Buying mobile up front and sim only deals

WSB

I have a very old Huawei mobile which needs replacing and I'm currently sim only with tesco mobile at £8.09 per month for 2GB.

NB : I don't need more data as never get anywhere near 2GB.

Looking at replacing it with a cheap android and wanted to know:

1: where is the best place to get a good price on buying a handset outright? Is Tesco any good?

2: Can I get a better sim only deal than what I have with tesco and if so, where?

Essentially, I'm after long term savings. 

Thanks in advance 

FlorayG

Argos have some good deals. I use Motorola handsets, have done for years, very cheap and reliable, just last week replaced mine for £159.99
If you really want LONG TERM savings you should buy a FairPhone, it will last you much longer than any others although it costs more to buy

ButterCheese

Amazon are fairly good on price for older models, but they only do the last year two models, anything older and you'll struggle to find new stock.  I would not buy used, unless it's a very good deal and you are prepared for the phone (especially the battery) to not last more than 2/3 years.  My last 3 phones have been android bought used off ebay.  Whilst they were in perfect condition, things started to go wrong with either battery life or touch screen.  The price of getting either replaced was nearly what I paid for the phone.

I would not buy handsets from anywhere that does phone deals.  e.g. Tesco.  A man in the 3Mobile shop once told me that.  He said "don't buy from us if you only want a handset - they are priced high as they would normally be part of a phone/SIM contract where monthly payments are less noticable than £50 extra buying outright"

brewerdave

I've bought my last two handsets from Amazon warehouse - refurbed phones.
First one, Honor 8S ,is still going string after nearly 4 years as my wife's handset and second one, Nokia X10 has been fine for nearly two years. Both were less than £100 when purchased.
Because of the age ,I don't use them for banking apps in case of  lack of updates causing security worries.

flaneurs_lobster

WSB said:

I have a very old Huawei mobile which needs replacing and I'm currently sim only with tesco mobile at £8.09 per month for 2GB.

NB : I don't need more data as never get anywhere near 2GB.
....
2: Can I get a better sim only deal than what I have with tesco and if so, where?

1GB for £5/mth at O2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81400736/#Comment_81400736

or look at the Lebara deals on the MSE cheap SIM page.

savergrant

£8 for 2gb seems steep to me, if you have good coverage on all networks there are much cheaper deals;
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/

If you need to stay on an o2 based signal giffgaff is £6

Doom_and_Gloom

As @FlorayG said a Fairphone is a good option if you are talking long term. I've got a FP4 and have done so for around two and a half years now. No problems with it so far. It's nice to know that most things that go wrong with it I can fix if I need to rather than buying a new phone. I plan to have it for another two and a half years at least (hopefully even longer) and if everything goes okay the only thing I will likely need in that time is another battery and likely a new charging port (my last phones charging ports always seemed to get problems around the two-three year mark making them basically impossible to charge and due to the way they were built costly to get it fixed, if it even could be!).

For SIM I have been with ID mobile for around the same amount of time as having my FP4. I got a really good deal this time at £4.50 for the first 6 months and then £9 for the remaining 18 months on a 24 month SIM only contract (works out at just under £8/month) and get 63GB of data a month, unlimited text and unlimited talk; what I don't use of the internet data gets rolled over to the next month meaning some months where I might need more I should easily be covered too.
They also have a price lock on their SIM only contracts so don't raise the price mid contract which is nice and easy for budgeting with.
Their lowest contracts are £6 at the moment for 1 month with 4GB, 1 year with 5GB or 2 years with 6GB. While data might not be a problem for you the 2 year plan gives you the locked in price for longer at least and not many do better for that price as long as your area is covered by them. They piggy off of 3. 

WSB

Quick one.  Is it worth buying a phone that is 5G?

Olinda99

No it isn't worth it

WSB

Olinda99 said:

No it isn't worth it

OK, thanks. Why is that? 

Frozen_up_north

WSB said:

Quick one.  Is it worth buying a phone that is 5G?

Why not? While the UK is only installing 5G at a snail pace and EE (maybe others) appear to be bolting 5G radio kit onto 4G backbone, which gives no latency or speed advantage, technology moves on.

Regarding which phone and where to buy, John Lewis is generally a good place as they are often cheaper and offer a 2 year guarantee on mobile phones.