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So following on from the National trust app only car parking thread I'm wondering about getting a smart phone for these kind of apps.
I currently have a dumb Nokia that cost about £20 that I top up with about £10 every six months. Obviously I'm never going to get anything that cheap but whats the cheapest useful phone at the moment and / or cheapest way to pay?
Most sims seem to do bundles for pay as you go but you have to buy a new one every month. Is there a carry over version for people who use a tiny amount of data, phone & texts?
I would get something s/h or refurbed from Ebay.
Make sure you switch the mobile data off when you aren't using it or it will download stuff in the background, which will be expensive on PAYG.
you should separate the two - buy the phone, get the sim separately
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/best-pay-as-you-go-sim-cards/#occasional
this suggests that RWG might be worth looking at
https://www.rwgmobile.wales/rates-plans-eng-per/
£2 a month base package or just PAYG
We buy handsets - mine is currently a Redmi Note10 Pro (no, me niether) which is proving as good as all the Samsung, Motorola, Apple and Sony phones the rest of the house and I have had. It was £120 via a HotUKDeals link - currently similar are still on there from Argos.
We pay cheap SIM - currently we just ended a 1p/month deal from Lebara which was via MSE, but now 'only' £6.90 a month for unlimited calls, texts and 12gb of data... MSE are great at explaining things and showing deals that others do not see - cheaper deals still there for a light user like you.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only-filters/
SMARTY do plans starting at £6 a month which is what I use, they run on the Three network, they might even be owned by Three.
Sky Mobile do a good range of cheap SIM only deals. We're all on them as, if you do need more data, you just get on the app and bump it up. Your data rolls over if you don't use it and if other family members on Sky, you can use each others data too
Just get yourself a handset. Facebook marketplace is full of them. I found a decent bloke on there who just does refurbed phones and tablets from a shop locally. I've had three or four phones off him now. Stuff like iPhone 8's are cheap as chips nowadays
If you don't want the risk of an unknown seller, there's also places like Backmarket, who sell 2nd hand phones with warranty/insurance etc. I got a Google Pixel 5 for little over £120, should see me for next few years.
Sorry, should've added that Google is a good bet if you already have a Gmail/Google account, use chrome, Google maps etc as the sync up between anything you do online and the phone becomes very easy.
I been using refurbished Motorola Motos from ebay for a few years, I might have pushed the boat out and paid over £60 last time but cheaper ones are available, I replace when I break them. Most of the family use Giffgaff tariffs.
Watching this with interest as looking for a cheap personal phone to use on an up and coming bike tour (Only used the iphone work gave me on the last couple of sorter ones)
Thank you, some much better deals out there than I'd managed to find searching myself.
As per Matt's suggestion up there, Xiaomi/Redmi are now the the biggest phone manufacturer in the World after Samsung & Apple. Poor old Huawei have tumbled down the rankings after all the negative press.
Worth looking on hotukdeals to see what's out there. Xiaomi frequently do sales promotions.
myself and partner have been on Ulefone Armor 5 bought from Amazon, £100 ish for the phone and then minimum level contract with plusnet (currently £6)
Camera focus and image quality can be down on the market leaders but i'm in it for a rugged phone that is vaguely waterproof and doesn't cost the earth