Mobile Phone help for a dummy

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82027001#Comment_82027001

Now you've been looking for a while, do you have any further thoughts on what you will use the mobile for?

I ask because any of the handsets that you've been considering will be absolutely fine for calls/texts.

Any other use might have a bearing on the recommendations and suggestions.

LindsayT

@flaneurs_lobster It's actually to replace my landline. So I knew from the start what I would be using it for, calls of which I make very few. Maybe a text if absolutely necessary but I find texting very difficult as I did that a few times on a friend's phone.

I was looking for a cheaper phone but now I know about OS updates, the cheaper ones only get updates for 2 years. Hence why I looked at the Samsung.

WOTSWOT

OS updates what are they? Never needed one for the last 14 years!

I bought a very basic Samsung 2g from Tesco Mobile for around £12 around 14 years ago, just for emergencies or car breakdown. Calls were just 8p min, no monthly charge, no minimum spend, just needed to make one free call to Tesco mobile customer service every 6 months. I suspect OS updates are all about smartphones which are rather like mobile minicomputers. Why spend all that money on a smartphone when you already have the internet with unlimited broadband ?

I am with Plusnet who are losing their phone landline service soon, so I am planning on going full fibre with them and use my mobile for calls. Tesco 2g was discontinued last year so I had to buy a 4g replacement. Tesco sold me a IMO Dash 4G mini for £24 which included a £10 top up voucher, but I later saw it on offer for just £22.

I don't find the IMO as easy to use as the 2g Samsung. It's more cumbersome with very stiff keys which are too close around the navigation tool. The Samsung came with a mains charger but the IMO just has a lead where you plug it into a PC port. But it works well enough for me. Most of the time I just use it for receiving text OTPs as second level security checks for my savings banks etc.

The call cost has gone up to 25p min, but there is still no monthly charge, no minimum spend over any time so it's true PAYG. For very low usage, it seems to be the best buy.

My suggestion is to go to your local Tesco, look round what is on offer for very basic phones and buy one there. I had a problem with my old Samsung last year, so took it to Tesco who fiddled with it and got it working. I think it was just a deteriorated contact with the SIM, which doesn't seem too unreasonable after 14 years of use. So you also get free maintenance and servicing when you buy from Tesco.

LindsayT

@WOTSWOT When I first mentioned it, one of my friends suggested a phone of this type. I don't know what they are really called but she called it a button phone.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82027542#Comment_82027542

The usual term is "Feature phone" (described by Wikipedia as a 'retronym'), from the days when these devices could do more than call/text - like a Calendar, downloadable ringtones (a BIG DEAL once) and playing Snake.

WOTSWOT

Yes, I only came across this term "Feature phone" fairly recently. I never knew I had one !

As far as I can see it's just a way of distinguishing it from a smart phone, so I guess it's also a dumb phone too. The 2g Samsung I bought 14 years ago was loaded with features I never needed, Just checking it now I see it has a memo pad, calendar, game, alarms, apps which include a calculator, a convertor for currency, length, weight, volume, area, a timer, stopwatch and torchlight. All of this in addition to the basic phone functions of speech and text, including a call log and phonebook, All I ever used was the basic phone, text messages (received - I don't recall ever sending text and even now I'm not sure exactly how to do that!) and the torchlight.

The IMO 4G mini has loads more I have never looked to see what they all are, but I see there is a camera, FM radio, some type of recorder which I guess can be used for simple voice recordings, some sort of simple video recording using the camera, an internet search where you have to manually enter a URL and has a bookmark and history section. I think you have to buy an additional memory card for some of these. When I started checking my remaining balance I noticed I was losing a few pence without making any calls, so I rang tesco mobile. They checked out my model against all the settings and told me I had an internet phone and needed to disable the data tag on the phone connections menu. Having done this the slow leak of pennies has stopped. I haven't a clue what sort of internet phone I have, except it's certainly not a smart phone ! As I already have a very capable W11 laptop I don't need any phone internet too!

I think it's a case that these "dumb" phones have so much processing power that the manufacturers just add extra features to try and make us of the phone's capability. So you get loads of stuff you never really need !

LindsayT

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7704512

As it was so cheap, I decided to opt for this, at least for the time being.

Now need to know my cheapest option for a sim card for the short call I usually make once every 2 weeks but also to include any other calls I may need to make, which is usually rare but one never knows if they will need to phone a company or something.

Forgot to say I know about the £1 sim from Sky which sounds the cheapest but I don't trust them not to hike the price by quite a lot during the 12 month contract but of course I could be wrong about that.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82034245#Comment_82034245

Probably right to be wary of Sky price hikes although I've had one of these £1 SIMs for 9 months with no increase.

If they were to increase the price you could cancel the contract (and move your number elsewhere).

elsien

have a look on here if you haven’t already

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

You need to check about top ups as well because some of them you have to top up every amount of days whether you’ve use the credit or not.

PHK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82034245#Comment_82034245

The description says that is a Vodafone pay as you go phone. It won't be locked to Vodafone, but you might find (in a modestly priced phone) that it doesn't support 4G Calling on other networks or the different bands used.

Perhaps best to stick with a provider that runs on Vodafone, such as Lebara or Voxi.