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New phone SIM

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Brava21
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New phone SIM

#154999

Postby Brava21 » July 25th, 2018, 2:36 pm

Hi all

Firstly, please excuse my complete and utter stupidity on this subject and be gentle in any responses. The reason for my total lack of knowledge will become clear...

I need a new phone SIM and don't know where to start. The reason that I don't know where to start is that I don't use a mobile phone. I do own one; it's a dumb phone, a Nokia something or other (not sure of the model number, and I have lost the manual - not that I understood the bliddy manual anyway - but rest assured it is a veritable 20th century antique :) ) with a PAYG SIM, but I don't use it. I keep it in my bag, switched off. Very rarely I switch it on. The last time was in May, when I was meeting Mr B at the end of a cycling event in which he was participating and he wanted to text me to let me know here he was. Except, this meeting up failed, as I couldn't get a signal. (This has become a pattern; I have noticed that in places where I used to get a decent signal there is no longer any at all to speak of. I assume this is due to the antiquity of the device.)

Mr B has recently upgraded to a new handset and has given me his old iPhone. I believe it's an iPhone 5. He's had it quite a while and has recently complained of it slowing down, which I think was the reason for getting a new one. Anyway, he is not so much giving it to me as insisting I have it, and get it up and running, so that we can avoid the stupid situation of us not being able to arrange the (fairly rare) type of meet up described above due to me not having a working handset. I see his point, and have agreed to take his phone and get it up and running.

I am of course clueless as to what to get. Despite the obvious greater functionality of an iPhone as compared to my ancient Nokia, I only want to use it in the same way as I use my current handset (i.e. once in a blue moon). I don't think I need 'data' really. Mr B says that I will, as once I have it I will be unable to resist the temptation to use it for web browsing (he's taken all his apps and whatnot off it now and thinks it will be far faster at web browsing). I am not sure he is right; I do have an iPad and use that of an evening. I like the bigger screen. And I want minimal expense associated with this.

I think I am right in saying that my current SIM won't fit his handset. I assume I won't be able to keep my phone number, though getting a new number does not feel like an issue; I never used the old one really and it will be far simpler, I think, to just get a new SIM and tell the few people who know my current number of the change.

Anyway, to get to the point, any recommendations would be most welcome, given my cluelessness. I was looking at the Tesco Mobile website and wondered, for example, what people thought of these options?

https://www.tescomobile.com/shop/sim-on ... you-go-sim

TIA

Brava

Urbandreamer
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Re: New phone SIM

#155017

Postby Urbandreamer » July 25th, 2018, 3:35 pm

Brava21 wrote:I keep it in my bag, switched off. Very rarely I switch it on.


This is going to be your first problem.
Phone numbers now expire if you don't use them. Also I believe that many PAYG contracts are basically monthly, use it or lose it.

Brava21 wrote:
I don't think I need 'data' really. Mr B says that I will, as once I have it I will be unable to resist the temptation to use it for web browsing (he's taken all his apps and whatnot off it now and thinks it will be far faster at web browsing). I am not sure he is right; I do have an iPad and use that of an evening. I like the bigger screen. And I want minimal expense associated with this.


Today a minimal amount of data is automatically thrown in with your package. I STRONGLY advise learing how to use the smartphone abilities. In particular you need to learn how to turn data on and off and how to connect to local WiFi hot spots. I don't use the 2 Gig per month on my contract.

Ok, here is why you need to learn the phone.

You can share calanders. This makes organising meet-ups and events a doddle.
No phone signal? Well pop into a pub or McDonalds and use their WiFi to contact people using WhatsApp or FaceTime.
Use the GPS on the phone with a SatNav app (NOT google maps) to meet at the same place. Or to find your way back to where the car was parked.
Near the sea? Don't forget to download a tidal app. It makes organising events safer and easier.
Not sure about Iphones, but with Android you could download a "intercom" app and chat over Wifi using handsfree kit while cycling.

While we are at it get some headphones so that you can use your phone to listen to podcasts and talking books. Download them when connected to WiFi.

You can transfer a phone number to a new SIM easily these days. However since your current phone is never used to recieve phone calls there really is no point.

Oh by the way, you are going to have to charge the new phone EVERY day. Indeed you may wish to invest in a "power bank" or external plug in battery. My Wifes looks like a Lipstick.

In short, you are talking a powerful usefull device, that just happens to make phone calls as well.

