Updating mobile and wanting to get a better deal for Pay As You Go at the same time

Mistral001

I have an eight-year-old Samsung J5 phone and a £10/month O2 PAYG deal.  The phone now does not accept some new apps now, presumably because of its age.  I also think I could do better than my PAYG deal with O2, as I only use a fraction of the data that I am allowed.  Frankly I am more of a laptop person than a mobile phone person.  I use less than about 500Mb phone data a month, when the limit is 7Gb. 

My first thought, when I realised that I had to update the phone and possibly also the PAYG deal, was to walk into my local O2 shop and ask the good people there.  However, on second thoughts now, I think I might get a better deal by going down the route of updating my phone and PAYG deal separately. Any thought on this?

BTW I do not see my data usage going up much in the future and I would quite like to stick to PAYG, or possibly change to SIM-Only.  I do not mind not having the latest phone. I just want an inexpensive phone to keep for several years at the cheapest usage costs.

Neil_Jones

Obtain a new (unlocked) phone and just swap the SIM.

PAYG providers are here:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/best-pay-as-you-go-sim-cards/#occasional

Pick a provider and order a SIM.

Then get your PAC from o2 via text and give it to your new provider, assuming you want to keep your number::

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/switching-provider/switching-mobile-phone-provider/

By 11am on the next weekday after you submit it, it'll be live and you just top it up.

Note that PAYG credit is not transferable between providers so either use it up, donate it or lose it.

J_B

Do you need to be PAYG?

Lebara offer a 'contract' which is only monthly

Go here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/ and then select the 'all deals' tab and then 3GB data and top of the list says

Months 1-6

£1.45/mth

Thereafter

£4.40/mth

Mistral001

Thanks for the replies.  There certainly seems to be better deals to the one I have out there.

So it seems that I should buy another mobile, and get it set up for my present O2 PAYG deal a few days before I need to top up. Then I change to a better deal from another company, either PAYG or SIM-only. 

I will have to find out more about buying a mobile from a store that is not linked to O2 or one of the other providers so that I can have more choice regarding the deals on offer.

BTW do all deals let you keep your old number?  I cannot find any mention of keeping the same number in the deals' blurb.  Keeping my number is important to me.

steven141

Mistral001 said:

Thanks for the replies.  There certainly seems to be better deals to the one I have out there.

So it seems that I should buy another mobile, and get it set up for my present O2 PAYG deal a few days before I need to top up. Then I change to a better deal from another company, either PAYG or SIM-only. 

I will have to find out more about buying a mobile from a store that is not linked to O2 or one of the other providers so that I can have more choice regarding the deals on offer.

BTW do all deals let you keep your old number?  I cannot find any mention of keeping the same number in the deals' blurb.  Keeping my number is important to me.

As far as I’m aware all mobiles are now unlocked. 

You should be able to port your number to any UK mobile network.

You don’t always have to buy a new mobile with a SIM card unless it’s much cheaper to do so. 

brewerdave

For a new phone ,have a look at refurbished deals eg Amazon

Mistral001

brewerdave said:

For a new phone ,have a look at refurbished deals eg Amazon

Thanks for the suggestion.

Mistral001

Thanks for everybody's comments.  I have gone with the cheapest Samsung I could find, which was the Samsung A05s for £129.99 from Argos. I am quite pleased with it so far.  

The only thing I have against it is the USB-C to USB-C charger cable that came with it.  I needed a USB to USB-C cable to use the phone with my old charger and the USB port in my car and laptop. The cheapest such cable I could find was in a certain budget shop.  It cost £5.  That did not work when I connected it to my new phone and present charger, so I decided to not go down the budget route again and ended up getting a 30W charger with a USB-C port in Curry's for £20.  It charges really quickly, by the way, which makes up a little for my disappointment at having to fork out another £20+ over and above the price of the phone. 

Mistral001

J_B said:

Do you need to be PAYG?

Lebara offer a 'contract' which is only monthly

Go here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/ and then select the 'all deals' tab and then 3GB data and top of the list says

Months 1-6

£1.45/mth

Thereafter

£4.40/mth

Have now changed to Lebara.  Compared to the £10 a month O2 deal it costs peanuts - £2.93 per month averaged out over the year.  Thanks once again for the tip.

steven141 said:

Mistral001 said:

Thanks for the replies.  There certainly seems to be better deals to the one I have out there.

So it seems that I should buy another mobile, and get it set up for my present O2 PAYG deal a few days before I need to top up. Then I change to a better deal from another company, either PAYG or SIM-only. 

I will have to find out more about buying a mobile from a store that is not linked to O2 or one of the other providers so that I can have more choice regarding the deals on offer.

BTW do all deals let you keep your old number?  I cannot find any mention of keeping the same number in the deals' blurb.  Keeping my number is important to me.

As far as I’m aware all mobiles are now unlocked. 

You should be able to port your number to any UK mobile network.

You don’t always have to buy a new mobile with a SIM card unless it’s much cheaper to do so. 

Yes I have been able to keep my old number, but it seems that I will not be able to use it for a couple of days.  I received my Lebara SIM card today and I think I have moved from O2 now.  Porting in my old mobile number has been applied for.  Lebara tells me that it will be set up on 31st Oct (2 days from now).  If I put in the old O2 SIM card can I still use my old number up until the 31st, or will I have to use the temporary mobile number Lebara gave me today?

eDicky

You can use the O2 SIM meanwhile, but it's best to have the Lebara SIM in a handset ready for when the port occurs, at that time.

Mistral001

@eDicky Thanks for that.  The new phone can take dual SIM's.  I wondered what the other slot in the SIM card / micro SD card tray was for!  I put the new SIM card in the spare slot and the phone will take calls to both old number and Lebara's temporary number.