Mobile phone help - can I use my contract sim in a sim free phone

[thekingfisher]

Long dull story by basically my dog ate my brand new contract phone about 2 weeks into a 24 month contract, I had no insurance...I bought another really cheap phone from the car phone warehouse and just popped the sim in and it was fine. However I would like to get a slightly nicer phone ( as dog chewed this one a bit as well - although has now grown out of this habit thank god) and as I still have 1 year to run feel like its worth doing. I am looking on O2 website at a sim free lg viewty which looks quite nice and isn't stupidly expensive - I can also get it from amazon even cheaper. Does this mean I could just buy it and put my sim in? Could I buy a refurbed iphone and do this?

bump?

Yes. I've used my Virgin contract sim in various unlocked phones and it's been fine.

is a sim free phone one that is unlocked?

I think it comes to the same thing - a phone that's not tied to any network so can take any sim.

if you walk into a shop that is tied in with a particular network eg Orange, O2 etc then any sim free phone you buy is locked to that one network. Carphone Warehouse sim free phones on the other hand aren't.

... Just spotted that you were talking about going with Amazon and not O2. Their phones are generally unlocked so you can stick in whichever network sim you want.

Yes - we do this every time DS loses his contract phone.

I was thinking of posting this myself.
I've only ever had PAYG. DH and I rarely use mobile and DS1 and DS2 have PAYG.
DH has broken his very ancient phone.
Tesco have an offer of contract phones for £7.50 a month.I was thinking of getting one for me to use with my SIM and giving the contract SIM to DS1 who would get good use from it.
Probably a stupid question but do you have to give the handset back at the end of the contract?

No, the phone is yours to keep.

Tesco uses T-Mobile so unless your phone is unlocked or locked to T-Mobile then the Tesco sim isn't going to work.

SecretSquirrels (and anyone else after a contract [SIM-only] deal)

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/300-minutes-1000-texts-500mb-data-sim-only-6-month-contract-8-per-month-normally-1223643

HotUKdeals.com has a deal described as 6 months contract, cost 48 pounds (6 x 8 pounds) but TopCashBack / Quidco "cashback" of 30 pounds, making the equivalent cost 18 / 6 = 3 pounds a month

3 pounds/month for 300 minutes + 1000 texts + (minimal) internet access seems excellent value, and in my case enough to tempt me to try out Quidco / TCB as I've not really bothered before, just looked for the cheapest deals, and 3 quid a month for 300 minutes is a penny a minute when calling mobiles :)

I suppose you could even go with the deal using TCB and in 6 months if Quidco still offering 30 quid, do it again. 300 minutes for ringing offspring / OH (ie where outgoing calls will be made but no one outside family needs the "6 months only" number).

Thanks for that NWG.
It's a good deal and I use quidco already. I nearly signed up for it but I just checked the network coverage (we have very poor signal in the house) and it shows no cover for our address. They use vodafone apparently, we are on Tesco/O2 and mobiles can only be used when held by a window.
Doesn't stop the kids texting though.

LOL - thanks for the info - of interest to me even more as I've a got some unlocked phones and Vodafone is OK here (I use Asda SIMs which use Voda).

Maybe they spent so much on advertising FreeBees but didn't get massive takeup and this guarantees them some money, but staggered that there's as much as 30 quid cashback - presumably mostly Voda hopes for higher value contracts than 48 quid!! Will do for my modest needs at minimal cost.