Originally Posted by
painintheuk
What about getting a locked phone (thus very cheap/free), paying someone to unlock it? It seems easy, but there must be a reason not to do it. I just can't figure out what it is! This is the most confusing part to me. They seem willing to give me a free phone, lots of minutes and an Xbox, but I can walk down the street, get it unlocked for a tenner (or in India for a tenth of that), and buy a new sim. This can't be profitable for them!
I've only tried to unlock a phone once, with no success. Other people have had better luck. So there can be a bit of a risk. I don't know about the UK but in the US the free (or cheap) phones and bonuses all come with a 1 or 2 year contract -- even if you unlock the phone you still pay monthly. Most people don't know about or don't care about unlocking so they probably don't lose that much.
Originally Posted by
painintheuk
So if I change SIMs, do I still have to pay UK roaming? I thought that once I removed my UK SIM and put in a foreign SIM that the UK provider stopped charging me. I thought that was the point of switching SIMs. Have I misunderstood?
I didn't explain it well -- if you
don't change SIMs and use your UK SIM in (say) France or Germany you will pay expensive roaming rates. Even if it is the same provider (Orange, T-Mobile, etc) in both countries. The EU is supposed to change that at some point but AFAIK not yet. If you have a pay as a go plan you don't pay anything if you don't use it (the whole point
)
Originally Posted by
painintheuk
How many SIMs would people generally have? 1? 2? 8? Would you switch them regularly or is that a hassle?
Some people collect SIMs like others collect FF miles
Switching usually involves removing the battery -- its not a big deal but I wouldn't want to do it constantly. Depending on the phone you have, you can get a "Dual SIM" adapter that lets you install two SIMs and switch between them. Only one is active (and so only one can make a receive calls) but you can switch between them easily. Search eBay for "Dual SIM" or "Ghost SIM"
Hope this helped.