Mel B Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 Well, we're looking at contracts again, as our current ones run out in a month. We're currently with '3' paying £16-£17 a month each for the phones, 300 mins, plus 300 '3 to 3' mins (plus 2000 extra '3 to 3' mins because we took out 2 contracts at the same time), I've also got some internet browsing on mine too. We've been traipsing round town and looked at the deals and saw one with T-mobile which was interesting for the 'booster' facility: - 300 mins - 300 texts - includes a free 'booster' which you can use to select unlimited texts, or an 'allowance' for making calls to the UK from Europe (other choices too), this booster can be changed every 30 days to suit your requirements at no cost, or you can add an extra booster for £5.10 (for 30 days). - downside is that you pay for voicemail retrieval at 30p per minute though (we'd just not have it turned on or leave a message to say we won't retrieve them). As for '3' ... trying to get some info out of them as to what they'll offer is like pulling teeth ... from a hen !!!! They offer a deal then when you ring back they haven't made any note of it ... so it's gone ... and you can't then get the same deal again !!!! After numours calls, we've given up with them for now and will see if they ring us back with a better offer, otherwise we'll be going with T-mobile. Regarding the phone itself, we quite like the LG Optimus One (touch screen), which is an Android phone and has a nice large screen. You can get an app for it which will convert 0800 numbers into normal phone numbers so they will come off your normal allowance instead of you having to pay for them. Does anyone have one of these phones???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave225 Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Er! as far as mobile phones are concerned I did 'shock' my children when they discovered my new mobile does not have Bluetooth. In my ignorance I did ask why I need to call a dentist with my mobile when i already had his number but evidently I am missing something. My wife is even worse as her mobile still has a green screen and will not allow texts outside the UK, but as she is still working on the £20 she piut on it a year ago, you can gather that we are not mobile fanatics. I did get a row from my daughter for frequently leaving the mobile in the car glovebox in the garage. Her comment was that she 'could be lying in a ditch somewhere' and our phone was in the garage. Ooops!! I do not think either of us will ever be classified as Virgin important customers. But they are as cheap as any for what we want. As for broadband we use Talk Talk which I know has a terrible reputaion. I can only say that so far (touch wood) we have had no problems. It was 8 times faster than BT and 50% cheaper. We get free international calls for £2 per month so my wife can phone her 'rellies' in Australia without me pacing the floor with a watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordThornber Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Hi Mel, I won't comment on mobile contracts because I'm sure you're savvy enough to know that the second you've signed it - you see a better one. I'm an Orange contract customer and have been for 13+ years, I need a contract phone for personal business use and they don't let me down to be fair to them. I don't have that phone but I do have HTC Hero with Android. I bought on recommendation from a friend who's VERY mobile aware. And very good it is too, however, I do wonder if these devices are becoming almost too clever. It occasionally does the most daft things, like switching itself on or off, or not connecting calls. Not the end of the world but...... You may find that's normal for phones but the "high end" phones I've had over the last 5 or so years had "grown out" of that sort of thing. Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Hi Dave As we're in the 'no man's land' in the Kingston Communications (KC) area (not a BT area) we didn't have a choice as the rest of the country had about who to use for land-line phone and internet, it was KC or nothing, hence one of the reason we kicked them into touch a few years ago and went totally mobile - for less money than we were paying for the landline and basic broadband, we get 2 mobiles and mobile broadband, so it was a no brainer. Until we did this we hardly used mobiles and, even now, I don't use mine massively, but hubby does. So as we only have mobiles now it has to be mobile broadband and we cannot beat the '3' deal for that so will stick with them. But we're not overly happy with them for the cr*p phone deals for existing customers and can do better elsewhere ... so probably switching to t-mobile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Suprised that you find the 3 deals not to your liking, I have just taken out a deal with them through Tesco Phoneshop, one of their March special offers, £15 per month with free HTC Touchscreen Android 'smartphone' with unlimited internet and texts 5000 mins 3 to 3 and 5000 mins to all other numbers. when the contract came through for some uknown reason it had been reduced to £12.25 not sure if that was because I have a PAYG 3 phone already or not. Seemed like a good deal to me and certainly better than anything else I had been offered. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 I can't believe what you've said I'm afraid .... 5000 mins '3 to 3' and then 5000 mins to other networks for £15, I think you've typed something wrong somewhere, that would cost a lot more than £15! If it is right - tell me where I can get it 'cause it ain't on the website! 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casey Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Hi mel, not very savvy re phones etc but a few people have mentioned checking out giff gaff ?? our son among others have signed up. calls are much cheaper etc but as i say not that savvy. casey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Mel B - 2011-03-08 5:52 PM I can't believe what you've said I'm afraid .... 5000 mins '3 to 3' and then 5000 mins to other networks for £15, I think you've typed something wrong somewhere, that would cost a lot more than £15! If it is right - tell me where I can get it 'cause it ain't on the website! 