Mobile phone/sim card question.

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Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
I have always had phones on contract from Virgin. £12-15 per month with plenty of memory etc. Contracts last 2 years.
Every 2 years I go into the shop, pick a new phone and they do everything ie set it up and change sim card etc.
My 2 years is up so the charge has dropped to approx £5.50 per month.
Virgin have closed all stores now.
So... ......
Can I just buy a phone elsewhere and simply switch the sim card ??
Will everything work ??
Do I just keep paying £5.50 ??
Is £5.50 a reasonable cost?
Any other advice.
Please keep it simple
Thanks
 

Buck

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
As long as you buy a phone that is 'unlocked' and not linked to a specific network then you will be fine.

£5-6 per month will depend on what you get for that and what your needs are. Important will be the coverage you get from the carrier in your area (Virgin use EE)

If it is just for voice calls then I would say that is the most you would want to pay and not tie yourself into a long term contract i.e. 12/24 month - you can get many at this price (i.e. ID Mobile) that are a rolling monthly so just 30 days to cancel if your needs change.
 

DRM

Guru
Location
West Yorks
First, is your sim the type where you can push out a mini or micro sim from the full sized sim card as it is pre-cut, as most new phones hold a smaller sim card these days, secondly what do you get for £5.50, for example I'm on GiffGaff and get 6 GB of data and unlimited texts & minutes, plus if you use the data, you get 1 GB for free to tide you over till the next month starts.
Carphone Warehouse & GiffGaff sell unlocked phones.
Also coverage, for me 3 is hopeless as the coverage is rubbish where I am, 02, Vodafone, EE are all good for coverage, all the others piggyback onto the main providers network.
 

OldShep

Über Member
The phone is yours now surely why not keep using it until it’s no longer fit for purpose. Meanwhile look at other sim deals of use to your usage.
GiffGaff is the winner in this family’s usage.
 
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Dave7

Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
The phone is yours now surely why not keep using it until it’s no longer fit for purpose. Meanwhile look at other sim deals of use to your usage.
GiffGaff is the winner in this family’s usage.
Its giving problems eg the charge point is knackered and needs replacing. Had 2 quotes.....both £60ish.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Don't Virgin still sell contracts and phones online? Call them?
Or you can buy unlocked sim free phones all over, John Lewis, Argos for example
what is your current phone?
 
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Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
If you're happy with your current provider and the amount you pay, then yes just keep the SIM card - pull it out to check what type it is and ensure that that type fits a new phone of your choice. The Motorola G8 power lite is fairly good value for money IMO (if you don't want to spend loads on one). In fact, I did this and my old SIM card wasn't compatible with my new phone so I asked my provider (3 mobile) to send me a micro SIM, which they did for free. So you can always phone your provider and ask if they do the same.

Is £5.50/month good value? Well depends on what you've got and what you need. For comparison, I pay £13.50/month and that gives me 12GB of data, 600 mins and free texts. I rarely use half of what I've got, but there's the odd occasion where I'm out and about and don't want to run out of data so would rather have a bit more than not enough
 

Poacher

Gravitationally challenged member
Location
Nottingham
Mrs Poacher recently got her first smartphone, a motorola g8 plus, sim-free from John Lewis, after I'd done some basic research for which I am hopelessly unqualified, as a technophobe who only recently and grudgingly accepted the need for me to have even a dumb mobile.
Correctly anticipating that she would be afraid to turn it on, let alone use it regularly, I shopped around for a cheap provider and settled on 1p. They've been really straightforward and helpful to deal with. At some point she may have to consider a monthly contract, particularly if she streams Peter Kay's Carshare while out and about, but for now it's very economical.

Edit: 1p uses the EE network.
 
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potsy

Rambler
Location
My Armchair
I've recently switched to a Virgin sim, kept my phone and just got them to send the new sim and keep my existing number.
£8 per month for 8gb data, unlimited calls & texts, and unused data rolls over into the next month.

