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Practical advice for living in modern Britain: Q1 - Phones.

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 TobyA 27 Jun 2014
So, I'm moving back to England later in the summer after 13 years in Finland. It's hardly going to be a huge culture shock as we are in the UK most Christmases and summers for probably 4 or 5 weeks, but there are lots of practical things that you don't need to do when just visiting that I will need to get sorted out in the next weeks.

First one is getting a phone. Is there some website where you can compare deals offered by different operators and see what's best for you? In Finland I pay about €20 a month, I get very few minutes or free texts but (being a miserable old git maybe?) don't actually talk to people that much but I do have unlimited data and the highest speed data connection and use my phone a lot that way. My phone itself is OK but old so perhaps getting an actual phone with a package makes sense, whilst my wife has a newish iPhone so I guess only needs a number and SIM card.

Do kids all take phones with them to school? Or the opposite? Here virtually all kids when they start school (aged 7) get phones. I guess all the parents think its mainly for emergencies, but of course the kids all text each other etc. I guess we should get pay as you go SIM cards/UK numbers for my kids (8 and 10) too, but interested in whether that's totally the norm for kids that age or not.

Cheers all. Expect further dull requests for car/house insurance recommendations and the like in not to distant future!
notaclue 27 Jun 2014
In reply to TobyA:

Been a long time since I have had to sort my own phone out (now have work phone) but just went into carphone warehouse and sorted on the spot

re kids with phones my kids are at primary school and no kids are allowed phones in school. Different when they go to secondary school however
In reply to TobyA:
For impartial (stated to be) comments try http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/mobile-phone-cost-cutting . The same website is a starting point for insurances. Many other websites will do comparisons but may or may not be truly independent.
Essentially it's a choice of contract or PAYG (which has several different types and meanings) with one of the big 5 mobile companies or one of the many smaller virtual providers.
Often folk are "forced" to choose a network due to what reception they can get at the location they need. Coverage is based on population density and so low population areas often have poor coverage. Make sure you use a coverage checker for the area you are going to live in.
Other things to consider are flexibility, customer service, multiple mobile deals (if this suits since some give free calls and texts within network which can be good for kids keeping in touch at little or no cost), package deals (like virgin does broadband, TV, landline, mobile as a deal). '3' is stated to be good for data but heard complaints about voice use. All the big mobile companies have their pluses and minuses. Suggestion that uk mobile companies will be forced to allow uk network roaming in future so this should help with coverage issues. I believe they are resisting this meantime despite it being used by foreign visitors to the uk but not permitted except for emergency calls (999/112) to uk residents.
Personally I'm on Giffgaff which is owned by O2, uses their network but run as a separate company. Very flexible tariffs and some other good things but does have limitations as it's a community based operation which means you have limited access to paid staff if problems occur. Pays your money, takes your choice, but I'm happy meantime.
 Timmd 27 Jun 2014
In reply to TobyA:

Giffgaff could be worth investigating, I don't know a lot about it, but it's supposed to be contract free and very good value.
 wilkie14c 27 Jun 2014
In reply to TobyA:
An iphone 4S can be had second hand for about £100 and then a sim only deal off giff gaff or any other for about a tenner a month, that'll be about 500mg data, 300 mins and unlimited texts. Contracts with a phone are often 2 years over here now so the sim only way would cost you £340 over the 2 years but double that for an iphone 5 deal where you are really paying for the phone over the contract as it were. Virgin do some great sim only deals, they piggy back the orange network so coverage is good.
Post edited at 13:10
 Only a hill 27 Jun 2014
In reply to wilkie14c:

I second the Virgin recommendation. Their SIM only deals are excellent.
OP TobyA 27 Jun 2014
In reply to all: Thanks everyone - lots of practical advice there. I've not really thought to much about coverage - although I know its not great on certain networks in the countryside where my parents live. Coming in as a visitor, my Finnish phone skips happily between networks so I've not noticed too much.

Thanks again.