8-) Already told you where to get it Tesco Phoneshop, it's not on Tesco's website either if you phone them they will tell you it is only available through their phoneshops. Believe as you wish that is what I have been given, if you go into your local Tesco's phoneshop and pick up the March 2011 Phone Magazine on page 12 you will see the offer that is stated as 100mins talk, unlimited texts unlimited internet with an HTC Wildfire (had to ask to find out if it was free with the package, it was), Signed up for it and when I checked on 'MY 3' account as I said it has 5000minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 Ah-ha, that explains it ... when you said Tesco Phoneshop I thought you meant it was freely available and therefore on the website too, not just an 'in-store' special. *-) So it was the 100 mins one you signed up for but for some reason your contract is saying you've got 5000 mins, I wonder if they'll realise - I hope not as you've got a good deal if they don't! :-D One thing to check for, though, '3' used to give you free voicemail retrieval but with some of the new contracts they actually charge you now to do so, might be worth checking before you run up a bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 Basil - 2011-03-09 11:05 PM Signed up for it and when I checked on 'MY 3' account as I said it has 5000minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited internet. Just another query, from what you've said in your postings, to clarify I think you're getting the folllowing per month: unlimited internet 5000 texts 5000 '3 to 3' mins 100 'any network/landline' minutes I think what's confusing me are the '5000 mins' which I now assume are '3 to 3' mins, not 'any network/landline' mins (which are 100 per month) - is that right? Just trying to clarify before I visit Tesco. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Hi Mel, that is what I signed up for for £15, but for some reason the contract came out at £12.25 and they have given me 5000mins any number any network, 5000 3 to 3 mins, 5000 texts and unlimited internet. I realise that 5000 texts is not unlimited, but for me it may as well be as I will never use that amount and I am not querying it in case something else is not right as well! Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
art338 Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 5,000 minutes talking time equals 83.3 hrs. How does anyone manage to spend that amount time talking to a machine? art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 All our family have changed to www.giffgaff.com We can all ring each other free and as we have smartphones there is unlimited data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted March 26, 2011 Author Share Posted March 26, 2011 Well, we've finally got sorted. We're going with T-Mobile and have got LG Optimus One P500 smartphones. I've gone for 100 mins, 100 texts, unlimited internet browsing, 500mb down/uploading and unlimited landline calls as my 'booster', £10.21 a month on a 24 month contract Hubby's gone for 300 mins, 300 texts, unlimited internet browsing, 500mb down/uploading and unlimited landline calls as his 'booster', £15.32 a month on a 24 month contract. Each phone has Google navigation free (no excuse for getting lost!), complete with a car mount and 12v charger - we'll put one in the car and done in the camper. The best part of it is, they signed me up then did my hubby as a 'friend recommendation', so we'll both get £25 each in about a months time, plus, as we were taking out 2 contracts with them I asked if there was anything on offer, and as they were having a special promotional weekend and giving out gift vouchers, we got £10 each too! :-D They're very nice phones with a slightly matt casing, which feels a bit rubbery, so they're not slippery and have a very nice large touch screen. Just got to work out how to use them now!!!! *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antony1969 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 I'm with Tmobile , my deal is 2 phones 800 mins talk , unlimited text , unlimited internet , free voicemail on 1 year contract all for 10 pounds each . I threatened I was leaving to join Tesco and got offered that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 2, 2011 Author Share Posted November 2, 2011 Just got a stonking mobile broadband deal from 3 ... which we didn't know we were getting! :D We had a contract with them for 5gb a month at a cost of £7.50 (half the 'new customer' rate as we were a continuing customer when we took it out, having been with them for 18 months previously). We had this for 2 years but it ran out earlier in the year so just kept 'rolling on' so we didn't need to do anything. However, with me leaving work at Christmas I won't be able to get stuff through them so we were looking to change this to 15gb a month as we're finding the 5gb allowance a bit tight and it certainly wouldn't be enough once I leave. *-) Anyway, after visiting the 3 stores a couple of times and making calls to 3 to see what deal we could get, eventually hubby went through to disconnections and managed to get 15gb deal for £15.99 a month including the new high-speed Mifi dongle, on a 2 year contract - this included a £3 a month discount over the standard price and was all we could get out of them. :-( Imagine our surprise today when we got a letter from them comfirming the contract to find that we are getting a £7.99 discount, so our monthly cost will only be £7.99 for 15gb!!!!! They've given us the 50% discount for staying with them as loyal customers!!! 8-) Well chuffed!!! :-> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 Mel Your obviously sorted now but for anyone in a similar position ie looking at new contract then sim only deals are by far the best, if you are happy with your current phone of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leake Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 art338 - 2011-03-10 9:52 PM 5,000 minutes talking time equals 83.3 hrs. How does anyone manage to spend that amount time talking to a machine? art Ladies can do so with ease. Thank heavens I'm on talktalk at home with unlimited free calls. My wife can run the batteries out on both cordless phones and then switch to the old fashion corded phone. On holiday we use two old pay as you go mobiles which get only limited use. We used to have a 3G card in the iPad but the coverage was so bad we have switched to the caravan club Internet system. Most sites have it and as long as you remember to log off after using it (the charging is time based not usage) it works out quite cheap to use, especially now you can use the purchased time on any site up to six months of paying for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 Bummer ... the new 'high speed dongle' ... isn't! :-( We've been using our old mifi dongle, and also the new one, as we thought the new one was slower than the old one. Having done some speed tests hubby rang 3 and they asked us to try the dongle in another postcode location (good job we have a laptop!), so today we took it 'shopping' with us to town and tried both of them there, with 2 difference speed checkers, we found that the new super-duper, high speed one, was about HALF the speed of the old one! *-) Anyway, after hubby rang them again and was on the phone for 30 minutes (yes really), they have agreed to send us a new one ... just as soon as they have any in stock ... rediculous! Hopefully it won't be longer than 2 days before they have some in, so hopefully we'll get a new one sometime next week and will then 'experience' the joy of more speed. Just thought I'd mention this in case anyone else is having problems with their dongles. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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