Throw Away Cell Phone for England and Scotland

We are going to do a 17 day pre trip and a 7 day post trip in England. I need to have a cell phone for that period to call places that I am going to stay or restaurants and tourist sites.

My Verizon cell phone does not support international SIM cards so I am looking to purchase a cheap throwaway cell phone. I do not need to do anything but call people in England and Scotland. I do not need it to call back to the states.

Any suggestions as to where I could purchase such a beast and a guess as to what it might cost with some minutes included.

DON

We are going to do a 17 day pre trip and a 7 day post trip in England. I need to have a cell phone for that period to call places that I am going to stay or restaurants and tourist sites.

 

My Verizon cell phone does not support international SIM cards so I am looking to purchase a cheap throwaway cell phone. I do not need to do anything but call people in England and Scotland. I do not need it to call back to the states.

 

Any suggestions as to where I could purchase such a beast and a guess as to what it might cost with some minutes included.

 

DON

Hi Don check out the MOBAL website. They charge by the minute with no contract. Phone rates range from $1.25 to $2.50 per minute depending where in the world that you are calling from and if I remember correctly the rate is $1.50 from the U.K.. The website should list the rate.I purchased the classic model for $69.00 with charger.

You can buy a basic pay-as-you-go Nokia or Samsung phone for £10 to £20 ($15 to $30) from phone shops & the larger stores of grocery retailers such as ASDA (owned by Walmart) & Tesco. These always include texting, memory, messaging, clock, etc, even basic games. Cheaper if bought on-line but I doubt the complications worthwhile for a visitor, simplest to buy when you arrive though the choice will be more limited. Even at that price, some come ready-loaded with £5 or £10 of air-time.

Here's a couple of examples

http://groceries.asda.com/asda-estore/catalog/sectionpagecontainer.jsp?departmentid=1214921923802

http://www.phones4u.co.uk/virgin-media/

You can top-up airtime at most newsagents shops, supermarkets, motorway service areas etc - normally p-a-y-g phones come with a card (like a credit card) which is swiped when you top-up, avoiding the grief of tapping long transaction numbers into the phone. Very easy. The minimum top-up is £10 or less. At any time you can dial up a recorded voice telling you how much credit you have left.

Wide range of airtime suppliers, each with their complicated pros & cons. Cheap phones are usually subsidised by an airtime supplier so you'll probably not be given a choice of airtime supplier, but in any case it'd take days to work out which is best so just go for the cheapest with a mainstream airtime supplier.

Two other thoughts.

Bring your own phone - pay-as-you-go sim-cards are available for about £5, mebbe they fit your phone.

We've just returned from 3 weeks in the US. We'd planned to do the same as you but didn't follow it through. We found & booked motels a day or two ahead by I-pad, with modern booking systems it's so much easier than phoning or texting.

JB :)

When we went to the Med. I called Verizon. They have loaner phones they will ship to you that are free for the time you are away on international travel. You need only to subscribe to an international plan for the time you use the phone. The rates were $2.49/min to talk, $.50 to send a text and $.05 to receive one. I left it off and on airplane mode unless I needed to check or send a text. This was in 2010 but their international plan rate is the same today. When you return you simply mail back the phone and cancel the international plan. You keep your same number on the loaner phone.

Go to ebay and purchase (we're talking voice only) a gsm unlocked phone which has at least the 1800 and 800 mhz. bands (they've come down to ridiculouslyu low prices as more and more people are in to smart phones)...lots of quad basnd gsm unlocked phones for about $20.

Upon arrival in the UK, the mobile companies are literally giving away sim packs. Getting off the plane you might find kids hawking lebarra sim cards. In town, you can get an EE (orange or T mobile) sim card for free with as little as a £5 top upo.

T ,mobile and orange are real good as they have a tie in with a company called yourcallworld (look up their web site). Using yourcallworld, you can call the USA for 3p/minute timed to the second! You will receive calls for free (although your callers will pay a surcharge for calls to a UK mobile and you have to get them the UK number).

When you leave within the UK, you will receive for about 11p/minute but unfortunately will be unable to make cheap calls to the USA. Or you can stop in at a mobile phone store such as phone4u or carphone warehouse and they can go over all your options.