Getting a mobile phone

Hello!

I'm new to this website, so apologies if this topic should be posted somewhere else. My husband and I recently moved to the UK (couple of months ago), and as I don't have any credit history in this country yet, I haven't been able to find a cell phone company that would let me open an account.
I've been getting by with a very old cell phone a friend lent me that I keep topping up, but it's SO expensive this way.
I'm desperate to get a proper cell phone plan but I can't seem to find any way of getting around my lack of credit history.
Any advice would be highly appreciate it, thanks!

I find PAYG to be significantly cheaper, since the cost of the phone isn't included in the price like when you sign a contract. I know with t-mobile you can buy bundles (a week of unlimited sms, six months of internet, etc) and you get top-up bonuses where when you put £10 on the card you can choose if you want unlimited sms or free calls on weekends or whatever and you still have the £10 in credit. The exact deals keep changing (I'm grandfathered in to "unlimited" internet and UK sms as long as I do a £10 topup each month) but you get a lot more bang for your buck, as it were, then if you just top up.

Can you get a pre-paid plan? I think that's one of the ways you can build credit and you get similar plans to being under contract without the contract.

Try giffgaff, they are brilliant. Their cheapest top up plan is £5 a month for unlimted texts. For £10 you get unlimited texts and internet and 250 minutes I think. I'd say that's much cheaper than a contract deal.

I'm desperate to get a proper cell phone plan but I can't seem to find any way of getting around my lack of credit history.
Any advice would be highly appreciate it, thanks!

Most companies require 3 years' residency/credit history before they'll even consider you. This is especially true for any pro-rated phone deal (where you sign up for 18/24/X months and get a discount on the phone price).

I was able to get a £10/month year-long contract with 3 after only living here a year, so they might be more flexible. Before that, though, I was on 30-day rolling contracts, which was cheaper than PAYG but still more expensive than a longer-term contract.

Plus theres no stigma of using Pay As You Go (PAYG) like there is in the States. Sometimes, especially if you dont go through a lot of phones, PAYG deals can be better than monthly contracts.

The beauty of them is, if a provider is offering a better deal somewhere else, you can move your number with a few days notice and no worries of having to buy out your contract.

Do you still get your inbound calls free in the UK?

Do you still get your inbound calls free in the UK?

yup 

My DH was able to get an 18mo contract with O2 back in June. He had to pay a £100 deposit. He is the UKC and didn't have a credit history here either, due to living in the US the last 7 years. I think he gets 600min/mo, 500mbs data and unlimited text for ~£39/mo. for a blackberry. I hope to get the same type when I arrive. Its a refundable deposit which you get back after like 4-6mo, so I think that's fair enough. He didn't have to pay for the phone either.

My DH was able to get an 18mo contract with O2 back in June. He had to pay a £100 deposit. He is the UKC and didn't have a credit history here either, due to living in the US the last 7 years. I think he gets 600min/mo, 500mbs data and unlimited text for ~£39/mo. for a blackberry. I hope to get the same type when I arrive. Its a refundable deposit which you get back after like 4-6mo, so I think that's fair enough. He didn't have to pay for the phone either.

Some companies will do this.  It's worth asking if you can pay for 6 months or a year up front.  Once you have a contract with them there are no credit checks when you renew.  Also, once you have a contract it's usually easy to add a second phone to the same account, again with no credit check involved.

I think he gets 600min/mo, 500mbs data and unlimited text for ~£39/mo. for a blackberry.

But if you're not making many calls, the Giffgaff deal of 250 mins/month, unlimited data and unlimited texts for only £10/month (on a smartphone) may still be more than you need.  You can put the other £29/month towards something more exciting--like massages!  Ooh I love massages!

I was a mere student when I arrived. I did PAYG with O2 for about 4 months, then paid a £100 deposit for Pay Monthly (1 month contract, not 12/18/24). The £100 was refunded promptly after a few months. Now I have an 18-mo contract (iPhone) which I regret. I pay too much now; the the monthly contract was such a bargain with 400 (?) minutes, 1000 texts and a free bolt-on (Web)

I got an O2 contract a week after moving here.  We were told in store to apply online as they have less flexibility in the store.  I paid a £100 deposit that will be refunded after 3 months, and I am on an 18 month iPhone contract.

I'm actually trying to get a contract now and ditch my pay-as-you-go phone, but I was denied after the credit check, likely because I haven't lived here long enough and established credit yet. DH is going to try to get the phone/plan I want in his name for me though, so hopefully that will work out. PAYG is fine, but the phone I have is cheap and not working reliably enough (and I've had it for less than a year!  ) and I want a better phone, which I really need a contract for.

I'm actually trying to get a contract now and ditch my pay-as-you-go phone, but I was denied after the credit check, likely because I haven't lived here long enough and established credit yet. DH is going to try to get the phone/plan I want in his name for me though, so hopefully that will work out. PAYG is fine, but the phone I have is cheap and not working reliably enough (and I've had it for less than a year!  ) and I want a better phone, which I really need a contract for.

If you can pick up an unlocked phone, I would highly recommend giffgaff. It's pay as you go, but great service. You can find some cheap phones on Ebay I think.

If you can pick up an unlocked phone, I would highly recommend giffgaff. It's pay as you go, but great service. You can find some cheap phones on Ebay I think.

or hotukdeals.
From them, found my HTC Wildfire cheaper than anywhere else (think it was at least £70 cheaper than buying direct from HTC as O2 didnt carry it) and other top of the line phones.