Simple Tariff comparisons

[scaryjim]

So, my BB Q5 is on its way out, Blackberry have pretty much abandoned BB10 as an OS (not to mention the complete lack of anything doing with Playbook OS, but that's a different rant for a different day), the Priv is massively more expensive than I'm willing to spend on a phone, I love physical qwerty keyboards but there are simply no decent phones with one anymore (Blackberry Classic excepted, but as mentioned above BB10 support is getting progressively worse), and if I'm going to have to change phone then maybe it's worth me also changing contract (currently on 3 sim-only) to get a new phone thrown in.

BUT

It's apparently impossible to simply compare tariffs anymore. Back in the day you could just feed in how many minutes/texts/MB you wanted, get suggestions of tariffs, then pick your phone. Now, it seems impossible to view tariffs until you've chosen a phone, and since I'm not keen on any of the phones currently on offer I don't want tariffs based on a phone selection - I want to pick the tariff that's right for me then choose the cheapest phone available on that tariff that won't annoy me.

Well, apparently I'm not allowed to do that ... unless any of you brilliant hexites now of any super secret sites that I'm failing to find where I can tell it what minutes and MB I want per month?

[pp05]

Try and haggle with your network to get them down to sim only prices if you have been with them for many years.

Are you with o2? If you are then remember a Tesco sim will also work in that handset if it is locked.

[scaryjim]

I'm with 3, and I'm already on a pretty good deal - unlimited data for £15 a month. That sim-only deal isn't available on their website any more*. I'm actually happy enough staying with 3, but I want to check that I can't get a better deal by switching my plan rather than buying a new handset outright (remembering that I probably wouldn't pay much more than ~ £100 for a new handset, so I'm pretty price sensitive).

So what I want to do is go to as website and say "I want around 2GB of data, don't care about minutes and texts, but it has to cost no more than £25 on a 12 month contract". I want to pick my possible tariffs first, so I know if they can do me a deal I'd be interested in. I don't want to have to pick a handset first, because I don't really care what handset I end up with at this stage, since none of them are "right" for me....


*edit - actually, it turns out it is available on their website - for £23 a month!

[AETAaAS]

Have you tried the uswitch website? https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/comp...ntract_phones/
You can choose the data/texts/etc on the left then sort by price in the upper right.

Otherwise, if you prefer to find your own phone, check out the recent HUKD thread on SIM only tariffs. http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hukd...offers-2481975

[Noxvayl]

I buy my phones unlocked direct from the manufacturer if possible, otherwise from Amazon or another online retailer.

I'm looking to spend more than £300 for my next phone, had enough of the cheaper models now. If OS isn't an issue I like the way the ubuntu touch phones work, unfortunately I'm all in on Android; I tried getting a tablet to allow myself to buy an Ubuntu phone, but there are a few too many useful apps that I have on Android.

I would stick with your current contract, and look to buy an unlocked phone. Not aware of many with keyboards...

[scaryjim]

Have you tried the uswitch website? https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/comp...ntract_phones/ ...

Ahha - I'd looked at uswitch but must've ended up in the wrong bit of the site somehow! That's a bit more useful

EDIT: and by useful, I mean - strongly suggests I might as well stick with my current deal, or possibly go for a new SIM only deal with ~ 2GB of data which would've had me covered over the last 6 months...