Sorry to be boring.. but best PAYG mobile advice please anyone..

[CreepyJess]

I am going back to PAYG.. I have struggled with various crap contracts for a couple of years now. I need to spend as little as poss, but don't really want to go without a camera now I am used to having one (DH and I like to be able to send pics of the kids doing whatever funny thing they are doing when one of us is elsewhere..)

Nokia is obviously tempting because they are easy to operate.. but don't want to miss out on another 'as-good' one just because I didn't do enough research. Won't touch 3 with a bargepole ever again..

Also, what about networks? Are the likes of Tmobile, Virgin and Orange, coverage-wise, as good as 02 and Vodaphone these days?

Thanks. I will happy with v.short post with words of advice as I know I am being seriously boring! (But if you knew my history with mobiles you would take pity on me... ) Basically I just want one that won't let me down!

CJ/SJ x

I am VERY boring aren't I. Shoot me.

Hi CreepyJess,

Glad you started this thread, my baby son dropped my old Nokia and I'm after a new nokia but with a camera that takes decent photos - so I'll be watching this thread with interest - p.s. I don't think you're boring at all, I'm sure we'll get some good advice.

I doubt it Browny.. you have to be talking about hardcore sex to get a response these days...

hardcore sex! caught my attention lol
CreepyJ I have just gone PAYG with orange. Don't find the coverage brilliant and friends tell me it is hopeless where we live. Used to like O2 tho.
I bought a scond hand SOnyE with camera I am beginning to get used to it but I wouldn't call it immediately userfriendly (managed to divert all my calls to a friend by mistake which was mystifying). Hope this helps, in a don't do kind of way!

Thanks Ninah.

Bump?

NEW THREAD NEW TITLE CJ!
What's the best network for phonesex? go on ...

Here you go, SJ - mobile-phones-uk (just found it for SpringChicken who is also looking atm).

It has specs and reviews of all the phones out there and links to cheap suppliers.

(Did our eccentric LG8120 finally go too far then? DS1 has just got the Sony Ericsson W800i with the £25 contract from O2 and is thrilled to bits with it so far.)

Thanks Jan.. off to check that link out. I will be forever grateful for 'your' phone because it did get me through to near the end of my contract (up next month but can't cope anymore! ).. but I have to say, I have never known a phone with as many eccentric qualities! In fact for weeks on end now I have used it only for texting.. and as a sort of 'pager', whereby people who know me (and the phone) will ring and speak AT me, rather than TO me because they knew I could hear them but they wouldn't hear me!

V. amusing situation recently. I had made arrangements for my disabled dad to have some equipment fitted in his house and the adminsitrator lady needed my mobile number so that the engineer could phone me with a date to install it. So I explained the situation to her and said that if he couldn't get on my land line then he should probably text. Which he did, because she had left the message on the file that ''CreepyJess' can't talk on the phone at the moment.. please text.)

So we made the arrangements by text and I met him at my dad's. I let him in and I thought he gave me a funny look but we started chatting away while he worked. Suddenly my phone rang and it was an unknown number so I just opened and shut it knowing that the person on the other end wouldn't speak because they would assume I wasn't there because they would not be able to hear me say hello! So I laughed about it to the engineer at the same time apologising for for the eccentricity of my phone and the fact that he had had to text me because callers can't hear me speak - but that I am too tight/broke to shell out for another phone until my contract is up!

So he looked at me and then burst out laughing! I didn't know what he was laughing at but he laughed so much that it made me laugh too! When he got his breath he eventually told me that he had got a written message to say that 'Mr X's daughter can't talk on her phone at the moment, please text' and he had assumed that I was waiting for throat surgery.. or had a tracheomtomy or some such thing.. and so couldn't understand when I had met him at dad's front door and started chatting normally!

PML! All the way he was there he or I kept laughing about it..

CJ x

It's definitely the phone for people who like to live on the edge! lol at the tracheotomy!

DS1's and DD1's have both done the one-way talking thing. DS1 used to get mad at his, shout into it and slam it shut (too male and impatient to work out a strategy like yours). Not sure how DD1 manages the silent part but when it is working and she is at home she has to go into the back yard to get a signal, so all the neighbours get to share her conversation .

Her contract is just about up and she has just got a proper job so she is about to switch too, don't think she has made up her mind yet.

I've just bought the Vodafone VK530 camera/video phone maiinly because its pink and really tiny and has an inbuilt mirror!!It was £100 from The Link,they did have it in Phones 4 U for £80 but they had no more in stock.I love it,cos its pink mainly!

I've killed a thread.

Steph no you haven't.. I am checking info you lot have kindly supplied.. and besides, you don't have to worry about killing a 'boring' thread like this.. I KILL interesting ones stone dead with MY contributions...!

I can't afford that much Steph. I did see a lovely Sony Ericcson pink one in the Link.. it was only £50 (02) and £30 (Virgin) but had no camera. I do want a camera really..

(if only to sent hardcore sex pics to DH.. .. that ok Ninah, you old perv? )

I know what you mean,they are a bit expensive,my ex bought the Sony Ericsson J300i I think it was,cost £50 and it could receive pictures but it didnt have a camera though(you could buy it seperate),but that was a really good little phone for the price.

I want this one!!!! not out yet till tomorrow apparently but its so cute!www.benqmobile.com/cds/frontdoor/0,2241,uk_en_0_89746_rArNrNrNrN_pageType%253ADescription,00.html
sorry cant do links!

Virgin Mobile would get my vote. Simple tariffs and you can pay by direct debit if you like (although this maybe not the best option for you).

Sending pics is terribly expensive I think, you might find you're better off deliberately getting a phone with no camera so you can't do this. Worth a thought? Have a look how much you are spending on picture messaging on your current contract. If you need to spend as little as poss, you need to be sending zero picture messages to be honest!

There is an O2 package at £25 a month (the one DS1 has) with huge choice of camera phones and 750 texts included - you can send a picture for the equivalent of 4 texts.

Online 100 texter . 150 any time any network minutes too.

I have a Virgin PAYG on DD and it used to cost me only a couple of pounds a month, but lately I have had to call DH's mobile a lot (because the landline has been tied up) and my last bill was over £20 for only about 60 minutes and hardly any texts.

I was thinking of ordering this one. (Although am mulling over all the advice in this thread as well..) it would then just be added to my huge Kays account.. so in effect would be 'free'...

Anyone have input about this phone?

It seems like quite a good bargain.. I am looking them up on the catalgoue and then checking aginst that review site you posted Jan

That only links to the homepage, SJ.

Oh! Now it's the phone! (how weird!)

£80 is nearly £7 a month (over 12 months) before you start making calls/texting though - how much are those likely to be? And then you have an old phone at the end of it - you'd always get an upgrade with a contract...