General Chat

This so not me, but I want a phone that is a phone, with a decent camera, can be used on the net. BUT what I want to know is can I have a pay as you go phone. ? I want to keep my old number and I would like to take it to the UK and buy a cheap PAYG chip whilst in the UK.
Was looking at a Samsung Galaxy but need to know if I can have one on PAYG.

As you can gather I am not that good about techno stuff. OH is great with PC´s but useless about TV´s and phones.

Any help out there ?

You certainly can have a Pay as You go Uzzi .... :-D :-D :-D

Sorry I was going to send you a link, but I have lost it, will send
it when i find it...it may help :-)

Thank you Mersey
I know it must sound crazy but I want the phone for Spain but the idea of it came from my visit to the UK

No its not crazy at all, I have one on Pay as You Go ....but i do not know about you texting from abroad you will have to check, but with the Iphone you can use facetime which is video calls at no charge :-)

I won´t want to text from the UK as I would put a UK Sim in the phone and leave my Spain number in Spain. (hence not wanting a contract)
If you have PAYG and go on free wifi does it cost you to connect ?

No it doesn't cost to be used on WIFI for facetime or Imessages which are both Apple to Apple programs :-)

You will find that PAYG or not the phone is locked to the network. So if you buy a PAYG phone in Spain you will not be able to use in the UK with a UK SIM unless you get it unlocked.

Most phone companies are unwilling to unlock phones less than one year old ( especially in Spain ) but will usually do so if pushed. The usual fee is € 20-40. There are lots of web sites which claim to be able to unlock phones but your run the risk of the unlock not working or a bricked phone.

One way around this is to buy a new unlocked phone in the first place. You can then choose to use PAYG SIM in any country or a monthly plan separate from the phone which does not tie you in for 18 months or more.
Unlocked new smart phones cost from £ 70 up.

Another possibility is to get another phone PAYG in the UK. There are some good cheap deals with 3 and EE.

Note: some smart phones use the new Apple style small SIM ( eg Samsung S4) others the older large SIM. Bear that in mind. A few phones allow 2 SIMS to be fitted.

In the scenario you envisage you would have to go Android, with Apple iPhone it would be a nightmare.

I bought a sim free sony xperia z from amazon and have a sim only contract with virgin....I am sure you must be able to put a payg sim in....I would try it but my payg (spare) is a large sim and these new fandangled phones have a micro sim


Edit- mine was not locked to anything

Thanks Jax
Rollo I will explain all that to OH thank you

My OH has a UK phone on a contract and another one which is Pay As You Go which he uses abroad. He has a separate Sim card for each country he visits. They have never been locked in, take photos etc and can connect to Wifi. He says that, basically, you get what you pay for - extras etc.

Not all but most PAYG phones are indeed locked in to the network when new. Some are locked to the physical network rather than the phone company. Unlocking in the UK via the service provider costs £ 20+. Although they are supposed to do this with even a new phone in practice they are quite awkward about it for phones < 1 year old. The price of the phones - even on PAYG - is subsidised from the phone cost so I guess they have a reason.

I don't like all the hassle with service contracts and bloatware installed on the phone so I run a Nexus 5 paid cash and a monthly contract. When abroad I just put in a local SIM though of course the other number then goes offline.

Wifi will work on a phone anywhere whether it is locked or not or if their is credit or not. Skype works on many mobile phones and that is another cost effective way around the roaming problem.

As roaming charges are to drop sharply and then disappear all the nuisance of such charges will disappear and not before time.

A note to Jax and Uzzi
Whilst clearing my house for renovations this week, I came across something that I thought was a memory card for a camera.
My daughter tells me that it's not a memory card, but her sim convertor.

It is the size of the larger sim, but holds the micro sized one, so it can be used in a phone.... that takes the bigger one!
Does that make sense?

A micro sim converter (new) on eBay allowing a micro sim to be used on a standard phone is .... 99p inc p&p. Even Sharon may be able to budget for one.

Although I have managed to do everything else on this phone myself (last smart phone was useless)...OH put the sim in as it was fiddly.....there is some plastic bits left maybe that is a converter?

I did wonder what would happen if this one broke and couldn't use a spare phone as they all take the large sim

Edit- Close inspection, that is what it is...so put safely in box just incase :-D