Mobile Phone Recommendations; SIM Only - The Bear and Badger

Elmlea

Hello all,

A quick plea for help.Â O2 have made a mess of my downgrade from contract to PAYG, so I have now disappointingly "lost forever" the number I've had since 2001.Â So, I now have a US number which won't work in the UK and need to pick up a cheap, functional UK-only SIM card.

It needs to be either cheap pre-pay or PAYG, I don't want even a Â£10 a month contract considering this year I'm only back for 2 weeks.Â Ideally it'd be enough for a handful of texts and sensible data (browsing here, tweets, etc), and not too much in the way of phone calls.

Any recommendations?Â My US account is basically pay $60, get everything free for a month, so I wouldn't be adverse to a contract-free think like that.Â Only problem is I really need to be able to pick it up on the high street as I don't have time to wait for mail order!Â And ideas would be much appreciated.

g.man

Go into any O2 shop and they'll sell you a payg sim for an iPhone. Sim is free and the only cost is Â£10 to cover your calls and data allowance which can be topped up more if needs be. I used one for almost a month recently and didn't have to top up at all.
Set up your iPhone to divert all calls from your usual number to the new number on the sim and then insert the new sim card.

bish bosh

g.man

cockbeard

Good plan, but how much will the divert cost, you'll be paying the international part from US to UK. I'd set a reject call by text message instead, detailing the international number. Or schedule a text to your UK number, so you can decide who's worth calling back

Might be an idea to get a paymonthly no commitment contract like mine. Switch to contract for single month then give thirty days notice. Beware that non use for even nine months can get you the number lost. When I was at Orange we would disconnect PAYGO after six months inactivity and reallocate number after 12

Elmlea

In the end, I've gone for Giffgaff; Â£10 for unlimited texts, unlimited 3G data, and 300 minutes will be absolutely fine for the next couple of weeks, and I only really need it in a couple of days for Bearstock and when my wife's up north and I'm not. Â

I'll look at their small print regarding keeping it going, I'd probably rather just add their minimum Â£5 to it once a year to keep it running, then transfer that number to a contract when/if I'm back in the UK permanently.

Unlikely

Elmlea wrote:

Hello all, A quick plea for help.Â O2 have made a mess of my downgrade from contract to PAYG, so I have now disappointingly "lost forever" the number I've had since 2001.Â

That would explain why when I sent you a text with my new number it failed to be delivered.Â Same with Gav's, annoyingly, as it would be sensible for you both to have that number ahead of this weekend.Â I'll PM you once I've remembered what the damn number actually is.

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