Smart Phone rejection

I went down to Carphonewarehouse yesterday to try and get a Samsung S5 on a monthly plan with EE......nope. The system wouldn't let me do it until I live here for 3 years. The guys behind the counter tried just about everything rigging the addresses up, using old addresses of mine from a few years ago etc... trying to get past the limitations. They think once I have been here for a few months, maybe the system will let me have one.....but they weren't too optimistic. They tried putting it in my wife's name (a Brit)....nope, same problem since she hasn't been living here the last few years. They thought O2 might be a little more lenient on the issue. Virgin won't do the monthly deal either unless we already have Virgin media at home. Guess I can buy a phone and then get a SIM card from somebody. I don't know if I will need the phone for internet access at this time....so I might just do what my wife did and get a real cheap phone from ASDA (10 Pounds?) and just go with a pay as you go program since there is a pretty good chance we won't use our phones all that much.

This is normal - you won't be able to take out a phone contract until you have some UK credit, because they run a UK credit check on you first before you can be approved for a contract.

As you have just moved to the UK, you won't have any UK credit yet (your US credit is irrelevant), so you will have trouble with getting phone contracts for the first few months. Your credit score is linked to your UK address, so you will need to wait until you have credit at your current address first, before you can get a contract.

Best thing to do (and possibly the only thing you can do) is to buy a cheap phone and start off with Pay-As-You-Go, then try for a contract phone in a few months or a year or two.

You can get some good deals on calls, texts and data with Pay-As-You-Go, so it can be a pretty good option, especially if you won't be using your phones much.

Yeah....pay as you go is likely the only way to go. I didn't use my phone much when I was here before.....but I was working then and didn't have time to mess around on the phone. But....if we get settled soon.....as long as I have internet at home, a cheap phone and pay as you go (which is what I had 4 years ago) was fine. I was hoping to get a smart phone with a good camera.....but I think I will have to buy a cheapie phone and just get a decent small camera.

Look at Three.  It's likely you'll have to buy the phone and do a SIM only plan but should be able to get a contract as long as you have a bank account.  Plus you can use your phone and data plan for free when in the US. 

Just confirming what KFdancer has said. In with three on a 1 yr sim only plan. They approved me with just a bank account after I had only been here a month. Plus, if you have the cash to shell out up front, it's cheaper to buy your smartphone unlocked outright at the beginning and then do sim only. I bought my iPhone 6 outright the day it released and I pay £15 per month for unlimited text, unlimited data, and 200 minutes.

Buying a phone was one of the options I had thought about. Although probably the smartest thing for me is to just go to ASDA like my wife did.....pay £10 for a phone (which works just fine and I won't care if I break it)....and another £7.50 for a monthly bundle that gets 250 minutes, 2000 texts and a little data we won't use at all. Then in 6 months or so I can switch if I find I need to. I find it hard to believe I will use 250 minutes in a month, and there is NO WAY I can text 2000 times in a month. That would keep my entire phone+usage to £100 for a year.

Should be picking up our new Polo tomorrow, so we need to start driving down to the Huddersfield area to look things over and see if that's where we will end up. Just South-SouthWest of Huddersfield seems to be a great place for walking.

Buying a phone was one of the options I had thought about. Although probably the smartest thing for me is to just go to ASDA like my wife did.....pay £10 for a phone (which works just fine and I won't care if I break it)....and another £7.50 for a monthly bundle that gets 250 minutes, 2000 texts and a little data we won't use at all. Then in 6 months or so I can switch if I find I need to. I find it hard to believe I will use 250 minutes in a month, and there is NO WAY I can text 2000 times in a month. That would keep my entire phone+usage to £100 for a year.

Should be picking up our new Polo tomorrow, so we need to start driving down to the Huddersfield area to look things over and see if that's where we will end up. Just South-SouthWest of Huddersfield seems to be a great place for walking.

