Do pay as you go sims still exist?

PHK

Krakkkers said:

The bundles are £10 and in the first month my mum used zero and the £10 expired.
She wants credit that lasts as long as it lasts.

Bundles are not all £10, they start at £2.50 (or even 99p promotional). What several of us have been saying is that they alleviate many of the problems of credit. 

As you are paying , you just need to tell your mum there’s plenty of credit left. 

savergrant

I suspect the question is 'how much is peace of mind worth?' as in order to keep a sim alive you either need to make regular topups or regular chargeable usage. I would certainly favour the latter as it ensures that the phone is charged and working and the vulnerable person is able to use it to contact you in an emergency. After all you could find that you are paying a monthly fee to keep a sim alive which is in a dead or lost phone. 
In your shoes and so long as there is a strong ee signal I would be putting a fiver on an rwg sim and getting them to charge the phone and call for one minute every month;

https://www.rwgmobile.wales/webshop/offers/order-a-sim/

victor2

One approach to make sure somebody is able to make contact in an emergency is to use a mobile phone (on a suitably strong network) for regular calls instead of a landline. Modern mobile phones are pretty good in hands-free operation. It's not expensive to get a SIM contract with unlimited monthly limits on calls - I happen to know that Asda mobile do it for £4 a month and you don't need a contract, just a recurring charge. There may be better deals around, but they're not expensive, and if the owner uses one regularly, you know it will be available in a crisis.

Kim_13

victor2 said:

One approach to make sure somebody is able to make contact in an emergency is to use a mobile phone (on a suitably strong network) for regular calls instead of a landline. Modern mobile phones are pretty good in hands-free operation. It's not expensive to get a SIM contract with unlimited monthly limits on calls - I happen to know that Asda mobile do it for £4 a month and you don't need a contract, just a recurring charge. There may be better deals around, but they're not expensive, and if the owner uses one regularly, you know it will be available in a crisis.

At £4/month it is probably cheaper than an anytime calls landline addition. Once VOIP has been rolled out by the provider, the landline won’t work in a power cut so mobile is the way to go.

spreadsheeterapple

I'm also looking for an ordinary tariff, where I put money on the phone and the money is only ever then used for the 6-monthly chargeable call to stay connected, and the money never expires. We're also OAPs. We only want the phone for incoming texts. I suppose it will be nice to make outgoing calls in emergency, but it'd be once in a blue moon. Anybody know what I call this type of tariff when I'm trying to speak to call centre?

I have this with my old 2005 O2 phone, but I'm unable to get the call centre to understand that I want the same type of tariff for either me having a new phone or a new phone for hubby, and cannot get an answer to what the tariff is called now. They keep going on about 'data' which I think refers to internet use from the phone, but we will be having an ordinary mobile which is just a phone, not a smartphone, no internet. I'm beginning to suspect that even the type of phone isn't available anymore, or won't work after 3G switchoff in a few months. I've been having a major problem with my yr 2000 phone SIM which they said was 2G. Again I think they don't make them anymore. Operator says to go into 'settings' and switch it to 4G-calling mode; like, what? Trying to speak to operators who are younger than my phone!

The tariff on my own phone is I think Classic PAYG, but doesn't appear in website search, and operator doesn't know what it is, tells me doesn't exist. To ID me they keep asking when I last topped-up and by how much; it was 2016 I remember that much, and it might have been £20 at an ATM, but they don't like that answer, said phones can't do top-ups at ATMs. Goes away saying to ask someone, then they cut the line dead.

Some people on this thread are mentioning £4 per month as being cheap; no it isn't. And the system where the money you put on the phone just disappears every month when unused - diabolical; don't even know how it is allowed, certainly don't want that tariff.

victor2

spreadsheeterapple said:

....

Some people on this thread are mentioning £4 per month as being cheap; no it isn't. And the system where the money you put on the phone just disappears every month when unused - diabolical; don't even know how it is allowed, certainly don't want that tariff.

Making a monthly payment has only been suggested for using a mobile for unlimited calls and possibly some data.
Look for a basic 4g mobile phone (Nokia for example) and a PAYG SIM. No monthly payments, just a charged call or text once every 6 months. Asda mobile, who use the Vodafone network do just that. £5 credit on it will last you pretty much forever if you only make one quick call every 6 months. It's 15p per minute if you do need to make a call, so you just make sure you've got enough credit to cover an "emergency" call.

eDicky

spreadsheeterapple said:

Trying to speak to operators who are younger than my phone!

The tariff on my own phone is I think Classic PAYG, but doesn't appear in website search, and operator doesn't know what it is, tells me doesn't exist.

O2 no longer offer the Classic PAYG but there are sellers on eBay from whom you can buy a Classic SIM or two for less than a quid. It will probably work in your handset for a while at least, but a 4G-capable basic Nokia costs not much more than a tenner.

Krakkkers

I opened a Giffgaff account for my mum and so got what she wanted, she has used only 30p of the £10 i put on it in about 6 weeks.