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While we were away for the weekend we met the eldest grandwean for lunch in Dundee. Totally up to date she has a Samsung mobile that does everything but make a decent cup of coffee. She persuaded me to look at smartphones and I finished up with one that also speaks to the Ceed so I can make calls on the move. It works and the car and phone get on fine. But...

Now and then I put £10 in my phone and it lasts for months. My credit has fallen from £19 odd to £7 something in the last few days. Suddenly I am receiving texts from O2 saying that I will ONLY be charged £1 for any data usage that day. What this means in practice is that I will have to pay £30 + per month. For £30 per month I could have a super duper phone FREE with loads of data and calls.

All I want to do is check he weather and news and have a car phone.

BEWARE CHANGING FROM PAYG.

Have you got 3G turned on? Turn it off if you are not using it. This happened to my mum - she didn't even use her phone and it dropped £2 overnight - it was using data which costs £££. It could be updating apps, downloading emails, etc.

I have a smartphone on PAYG but I keep 3G switched off and use WiFi at home and wherever it's free (pubs, etc.). I put £10 credit on it and it lasts for many months. I don't like paying lots for mobiles, rather save my money for a nice tipple
On the rare occasions where I top it up, I get free internet for 1 month so I turn it on then but make sure I turn it off when the month is up.

If you have an Android phone you can download (on WiFi ) a free App, My Data Manager https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... rch_result. It will let you take a look at how many megabytes (or gigabytes ) any app is using.

Also Android has built in data monitoring
Go to: Settings -> Data Usage
It breaks down each app's individual usage. Allows you to set limits and can alert you when you get close to your defined limit.

On an iPhone, it's a bit trickier to track. Sometimes high data usage happens because you turned off Wi-Fi and just forgot to turn it back on. If an app is draining your battery it has a better chance of eating up your data plan as well. Battery-sucking apps run in the background, and there are only a few things background apps can do on an iPhone: use the GPS, play music, and download files. You're more likely to run into wasted data when you leave a music or location-aware app open in the background. Music apps can play indefinitely, and if they're streaming that music you can use a lot of data simply by forgetting to stop playback.

A mis-understanding here - I was trying to make the point that a contract phone may be cheaper than PAYG for a heavy user (such as my grandwean).

The phone I bought was an Alcatel OT983 that runs Android. What sold it to me was the fact that it has Bluetooth that talks to the Ceed so I now have a carphone, assuming I switch everything on. Making connection was easy and it works very well.

A question on "free wi-fi". If I'm in a Macdonalds or a pub that advertises free wi-fi or a bus with free wi-fi AND I turn on the wi-fi on the phone does this mean any calls I make or any web browsing are FREE i.e.there is no effect on my phone payg balance? If my grandwean visits me and taps into my wi-fi should I charge her?

... A question on "free wi-fi". If I'm in a Macdonalds or a pub that advertises free wi-fi or a bus with free wi-fi AND I turn on the wi-fi on the phone does this mean any calls I make or any web browsing are FREE ...

The wifi only makes data transfers (web browsing, app updates, app data usage) free, it does not help phone calls or text messages. You can get around this by using 'voice-IP'(AKA VOIP) apps such as Skype instead of phone calls, or messaging systems such as facebook messaging instead of SMS.


I am on a half-way house between contract & PAYG, I am with a provider called GiffGaff, and you can pick & choose between different monthly bundles whenever you like. I picked a £5/month 500mb data bundle, but use the PAYG rates for calls and texts. PS they also provide bonuses for signing people up. For example, if I request a sim on your behalf, both of us get £5 extra credit.

I would speak to o2 personally and get them to change your PAYG tariff. I suspect from what you are saying tat you are being charged £1 a day for accessing o2's mobile data network. Older PAYG bundles used to charge like that. I could be wrong of course, you could be chomping through data like a loon, especially if the phone is new and you don't know your way around it.

The trouble with a contract deal is that the bulk of the price you pay is a "handset subsidy" for example I pay 25 quid a month. I could have the same bundle of minutes texts and data for £8 on sim only. That means my handset costs me £17 a month. But I have the galaxy s2 (I'm near the end of my 2yr contract, like July) To buy the phone new at the beginning of my contract cost around £400 which means that the total cost of my handset over 2 years is a few quid more than the cost of buying it outright.

It depends on the handset you want really. Mrs Bear had a cheapo handset and it needed to be replaced before the contract ended as it couldn't handle her usage.

Sent from my ARCHOS 80 COBALT using Tapatalk HD

I didn’t want this phone. The one I had, a BT one bought from Safeway over 15 years ago was working perfectly. But the C.E.O. and her Appointed Successor (A.S.) had decided a new one was required so I was marched into an O2 shop. A pulchitrudinal vision oozed across the shop with a confident predatory look in her eye. She had sighted her next week’s bonus and was sadly disappointed when the A.S. took over and I was told to sit in a corner and stop drooling and ogling.

The new device was selected and shown to the C.E.O. for approval before I was permitted to pay for it. When we got back to the car the A.S. connected it to the phone and they began calling various contacts to tell them how clever they were. The A.S. also “synced” (?) it to the web and my phone credit rapidly declined.

Since then I’ve been desyncing it and trying to stop it bleeding credit. I’d happily go back for the other one but think it is probably in a phone museum by now.

This is all part of a psychological warfare campaign that the pair of them are waging to try to get me to give the Ceed to the A.S. But it’s not working and won’t work and anyway I can’t afford to buy another car.

Women.
Can't live with them, can't bury them under the patio!