Pros and cons of unlocking a phone (1 Viewer)

I have an O2 PAYG phone, which I don't actually use that much for making calls or texting. For instance I topped up my phone to £30 when I went on holiday in July and still have £26 on it (couldn't use it in Norway!!!!)

Discovering I needed a Bolt on for travelling abroad, I phoned O2 to enquire about it.

£20 a month. Oh right... well not too bad then..... but Oh no... you have to pay £20 a month for a whole year!!! You can make unlimited calls and texts back home (which I wouldn't want to do), but you have to pay for any calls you make within the country you're visiting (which I would want to do)!!!

I call that a rip off!

Vodaphone charge £22 per month (with 2 months free)

Someone suggested unlocking my phone so I could use it abroad and just buy a sim card. But really don't understand how this works.

Advice appreciated please.

delia todd said:

Someone suggested unlocking my phone so I could use it abroad and just buy a sim card. But really don't understand how this works.

Click to expand...

UK still locks phones? That practice died out here years back, but all it means is the phone has been set up to only allow a specified operator's SIM to work. Here in Lithuania at least, it was a fairly simple procedure (I mean simple for a phone repairer) to unlock it and then you could use the SIM card of any operator.


Obvious alternative is to buy a cheap basic phone (not locked) and take it with you as a second phone. Simple phones only cost about 25 euro here, no idea f cost in Britain.

Thanks Jos.... I'll look into some. I want a screen big enough to see a birding app when I'm out.

O2 will unlock a PAYG phone for free according to their website.

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/phones-si...ng-an-o2-mobile-to-use-on-a-different-network

There is no good reason not to unlock the phone and just put a PAYG SIM in it from any network operating in the UK or elsewhere (assuming the phone will work with the infrastructure of the country you are visiting).

I always use a local phone in Russia, My UK phone with Virgin is a rip off.

As Russia is non EU, I get charged £1.50 per min to receive a call and £3.65 per min to make a call, 50p per text.

I also ended up turning off the voicemail facility as I was being charged £2.60 per message, even if I hadn't accessed them!

Just put a local sim in your phone but make sure all your nearest and dearest have your local number.

So.... is it all 'pros' with no 'cons'?

dogbreath said:

O2 will unlock a PAYG phone for free according to their website.

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/phones-si...ng-an-o2-mobile-to-use-on-a-different-network

There is no good reason not to unlock the phone and just put a PAYG SIM in it from any network operating in the UK or elsewhere (assuming the phone will work with the infrastructure of the country you are visiting).

Click to expand...

Thanks Dogbreath. So I can continue to use the same top up card to pay for calls in the UK (sorry.... I just couldn't see how it worked being 'old')

I always use a local phone in Russia, My UK phone with Virgin is a rip off.

As Russia is non EU, I get charged £1.50 per min to receive a call and £3.65 per min to make a call, 50p per text.

I also ended up turning off the voicemail facility as I was being charged £2.60 per message, even if I hadn't accessed them!

Just put a local sim in your phone but make sure all your nearest and dearest have your local number.

Click to expand...

Thanks Andy. I've had my voicemail turned off. It was sending ALL my incoming calls to Voicemail, it didn't even ring! Like you, I had to pay to retrieve them.

O2 tried all sorts to correct it, but it only worked for the first call after whatever it was they did. The phone before this one, I had to have the internet disabled too. Without me doing anything (it was sitting quietly beside me) it would suddenly beep and I'd have a string of, say, Twitter messages about people I'd never heard of. I didn't (and still don't) have a Twitter account!