Cheap PAYG smart phone

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StarTrekkie007
StarTrekkie007 Posts: 57 Forumite
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in Mobiles
Hello,

I am not much of a mobile phone user. Mostly use landline.
On my budget mobile phone a £10 top-up can last 3-4 months !!!

However, more companies are saying "download the app" for this and for that.
Even banks are doing it now.

I can see a situation where, although I don't need a smart phone, other organisations would require me to have one in the near future.

I would like to buy a smart phone (or tablet) that can download these apps .
However, on initial investigation, the tariffs (even PAYG) require monthly payment.

Are there any plans were there is no monthly payment and you just pay for what you use.
Also are there cheap phones that I can just buy outright ?

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  • grumbler
    grumbler Posts: 58,629 Forumite
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    StarTrekkie007 wrote: »
    However, on initial investigation, the tariffs (even PAYG) require monthly payment.
    Your investigation was flawed.
    Are there any plans were there is no monthly payment and you just pay for what you use.
    Plenty.


    >> Best Pay-as-you-go Sim Deals

    Also are there cheap phones that I can just buy outright ?
    Define cheap. For around £100 you can buy a decent phone. The cheapest are areound £30 I guess.
  • glennevis
    glennevis Posts: 642 Forumite
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    £0 monthly if you order a Three free Data Reward SIM, that works for me. 200MB data every month for free and PAYG calls and texts if required. Register and use some data every 6 months to keep it alive.

    https://3g.co.uk/three-data-reward-sim


    Of course you can buy a phone outright, the SIM and the phone do not have to be bought together. Plenty for sale on Amazon for example

    Search for a cheap smartphone running Android 8 (Oreo). You may not be able to run banking apps, if that's what you want to do, on some older versions of Android OS. There are other technical reasons for specifying Android 8, no need to bore you with the reasons.



    Hopefully someone will come along and recommend a phone, or if you come back and ask about a particular phone there are some regulars who can advise, once they know how much you are willing to spend.
  • Neil49
    Neil49 Posts: 3,081 Forumite
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    edited 11 November 2019 at 2:48PM
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    If you don't mind having a refurbished phone then take a look at the Argos eBay site.

    http://www.ebaystores.co.uk/argos

    and select refurbished in the search parameters.

    The cheapest at present is a Sony Xperia xa1 which will update to Android Oreo (version 8) as mentioned in a previous post.
  • RHemmings
    RHemmings Posts: 3,467 Forumite
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    I have a cheap Doogee phone. The camera is poor quality, but otherwise it works reasonably well.
  • StarTrekkie007
    StarTrekkie007 Posts: 57 Forumite
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    Hello,

    Thanks for all the responses. I've started shopping around and the feedback I receive is that I
    should opt for a tablet instead of a phone (since I don't need the phone calls, just something to
    "download this app").

    So, next question is, are there any tablets you would recommend ?
  • Neil49
    Neil49 Posts: 3,081 Forumite
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    Probably an iPad given that you are not committed to Android with your phone.

    A lot depends on how much you want to spend and the size of the screen you prefer. You can get plenty of smaller screen Android tablets (around 7 inches) that aren't too expensive whereas a new iPad starts well into £300 plus unless you opt for an older version (a new model has just come out).

    You can get an iPad mini with an 8 inch screen but it's more expensive than one with a larger screen. Most iPads have screens of 9.7 inches or a bit larger.

    Start off by looking at what someone like Argos has to offer to get an idea of what suits you then come back with more detailed requirements for further advice.

    Hope this helps.
  • StarTrekkie007
    StarTrekkie007 Posts: 57 Forumite
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    Would an "Amazon Fire tablet" be able to support the general apps that I need, like Banking apps ?

    I think its OS is a cut-down version of Android, correct ?
  • StarTrekkie007
    StarTrekkie007 Posts: 57 Forumite
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    I read this article about downloading android apps on an Amazon Fire tablet

    https://mashtips.com/install-android-apps-amazon-kindle-fire/

    so can I get either "Amazon Fire 7" or "Amazon HD 8" ?

    so banking apps have android versions so I should be ok, correct ?
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 5,186 Forumite
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    StarTrekkie007 wrote: »
    Would an "Amazon Fire tablet" be able to support the general apps that I need, like Banking apps ?

    I think its OS is a cut-down version of Android, correct ?
    StarTrekkie007 wrote: »
    I read this article about downloading android apps on an Amazon Fire tablet

    https://mashtips.com/install-android-apps-amazon-kindle-fire/

    so can I get either "Amazon Fire 7" or "Amazon HD 8" ?

    so banking apps have android versions so I should be ok, correct ?

    No, either buy an Android (with the latest Android version for preference so no cheap Chinese tat with Android 5 on it) or an iPad as suggested. Personally I'd go with a cheap Android phone (again with the latest Android version for preference) and one of the PAYG sim from the link further up.
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