It might be quite tricky to get it unlocked in this case if you have stopped paying but owe money for the handset.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54692179

Part of the money you have been paying is actually hp for the handset.

For reference my phone is 3 years old and was supplied to my brother-in-law on vodafone, I have used it on everything except 3 and it has not been unlocked. But as I say, it isn't an iPhone.

Also, a network locked phone will work with a piggybacker (my previous same source samsung worked on lebara while brother-in-law arranged for vodafone to unlock it). Only exception to that is/was tescomobile which were "double-locked" to o2 and tesco, so an o2 phone could be used on tesco but not vice versa.

MikeJXE

Pre_Approved_Junkie said:

MikeJXE said:

Are you sure your phones are not locked to EE ? I would guess your daughters is 

Yeah the meaningless credit expert good you sacked him, the experts on here will tell you where you can get the same score for free

I'm surprised EE wouldn't allow you to change the plan especially when reducing the data requirements 

Yeah, they will both be locked to EE, but I did see a section on the EE website on how to unlock your phone so if they don't charge for that, I wil do that. If they do, I'll just get sim budles for PAYG.

I have another question about the DMP. If I'm putting the payments I'm not making into an Emergency fund, won't Stepchange see that and say it will have to be used for debt payments? Is there a min/max amount for the EF?

Your phone if it's yours as in you bought it EE should unlock it as long as you don't owe anything on your plan. They used to charge £20 but I don't know now.

Regarding your daughters phone I believe she is on a plan till 2024, they won't unlock that unless you buy yourself out 

I can't answer your other question 

Pre_Approved_Junkie

savergrant said:

I would be surprised if the phones are network locked, but iphones can have a security feature which prevents them working if the original sim is replaced. This is to stop stolen phones being used. It might be quite tricky to get it unlocked in this case if you have stopped paying but owe money for the handset.

Part of the money you have been paying is actually hp for the handset.

For reference my phone is 3 years old and was supplied to my brother-in-law on vodafone, I have used it on everything except 3 and it has not been unlocked. But as I say, it isn't an iPhone.

Also, a network locked phone will work with a piggybacker (my previous same source samsung worked on lebara while brother-in-law arranged for vodafone to unlock it). Only exception to that is/was tescomobile which were "double-locked" to o2 and tesco, so an o2 phone could be used on tesco but not vice versa.

Well that was easy. Both phones now unlocked. That was an interesting article! I had to delete the link as it wouldn't let me quote with the link in.

Pre_Approved_Junkie

MikeJXE said:

Pre_Approved_Junkie said:

MikeJXE said:

Are you sure your phones are not locked to EE ? I would guess your daughters is 

Yeah the meaningless credit expert good you sacked him, the experts on here will tell you where you can get the same score for free

I'm surprised EE wouldn't allow you to change the plan especially when reducing the data requirements 

Yeah, they will both be locked to EE, but I did see a section on the EE website on how to unlock your phone so if they don't charge for that, I wil do that. If they do, I'll just get sim budles for PAYG.

I have another question about the DMP. If I'm putting the payments I'm not making into an Emergency fund, won't Stepchange see that and say it will have to be used for debt payments? Is there a min/max amount for the EF?

Your phone if it's yours as in you bought it EE should unlock it as long as you don't owe anything on your plan. They used to charge £20 but I don't know now.

Regarding your daughters phone I believe she is on a plan till 2024, they won't unlock that unless you buy yourself out 

I can't answer your other question 

I've managed to do it Mike! Just googled how to unlock an EE iphone, and I just had to text UNLOCK to 150.

savergrant

Part of the problem is something which comes up regularly on mse, bundling handsets and airtime contracts. It makes it really difficult to see what is good value, and often leads to people paying over the odds long after the minimum term. Networks are starting to become a bit more transparent about it now. but it is stealth credit, you are paying for the phone but think you are paying for the airtime.

As regards ee I think you would/should have a case that you were missold too much data, but it all depends whether you needed to get that much data to get the phone included. So maybe it is buyer beware!

If you hardly ever use data on your phone then 1pmobile is worth a look as an alternative to my beloved rwg, their talker plan is £36 for a year but you do need to pay upfront. Personally I think the £3,50 pm teaser plus from rwg shades iit as it gives you flexibility to change plan monthly and a lot more data but each to his/her own. Both use ee network but 1pmobile has 5g and WiFi calling. useful if you have poor indoor reception. Rwg are a little behind schedule for them.