Sorry to hear about your phone contract issues.  When we lived in England for 7 months in 2011 we bought a cheapo phone and plan from Tesco for the duration. We had Virgin Media for our internet/TV and for £5/month extra we got a house phone included, so we hardly used our cell phone at all, but it was nice to have when traveling.

Did you have any problems getting car insurance sorted out?

Did you have any problems getting car insurance sorted out?

Surprisingly, no. We were in a hurry (as usual) and went through Confused.com....then through Tesco.....who handed us over to someone else. £650 or so for both of us...and considering I am American and they wouldn't take our claims letters from Geico in the US.....I didn't think that was too bad. Gives of this year to see if it's any good or if there is cheaper to get for next year. Tesco seemed to be in the middle for ratings on car insurance. Considering Tesco just lost over £6B...... Picking the car up tomorrow, now we just have to hope to not get a lemon. My first car here was an Austin Metro back in the early 80's. Then an old Mini Clubman.....which I would have loved to buy again if it was still the same. Then a Honda Jazz and an oldish Fiesta the last time I was here.

Surprisingly, no. We were in a hurry (as usual) and went through Confused.com....then through Tesco.....who handed us over to someone else. £650 or so for both of us...and considering I am American and they wouldn't take our claims letters from Geico in the US.....I didn't think that was too bad. Gives of this year to see if it's any good or if there is cheaper to get for next year. Tesco seemed to be in the middle for ratings on car insurance. Considering Tesco just lost over £6B...... Picking the car up tomorrow, now we just have to hope to not get a lemon. My first car here was an Austin Metro back in the early 80's. Then an old Mini Clubman.....which I would have loved to buy again if it was still the same. Then a Honda Jazz and an oldish Fiesta the last time I was here.

That is good news, hopefully we'll have a similar experience next year.  We rented a Golf in 2013 for 6 weeks in the UK and really liked it, I hope you have a similar experience with your Polo.

It was a little (a lot) irritating that I had proof of my last 11 years of no claims....with most of them being in the UK.....but since our last 4 years were in the US we are back to starting over.

I plan on buying an unlocked phone before I leave the US, or have my phone unlocked.  I plan on buying an iPhone 6+ later this year.  I was told that ATT will unlock it for me if I can prove that I am leaving the country.  So that is my plan and then will just buy a sim and go from there.  IF this might now work, I'm open to suggestions

I plan on buying an unlocked phone before I leave the US, or have my phone unlocked.  I plan on buying an iPhone 6+ later this year.  I was told that ATT will unlock it for me if I can prove that I am leaving the country.  So that is my plan and then will just buy a sim and go from there.  IF this might now work, I'm open to suggestions

We bought unlocked iPhone 6's in January with AT&T service.  You should have no problem getting one. We haven't yet been to the UK yet to buy a sim-only plan, but that is our plan.

Hubs and I used GiffGaff when we lived in the UK. When we went last year, we had our phones (HTC First) unlocked and used GiffGaff pay as you go while we were there. This year we both have a Note4 (Samsung) and plan to get them unlocked and use the same GiffGaff SIMs while there. You can order the SIM free, and they have some good deals for unlimited or limited talk, text and data, so you can pick what works for you.

I ended up buying a new (last years model) Samsung s5 yesterday. Huge learning curve at this time since I have been on a cheap foldable the last 4 years. While I couldn't get a contract etc through carphonewarehouse.....O2 was able to do so. Got a sim with way too much data, but am going a month at a time until I figure out how much I will need. £28 for this month, but I figure eventually when I figure out how much I will need it will be around £18 a month and then I'll take a 12 month contract. I looked at GiffGaff, but while the prices were really low, the reviews mentioned very slow internet access. No idea if it's true.

We both had good luck with good internet access through GiffGaff. I'm sure it is the same with any company, though, for as many people who have good luck, there are just as many who don't. It is the same with Straight Talk here in the States. We had good luck with it, but my mom didn't.