sally_in_wales
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Mobile phone contractsI'm very clueless about phones. I have a perfectly good one that I need to cancel the monthly contract on and swap to a PAYG, but I'm not really sure what I have to do. Something about buying a sim card from somewhere and working out whether something needs unlocking and its all very confusing.
Added to that, looked at a price comparison thing online and the cheapest PAYG option semed to be Tesco, and for some strange reason I think I'd rather use someone else 
So, can anyone take pity on me and do me a ultra simple step by step list of what I need to do in what order to sort myself out so I can keep this phone but swap to a real no frills package (if I make one short call a week thats it usually) . Its with BTmobile at the moment, who don't seem to do a PAYG option when I last looked at their paperwork, and the phone is a sony ericson
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jema
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Your not alone in being clueless on this one 
and why not? if you don't change your phone more than once every several years then why should you know all the zillions of options?
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jax
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check your contract, sally. my son had to give three months notice to quit with vodafone.
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sean
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AFAIK:
1.Make sure that all your phone-numbers are in the phone's memory/written down *not* on your SIM card.
2.Cancel your contract with BT.
3. Buy a SIM card for your network of choice (about £20 IIRC).
4. Replace old card with new card.
5. Put some credit on it.
If you're a bit out in the sticks it's worth checking the networks' coverage of your area.
Doing all the above means your phone number changing. I think it may be possible to get round this but I don't know how personally.
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sally_in_wales
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Cheer Sean. Someone told me I would need to get the phone 'unlocked' when I do the changeover but I don't really know what that means or how I do it 
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sean
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mrutty seems to know about this stuff. You could try PMing him.
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Bernie66
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Depending on the make and age of the phone you can get unlock codes off the internet free. Once the phone is unlocked it will take any sim card virtually unless you want a super high spec fantastic one with stripes. You can buy a sim card for a tenner from most general outlets. What is your usage like and do you call people or text them? Your usage will determine what network and tariff is the most economical for you to choose.
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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carphone warehouse are very very helpful and unbiased as they're not tied to one particular provider. Might be worth poping in to your local one as they might be able to do this for you.
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sally_in_wales
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Might be the least painful option. Typiclly I make either one call or text a week unless I'm away on business, then I may make 4 or 5 over a couple of days, so its really low usage by any standards. the supermarkets all do value sims for about £3, but if there is a 'greener' option out ther I'd rather do that
Are there such things as environment friendly phone tariffs?? 
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Bernie66
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I don't think so. But by keeping a functional old phone rather than replacing it every year with a new model, and should you need to get a new phone by sending it off to be reused in third world countries you are doing your "bit". How many old phones are sitting in peoples houses simply because a newer better model has come out?
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Sunpuppy
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With some (usually older) phones, you don't have to unlock it at all, just put your new PAYG sim card in it.
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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| Bernie66 wrote: | | I don't think so. But by keeping a functional old phone rather than replacing it every year with a new model, and should you need to get a new phone by sending it off to be reused in third world countries you are doing your "bit". How many old phones are sitting in peoples houses simply because a newer better model has come out? |
our school is collecting them now as they get paid for returning them.
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sally_in_wales
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maybe el-cheapo supermarket option willbe the best bet then. Will pick one up and give it a go
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Bernie66
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| Mrs Fiddlesticks wrote: | | Bernie66 wrote: | | I don't think so. But by keeping a functional old phone rather than replacing it every year with a new model, and should you need to get a new phone by sending it off to be reused in third world countries you are doing your "bit". How many old phones are sitting in peoples houses simply because a newer better model has come out? |
our school is collecting them now as they get paid for returning them. |
Our school collects them on a yearly basis. Scary when you think how many they get!
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mrutty
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| sean wrote: | | mrutty seems to know about this stuff. You could try PMing him. |
Might have worked for the largest Telco in the world
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mrutty
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| sally_in_wales wrote: | | Cheer Sean. Someone told me I would need to get the phone 'unlocked' when I do the changeover but I don't really know what that means or how I do it |
Last time I checked Voda and O2 where not locked (Voda still is), Orange were locked and cost I think £20 to unlock and not sure about the others. I'm guessing 3 locked theirs as they were selling 3G at cost or below to gain market share.
I'd wall into a Voda shop hand the ncie man/lady the phone and get them to fit a £20 SIM kit. They should move all your numbers for you and set it up with £5 of credit (wish you'd said last week as I've just thrown a PAYT SIM away ).
Worth rememebering that many of the Virgins, Tescos, etc are sitting on top of another service provider which can sometime lead to problems. Also check the coverage charts to make sure your area and any area you visit is covered (Voda work really hard to be No.1 in this field).
O2 used to do a PAYT option so worth checking with Ccare. Voda used to allow a one way contract to PAYT tranfer so that you kept the number and O2 might do the same.
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saffranne
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any phone shop will unlock the phone for you and it cost about £5,then after you can choose any network you wish
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mrutty
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| Bernie66 wrote: | | Depending on the make and age of the phone you can get unlock codes off the internet free. Once the phone is unlocked it will take any sim card virtually unless you want a super high spec fantastic one with stripes. You can buy a sim card for a tenner from most general outlets. What is your usage like and do you call people or text them? Your usage will determine what network and tariff is the most economical for you to choose. |
Operator unlock codes aren't around for anything in the last two/three years as part of the police crackdown on phone theft. The phone to SIM lock can be set per phone or just an overal operator code. Depends on the operator and the phone so worth getting the store to do the work for you, that's what they'r paid for. Also means if they PUK the phone they have to sort it.
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Bernie66
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That just shows how old my phone is. nokia 3410, got that unlocked no problem. Mind you its not worth stealing i guess!
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mrutty
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| Bernie66 wrote: | | That just shows how old my phone is. nokia 3410, got that unlocked no problem. Mind you its not worth stealing i guess! |
Here's how sad I am. 3410 was the update to the 3310. From memory the first Nokia to support WAP, but I might be worng I am getting old.
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Bernie66
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WAP being????
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sean
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Wireless Application Protocol? Or something like that. An expensive and rubbish way of accessing small bits of the internet IIRC.
mrutty will be along to tell me I'm completely wrong now.
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Bernie66
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mobile internet then? Waste of time on 3410 at least mind the one I was looking at today was quite tidy. £300 though i believe so never ever going to happen.
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mrutty
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| sean wrote: | Wireless Application Protocol? Or something like that. An expensive and rubbish way of accessing small bits of the internet IIRC.
mrutty will be along to tell me I'm completely wrong now. |
I'd have used the word crap istead of rubbish but otherwise find. At Voda IT we just used WAP to download ringtone Played with some gateway service we sold but overal good standard that wasn't useful to most people.
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dougal
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| sally_in_wales wrote: | | maybe el-cheapo supermarket option willbe the best bet then. Will pick one up and give it a go |
Sally - if your phone use is principally to one (particular) other user  then its most likely that your best deal would be if you were with the *same* network operator, so that calls were cheapest. (Calls between different networks are generally (2x?) more expensive.) If your co-respondent is on a contract, check out the PAYG options with that supplier... 
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