Slarti
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Re: New phone SIM

#155020

Postby Slarti » July 25th, 2018, 3:40 pm

Brava21 wrote:Anyway, to get to the point, any recommendations would be most welcome, given my cluelessness. I was looking at the Tesco Mobile website and wondered, for example, what people thought of these options?

https://www.tescomobile.com/shop/sim-on ... you-go-sim


Mrs S is with Tesco and finds it to be quite good, thought she uses it a lot more than you do, 3 or 4 times a week, sometimes more! :o


I am also a light user and moved to giffgaff a couple of years ago https://www.giffgaff.com/
With them you can either load a bit of cash into your account, minimum £10, and do regular PAYG, or if you think you will be having a burst of greater use, buy a "Goody Bag" of the appropriate size, starting for £5 for a month. Their SIM will fit your phone as they supply a triple SIM and you just push out the size you want. If you are using normal PAYG (what they call Airtime Credit) you have to use the phone, outgoing, at least once in 6 months.

Costs are
These are our standard prices:
Calls, texts and call forwarding to giffgaff numbers Free*
Calls to other UK mobiles, landlines and call forwarding 15p/min
Texts to other UK mobiles and landlines 5p/text
Voicemail 8p/call
Mobile data 5p per MB
Free phone numbers (starting 080 and 0500) Free

If it interest's you, send me a personal message with your address and I will send you a SIM. Oh, and I'll earn a fiver from giffgaff. :mrgreen:

Cheers
Slarti

Itsallaguess
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Re: New phone SIM

#155022

Postby Itsallaguess » July 25th, 2018, 3:51 pm

Slarti wrote:
I am also a light user and moved to giffgaff a couple of years ago


I'm a similar light-user, and have been a happy GiffGaff user for many years.

It sounds like the OP might do well to start with some mobile-coverage maps first, just to check that any potential options would be suitable from that aspect initially, before looking at the more granular differences between the various PAYG offerings.

I mention this only because the OP talked about local coverage being an issue in the past. Hopefully, as they suggest, this might be more to do with the SIM being used at the time, especially if it was a relatively old one, which might even have been 2G if this is the case?

Here's a couple of coverage maps to start with, where entering your postcode will help show the signal coverage in your area for the two options currently being discussed -

Tesco mobile coverage map - https://www.tescomobile.com/about-us/coverage-checker

GiffGaff coverage map - https://www.giffgaff.com/coverage-and-service

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Redmires
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Re: New phone SIM

#155024

Postby Redmires » July 25th, 2018, 3:54 pm

We have just sorted a mobile phone for my mother-in-law. Her first one (and her in mid-70's) so it had to be simple. I had an old Nokia and we got her a PAYG SIM from a Three store (three.co.uk) with a £10 top up. Rates are 3p/min calls, 2p texts & 1p/Mg data. No contracts to worry about. Just make sure you make a call or send a text every six months or so.

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Re: New phone SIM

#155025

Postby paullidd » July 25th, 2018, 3:54 pm

I would also recommend giff gaff, £10 per month unlimited calls and txts and 3 gig data, sounds pretty good.
listening to pod casts of your favourite stuff is also very good.
Learn to connect to free wi-fi.

I have only just upgraded from an iphone 5 they're still very good, you should be able to do a reset of the phone to make it 'like new', i believe that the latest software update is said to improve the performance speed of all the iphones even the older models.

Paul

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Re: New phone SIM

#155035

Postby GrandOiseau » July 25th, 2018, 4:17 pm

You've had some good advice of which I would second:

1) Do a factory reset. When I got a new phone my old one had become very "laggy". I did a factory reset and it was much better - I gave it to my son.

2) Giffgaff PAYG. Although worth checking if you can get a deal with your husbands provider and/or broadband provider.

3) As much as you might not think you want to - there are many good and truly useful things you can do with smartphones. It's probably time to embrace that. You'll be carrying anyway right!

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Re: New phone SIM

#155050

Postby jofc » July 25th, 2018, 5:07 pm

You guys have mentioned both GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile.
(I use GiffGaff too as I get free calls to other GiffGaff users because the rest of the family are on it)

Did you know that both of them are powered by O2, so the coverage will be the same.
And don't expect to get good coverage everywhere. It varies not only by the company, but also where you are.
E.G: Where I work, I can get good O2 & Vodafone, but no 3 or EE.
When on Holiday in rural parts of Devon, we get nothing & There are many other similar areas in the country.

There are usually rules on the SIM that say something like - if you don't make/receive 1 call a month then they deactivate it & you loose the phone number & any credit on it.

But you don't have to use data.
I use Wifi only for data & SIM for occasional call/SMS.
But it can be a pain to find the settings on the phone & updates can reset them without telling you - so you only know its used all your credit on data when you try to make a call.
My last £10 did me not quite 2 years.