 FrankBooth 27 Jun 2014
In reply to TobyA:

Your wife's iphone will need unlocking, so it can be used on any network. My wife got my old one when I upgraded to iphone5, and as we've got Virgin cable/phone at home, it made sense to use their SIM only deal which is pretty good value at £7.50/month on a rolling contract basis (so can leave with 30 days notice).
My eldest two kids are 17, so they wanted smartphones. We went for some basic Samsungs from Carphone Wharehouse, again costing about £7.50 a month.
Youngest two kids (14 & 11), just needed SIMs so they could text, and I'm using GiffGaff for that which is cheap as chips (£5/month unlimited text)
OP TobyA 27 Jun 2014
In reply to FrankBooth:

Thanks! I think most (all?) Finnish phones are unlocked, you can definitely swap SIM cards between them anyway. When I first came here it was still the law that mobile service providers couldn't also sell you phones, so you had to buy your own phone separately. I remember being annoyed by UK friends getting phones 'for free' with their packages, but at the time Finnish call costs were the lowest in the world. Now I think the competition in big markets like the UK has pushed costs right down.

I haven't had a land line since 2000 when I was last living in England, but it seems lots of people still have them now? Is that because its in connection with internet?
 Nick Harvey 27 Jun 2014
In reply to TobyA: Aye, you have to have a landline I think. Waste of money but it might go to BT even if you are not with BT as they own the infrastructure or something?

Have a look at uSwitch and google for the deals pages on techradar etc for the phone you want. This is probably more applicable to high end phones though.

And def check out gifgaf.

 MG 27 Jun 2014
In reply to TobyA:

If for whatever reason you avoid Gifgaf, get a phone from somewhere like Carphonewarehouse that connects to all networks rather than from a Vodafone etc that will just have certain companies' tariffs.

What else has changed in ten years? Banks - pretty much all banking online now, credit cards are chip and pin, bins are collected every other week but there are a myriad of colours for various recycling, road tax depends on CO2 emissions, Woolworths has gone... There must be more.
 John2 27 Jun 2014
In reply to TobyA:

If you can get fibre optic internet there's really no need to have a land line, but in more remote areas you need a BT landline to get an internet connection.
OP TobyA 27 Jun 2014
In reply to MG:

> What else has changed in ten years?

Yep, I still have a UK bank account and credit card, so no big surprises there. We have been regular visitors to even have things like Tesco points card, and from a more climbers point of view both GO Outdoors and Decathlon cards!

I think I noticed more changes in the first years I was a way - coffee shops opening everywhere; very attractive women in unlikely places like Kidderminster (sorry Kiddy, luv ya really) and the, not unrelated, emergence of Polish shops all over the place!
 PPP 27 Jun 2014
In reply to Timmd:
Giffgaff sounds nice, but...
1. If you run out of data, you can not cancel your current plan and buy another one. So you either have to use your credit and pay ridiculous amounts of money for MB or don't use the internet.
2. There is no customer service (via phone). You can contact the agent only via internet.
3. Internet speed is quite slow...
Post edited at 16:13
 Siward 27 Jun 2014
In reply to John2:

My daughter, currently working for Virgin, tells me that you can indeed get cable broadband only from them. However, they've hiked the price right up for broadband only deals so that you may as well get a package including the phone, otherwise they'd be far too competitively priced.

If you can get virgin broadband though you'd be foolish to go for a non fibre optic alternative.
 armus 27 Jun 2014
In reply to TobyA:

Apart from phones which aren't that difficult to work out given the advice above, are you moving to a part of the UK that you are familiar with? Different areas have different attitudes. Small things can become bigger especially for new school children.
 Indy 27 Jun 2014
In reply to wilkie14c:

> An iphone 4S can be had second hand for about £100

What, a nicked one?
OP TobyA 27 Jun 2014
In reply to armus:

Haven't lived there before but have lived in nearby cities. But people are people everywhere; most are great, a few aren't - not so much you can do about that. C'est la vie etc.
 wilkie14c 27 Jun 2014
In reply to Indy:

Nope, bought one myself today for £95, checkmend clear too
 wilkie14c 27 Jun 2014
In reply to Indy:

nicked iphones are completely useless anyway, you need the victims apple id to factory reset them

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