Advice Wanted : Mobile Phones

[lathany]

I'm thinking of getting myself a mobile phone for when I go back to work (so that I too can announce "I'm on the train!") However, I know next to nothing about how to choose one (I've never bought one before).

My criteria are:

Use : To ring out in emergencies and semi-emergencies. I'm not interested in deals that provide chat time, I have a land line for that (it'll normally be switched off).

Features : Just the whole "phone" thing. I don't care about cameras, ring tones, text messages, games, etc (although, I'm mostly interested in the cheapest option so if it's cheaper to get a phone with them, that's fine). I also want something that would fit in my bag, but frankly anything smaller than a brick works (also I find the really small phones annoying).

Main want : Something cheap.

Any and all advice appreciated!

Comments

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the plans are like over there, but I looked into pre-paid plans here in the States while I was pregnant (forty-five minute commute through farmland + possibility of short labor = very frightening prospect). All the ones I looked at had a minimum # of minutes you could get, and if you didn't use them up in a short amount of time, like maybe sixty days, you lost them.

All of the "pay-as-you-go" plans still had basic monthly service charges, and the price per minute seemed excessive.

Of course the regular plans all had far more minutes than I wanted, and I didn't want a yearly contract. Those seemed to be the best value, though.

If someone offers you an old 'phone, make sure it's not so old that it can't get service anymore. We have 'phones that are only five years old, but they're analog and all of the service now is digital, or something like that.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Not many of these concerns apply in the UK. PAYG plans don't have monthly fees any more. Price per minute is high, but if you're only expecting to make a few minutes of calls per month, it's pretty much irrelevant (roughly comparable with using a payphone). The downside of PAYG is that a cheap handset will cost about 50 quid, instead of being free.

And we've had a single digital mobile phone standard for about 15 years, so there's no way you'd mistake an analog mobile for a GSM phone, because at first glance you'd think the analog phone was a typewriter, or a WWII-era field radio, or a double-decker bus, or something.

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

Wow, that would be nice. I would have gotten a cell 'phone if I didn't have to pay monthly fees.

I always wanted a bag 'phone, but I don't think I've seen one for . . . about fifteen years.:-) They were a little on the large side, but everyone knew that you had one, then, and you could feel important because of it.:-) Now they're all so tiny that no one can see you've even got one. Maybe I should start telling people I've got a 'phone, it's just so small they can't even see it.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I reckon that your best bet would be to move to the UK and get a phone here.

</wishful thinking>

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

No, you wouldn't want us over there. the_original1 isn't as easy to get along with in person as you might think. Oh, wait, he might read this. Forget I said that!;-)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

The downside of PAYG is that a cheap handset will cost about 50 quid, instead of being free.

OK, thanks. Given that I really do expect to make less than a call a month, it simply means that it'll be better value after the first five months.

because at first glance you'd think the analog phone was a typewriter, or a WWII-era field radio, or a double-decker bus, or something.

Oooh! That sounds fascinating. I want! ;-)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

And you can almost certainly get a handset free from one of your less cost-conscious friends...

Note also that you can top up PAYG phones directly from your debit card at NatWest, Sainsbury's and I think some other cash machines these days, just by pressing a few buttons. So they really are pretty much painless!