Mobile Phone when i first get there?

I know that I wont be moving over to london till january, but I am trying to figure out what i need to budget for when i move and my budget while im still in the states.

Ive read some previous threads and it looks like a lot of people have gotten pay as u go and just got a cheap phone when they first arrived.

I was thinking that maybe it would be better to get pay as you go when i first get there but get a phone that i'll be happy with for time to come.  Wouldnt that be cheaper b/c then ill only be paying for one phone instead of a cheap phone and another phone a few months later and obivously im not talking about a phone that is like 300 pounds.

You can always go on the websites and see if there are phones that can be used for PAYG as well as monthly...I use Orange, which I like a lot...I think many people on here use PAYG...you don't need to put down a deposit, you have control over how much you spend, etc.

We bought a very nice Motorola phone from Tesco (one of the big supermarkets here) on sale for £69 that is a Virgin Pay as You Go. It's tri-band so can be used in the US, has a camera, and is one of the nice flip open types. It's not an outstanding phone but it's more than adequate.

I think Tesco is definitely the place to go for an inexpensive (but nice!) phone.   They have a huge selection!

I got my Sony free with a 12 month contract. I get 200 free min a month....free calls to any Vodaphone or landline on weekends and 50 free texts a month. I pay £29. When I first signed up I got all that but the texts were 200 instead of 50.
Also you can get cheap mobiles on Ebay and get a new sim card for like a fiver.

Contracts can be hard to get if you don't have any credit history in the UK.

Contracts can be hard to get if you don't have any credit history in the UK.

Ah, yes of course. I never thought about that!

I've got the same Motorola as Balmerhon(I think).  I got it at Smiths for £50 if you bought a book/cd/dvd.  My daughter got the same one in the after Christmas sale for about £60 at Carphone Warehouse.  So the deals are out there, you just have to look around.

If you want to eventually change to a contract, then I'd pick up a cheap PAYG, which you can get for as little as £10-20.  But if you're thinking of sticking with PAYG then I'd get the best phone I could afford. 

Thanks for the replies, all really helpful.

My friend who came to visit bought a Virgin reconditioned mobile from the Virgin store for £19.99 that included phone and sim with £5.00 on it and it's rechargeable.  Bargin if you ask me!!!