Am I the only one that didn’t know phones have to be unlocked?

[LadyInTheHouse]

I have an old iPhone 5s which we’ve decided to give to DS. He starts secondary school on Tuesday. We initially didn’t want him to have a smartphone, but now I’ve had a wobble and would feel better if he had one as he will be getting the bus.

I thought all I had to do was put a SIM card in. I ordered one from giffgaff and it arrived today. We just want PAYG. Now I’ve discovered it doesn’t work as the phone is locked to vodaphone. It might take 10 days for an unlock code to be sent. I had no idea this would be an issue, my contact ended 3 years ago.

I’ve also ordered a vodaphone sim as back up as I’m assuming that will work straight away, but it’s still unlikely to arrive before Tuesday now. The only thing I can think to do is to get a vodaphone sim from a phone shop?

Grrrr so annoyed with myself, could have sorted all this out weeks ago.

We usually buy our handsets and then get a sim card so we arent tied to one provider

You can get a sim from a Vodafone store

You can probably get a Vodafone sim from one of the supermarkets too

It’s really standard to need phones unlocked to different providers

There are dodgy looking little shops all over town though that will unlock phones or sell you the right sim

I think you may be tbh! But if you have a vodaphone shop by you, you can pick one up. Or have a look in tescos because I am sure they sometimes have sim cards by the till areas.

Do you have any of those mobile phone shops near you? They'll unlock it for a price, usually pretty cheap.

I knew they were locked within the contract time, but thought that ended with the contract TBH.

But yes, you can pick up a SIM in any Tesco or similar.

I knew it. Didnt know anyone who didnt.

I gave my s7 to my best friend and we didnt even discuss unlocking it. She just went and did it. Was just a given.

I didn't know either. Kids always have our old phones with a new SIM but I've never had to get them unlocked, I just put the new SIM in.

If your contact has ended call your provider and ask them to unlock it - I did this with EE earlier in the year with an old phone I wanted to add a payg SIM card from another provider for trips to America. They didn't charge anything.

*contract

You can buy PAYG sims from almost anywhere. My local corner shops even sells them. 🤗😬

Just annoying as will have to use a Vodafone sim or wait 10 days

My DF wanted to give me his old phone recently as mine was broken. He was also told 10 days by the guy in Tesco who very kindly filled in the necessary on line form for him. DF checked his email that evening and the unlock code had already arrived,

The dodgy looking little shops will unlock a phone within an hour or two.

Good luck with getting an unlock code from Vodafone. It took 21 days and me contacting the CEO to get a code from them. They are useless.

I didn’t know either! Had exactly the same scenario with DS for his birthday. It came through in a couple of days though (Vodafone)