There is a list here of the real network used by the various mobile sim providers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U ... _operators

Jof

AF62
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Re: New phone SIM

#155108

Postby AF62 » July 25th, 2018, 7:07 pm

A couple of options for you -

For very low use consider a Three PAYG sim - https://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Pay_As_You_Go

Calls are 3p a minute, texts 2p, and data 1p MB - A real benefit is the credit never expires if you don't use the phone. Only downside is you need a 3G phone so an antique won't work, and the signal may not be great in rural areas.

For low use consider a iD Mobile Pay Monthly rolling contract (iD are owned by Dixons Carphonewarehose and it uses the Three network - so the same caveats as above for needing a 3G phone and signal) - https://www.idmobile.co.uk/shop/plans/sim-only-deals?

£5 a month gets you 500 minutes of calls, unlimited texts, and 1GB of data (if you use less there is the £3.99 deal of 150 minutes, unlimited texts, and 500MB of data, but for £1 extra?).

I am no longer a fan of GiffGaff (even though I received many thousands of pounds from them for promoting their sims after they launched) as their offer has gone off the boil with their PAYG rates being 15p/min, 5p text, and 5p MB and their cheapest £5 'Goodybag' (effectively a Pay Monthly offer) being 150 minutes, unlimited texts, and 500MB of data - the same as the 1D Mobile £3.99 offer and to get the same as the £5 1D Mobile offer you would have to be £7.50/£10.

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Re: New phone SIM

#155205

Postby BBLSP1 » July 26th, 2018, 6:27 am

I have an old Nokia, a 2700c-2 with the keyboard toggle switch held on by sellotape! But it does the job for me, even with several calls a day the battery lasts about 4 or 5 days before re-charge.

I have an Orange SIM, they are now EE, PAYG credit does not expire but you need to use it about every 6 months to keep the number. Although in the past, when I was abroad for over 6 months, they were able to restore the number upon my return.

If you are not at all interested in smart phones, you may be better just to get a cheap modern non-smart phone and start from there. As others have noted, the Three 3-2-1 SIM is a good deal but does not work on the older phones.

Brava21
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Re: New phone SIM

#155275

Postby Brava21 » July 26th, 2018, 11:06 am

Thank you all for your replies - recs all round - this has given me pause for thought. Last night I was thinking that perhaps what I need is a new dumb phone, because I'm not really interested in smart phones.

And argh! The constant charging! Oh heavens, I hadn't even considered that. Plus, I'll need to be a bit more careful about using it now and then to keep the number active. It's going to feel like a whole new ball game. However, Mr B is very keen that I take his old phone, so I'm going to give it a go (you can see what he is doing here, can't you? Dragging me into the 21st century by stealth) and if I really can't get on with it, then I'll get another dumb phone.

UrbanDreamer, you do make a very good point about the phone being useful - I hadn't really thought of some of the things you suggest. Interesting...and GrandOiseau, thanks for the factory reset tip. I will get Mr B to look into that!

I'm going to have a look at coverage and make a final choice this afternoon, but based on a quick look at the Three site, I do think I will likely go with their SIM (thanks AF62!)

Thank you all again for your replies, you've really helped me with this. I feel much better about it now :)

Brava

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Re: New phone SIM

#155303

Postby Mike88 » July 26th, 2018, 12:16 pm

I would stick with the Tesco deal you highlighted. Both my wife and I use Tesco mobile and it is excellent in coverage utilising the O2 network. Unless you turn on the phone every day you will not have to charge the phone daily and, given that my wife uses her phone once a month at most, I can say from experience that she has not lost her number in the 5 years she has had the phone. Too many scare stories and complications on here on here. As a light user cost is not an issue and Tesco is very competitive. Take your husband's phone, sign up to Tesco and take it from there. Just learn how to use the phone in all circumstances for when you need to use it.

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Re: New phone SIM

#155305

Postby eepee » July 26th, 2018, 12:25 pm

I would suggest that Three, as has been mentioned on the thread is about the cheapest option.

I use my phone (to send) very little so £10 does lasts me nearly a year!

However the first thing to check is that your phone is 'unlocked' that is, that it is not tied to a particular provider.

If so get whatever SIM you decide in a format that will physically fit in your phone.

Arrange to have your existing number transfered to your new account. How depends on your SIM provider.

Switch off "Mobile data" and only allow "Updates except on WiFi". How you do this in Settings depends on your phone.

Enable Wifi. There are a lot of places that now provide free WiFi without having to jump through many hoops. For example once registered at a Tesco store you will get Wifi at no cost from any store. Who is your ISP at home? They may have free national coverage from 'hot spots'.

You might want to open an account with a scheme such as WhatsApp in order to communicate through Wifi (including telephone calls) with others. Obviously the people you communicate with need to be on WhatsApp also.

Lastly switch off Location. Google loves to know where you are so that they can be 'helpful' in pointing out things you do not need. If you are using a Satnav application such as HereWeGo you can switch it on for the duration of your travel.