Saved me a few quid per month, once this phone packs up will do as suggested up thread and get another that has the same sim fitting.
 

icowden

Veteran
Location
Surrey
Can I just buy a phone elsewhere and simply switch the sim card ??
Will everything work ??
Do I just keep paying £5.50 ??
Is £5.50 a reasonable cost?

If you buy a phone outright, not tied to a network, you can use any Sim in it.
If you buy via a 3rd party such as Carphone warehouse you usually get an unlocked device.

As to the £5.50, it's like asking if 30cm is a good length for a piece of string. It depends what you use your phone for, whether the service you are getting fulfills your needs and whether you end up paying additional charges. I pay closer to £20 per month sim only but need a large amount of data for example.
 

Venod

Eh up
Location
Yorkshire
We were on Plusnet which uses EE network, for some reason the signal had become a bit unreliable at home, (EE coverage is very good,so I don't know why this should happen) so we have changed to ID which use the Three network but more importantly has Wifi calling (Plusnet don't) its the same price as Plusnet but more data allowance.

£8.00 per month, unlimited calls and text, 10 gb data.
 
Morning,

I am unclear what you do with your phone.^_^

If you were getting a new one every couple of years then Virgin probably weren't giving you the cheapest and nastiest and slightly out of date phone that was available at the time.

Cutting costs in the camera and the battery is often one of the easiest ways of making a cheaper phone.

You can find some obscure test to prove that your battery lasts 15 years without needing charging rather than the 20 minutes it really does. And yes the camera is 6m pixels but there are all white when it is sunny and all black when it is cloudy.

Currently I am still using an iPhone 5, battery life is almost useless unless you leave it connected to charger all the time but the camera is good enough for me. It cost me about £100 as it was NoS that nobody else wanted, with a full Apple warranty, which was useful as it failed and was replaced foc.

I also have a bottom of the range Sony Experia that must be about 4 years old, battery life is better than the iPhone but the camera is much worse and it is noticeably slower when browsing.

I can also hear the difference when playing music and to me it is noticeable.

As to the monthly call/data/text cost, personally I wouldn't even bother looking around, recently we have seen a number of companies in the retail electricity supply business go broke. In many way these were the same sort of business as some mobile providers, they are just an accounting front with all the real service provided by someone else.

As such there is little downside to selling at an unsustainable price as long as you can collect lots of bonuses in year one, naughty cynical me.

Virgin at least have a brand to protect and Giff Gaff have been around for quite a while, but if you find someone obscure offering a great deal that is unsustainable you could be in for some hassle getting your account moved if they go under.

Bye

Ian

ps even if you know how to, providers don't like you sending texts from your computer via your phone to use up all your free 5,000 texts per month.
 
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Dave7

Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
If you buy a phone outright, not tied to a network, you can use any Sim in it.
If you buy via a 3rd party such as Carphone warehouse you usually get an unlocked device.

As to the £5.50, it's like asking if 30cm is a good length for a piece of string. It depends what you use your phone for, whether the service you are getting fulfills your needs and whether you end up paying additional charges. I pay closer to £20 per month sim only but need a large amount of data for example.
As I said, I get plenty of memory etc.
Being retired its google search, Whatsapp, email etc and 90% of that is via my wifi.

A bit worried about a new sim deal as
A) how would I keep my number
B) cancel the Virgin deal
But that maybe a moot point as the Virgin sim deal gives me everything I need.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
As I said, I get plenty of memory etc.
Being retired its google search, Whatsapp, email etc and 90% of that is via my wifi.

A bit worried about a new sim deal as
A) how would I keep my number
B) cancel the Virgin deal
But that maybe a moot point as the Virgin sim deal gives me everything I need.
A) Port your number over
B) If you're staying with Virgin, get them to do the swapping of the number onto the new SIM.
 
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Dave7

Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
A) Port your number over
B) If you're staying with Virgin, get them to do the swapping of the number onto the new SIM.
Ahhh. Are you saying a new phone comes with a new sim ??
I assumed I just took the sim out of the old one and shoved it in the new one.
 
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