And that's it for the moment! I'm sure someone will correct/add what I have said.

Regards,
ep

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Re: New phone SIM

#155403

Postby Slarti » July 26th, 2018, 4:41 pm

eepee wrote:Enable Wifi. There are a lot of places that now provide free WiFi without having to jump through many hoops. For example once registered at a Tesco store you will get Wifi at no cost from any store. Who is your ISP at home? They may have free national coverage from 'hot spots'.


I would say switch of gps, wifi and bluetooth unless needed as
a) they are the battery killers and
b) it improves your security, well not gps so much, but certainly the other 2.

Slarti

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Re: New phone SIM

#155405

Postby swill453 » July 26th, 2018, 4:47 pm

Slarti wrote:I would say switch of gps, wifi and bluetooth unless needed as
a) they are the battery killers

I would say the main battery killer is - using the d*mn thing. ie looking at the screen.

Using constant GPS for a whole day to track myself doesn't give my battery a problem, as long as I don't constantly need to fire it up to check if I'm still on the route. If I'm somewhere difficult and unfamiliar so flicking the screen on and off every few minutes, it starts to get low after 6 or 8 hours.

Other factors like signal strength affect it, of course, but to a lesser degree than screen-time.

Scott.

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Re: New phone SIM

#155430

Postby Stompa » July 26th, 2018, 5:44 pm

It's perhaps worth adding that O2 Classic PAYG now offers essentially the same rates as Three 321:

https://kenstechtips.com/index.php/o2-c ... ayg-review

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Re: New phone SIM

#155511

Postby granretire » July 27th, 2018, 8:11 am

I have always found my local 02 shop extremely helpful over any problems I have had trying to get to grips with my mobile. You don't have to be an o2 customer or have a mobile purchased from them. Usually the shop staff can help me when I walk in. Occasionally I have to book to see an o2 gru, but they are equally helpful. They don't treat me as an idiot ortho' I am sure that some of my queries must seem very elementary to them.

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Re: New phone SIM

#155740

Postby AF62 » July 28th, 2018, 6:27 am

eepee wrote:Lastly switch off Location. Google loves to know where you are so that they can be 'helpful' in pointing out things you do not need. If you are using a Satnav application such as HereWeGo you can switch it on for the duration of your travel.


If you turn off location then a significant part of the usefulness of a smartphone disappears. The bus / train / traffic apps all know where I am so can give me relevant information. I ask Google to give me details of a shop and as it knows where I am it returns the details of the nearest store. My house knows when I have left work so it can turn the heating on. etc. etc.

Sure turn off your location history in Google settings if you don't want that retained (but I find it incredibly useful as a diary), but turning off location altogether?

Slarti wrote:I would say switch of gps, wifi and bluetooth unless needed as
a) they are the battery killers and
b) it improves your security, well not gps so much, but certainly the other 2.


GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth being battery killers. Yes they were in the past but in the more recent versions of Android (no idea about Apple) this is no longer the case. The software is much more sophisticated so for example with GPS it only activates when an app that requires it is active and being used and not if it has been pushed into the background.

Security? Unless you are referring to tracking someone I can't see the issue unless you are being daft and using public unsecured networks in a risky way.

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Re: New phone SIM

#155823

Postby Slarti » July 28th, 2018, 4:07 pm

AF62 wrote:GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth being battery killers. Yes they were in the past but in the more recent versions of Android (no idea about Apple) this is no longer the case. The software is much more sophisticated so for example with GPS it only activates when an app that requires it is active and being used and not if it has been pushed into the background.

Security? Unless you are referring to tracking someone I can't see the issue unless you are being daft and using public unsecured networks in a risky way.


OK my phone is not that new Moto G 2nd Gen running Android 6, but I do know that if I forget to switch GPS off after arriving at a customer, at the end of the day it needs more charging.

As for public unsecured networks, they can push things onto your phone without you even knowing that you have connected to them.

Slarti

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Re: New phone SIM

#155829

Postby vrdiver » July 28th, 2018, 4:55 pm

Brava21 wrote:And argh! The constant charging! Oh heavens, I hadn't even considered that.

You mentioned in your OP that you keep your current phone switched off.

If you do that with the iphone as well, the battery will last much longer!

(Might be worth fully charging the iphone now, even without a sim, and switching it off for a week before switching back on to see what charge is left in the battery. Make a note and repeat until the battery is at, say, 50%* - then you'll know how frequently it needs charging if you don't use it. Sending a text when you do charge it will keep the sim active as well :) )

VRD

*(Pick a % remaining that is the lowest useful remaining battery life for your needs - e.g. if 10% allows you to make a call for a few minutes in poor signal conditions then 10% may be OK for you.)


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