Android phones and pay as you go?

Anyone done it, nasty data charge surprises? Am considering a Defy on a £20pm contract with T-mobile with unlimited internet (1GB fair use?), but top up less than that now with Tesco PAYG so might risk buying sim free instead.

Can I recommend giffgaff? PAYG and up to 100mb a day for free till Feb, then after that you pay for it, or can pay £10 a month for unlimited text, data + 100 minutes.

http://giffgaff.com/

Put down the_accidental as your referrer if you do go for them 😉

Actually, use this link:

http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/the_accidental

Then you’ll get £5 free credit with it (and i’ll get the payback points).

Thanks for that. I’ve got an iPhone 3G that’s slightly damaged and I’ve kept it as a backup. I was wondering what network SIM to go for and that looks interesting. Cheers.

Well, I’ve been with them since february this year, and had no bother. O2s network, so if the service if good on o2 for you it’ll be fine on giffgaff. Interestingly when i was at nokiaworld and O2’s network was overloaded, I had a connection on giffgaff no bother (i had another phone on o2 aswell). I like that it’s PAYG too, easy to try it out at little/no financial risk. Porting number in only took 2 days from putting the request in to it changing. I’d expect port out to be similarly easy.

giffgaff – nice tip there IA. I’m considering an iPhone on PAYG at the moment, and giffgaff looks v interesting. Just need a handset now. Cheers

The Orange San Francisco looks like the pick of the PAYG android phones at the moment for value. Great for £100. Not sure how Orange’s tariffs compare, but they do one with unlimited data I think.

You can unlock a san francisco for free:

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Learn-giffgaff-Top-Tips/Orange-San-Francisco-FREE-Unlock-codes-Verified-by-Community/m-p/149731/highlight/true#M3509

People enjoying my tips, show me some love and use my referrer link. I get £5 credit for any new sign ups this month, but you get £5 free credit too, so it’s not all me-me-me. Hey, I know i’m pimping them, but honestly they’re the best network I’ve had, and at least I’m honest! I don’t call that much, and it’s hard to get decent data without spending a lot, so they’ve been perfect for me.

Had an iPhone 3G on O2 and was rather unhappy with the 3G speeds I was getting. O2’s network carries both Tesco and Giffgaff customers. I you don’t have to worry about contracts though and you can move elsewhere easily.

3 has brilliant speeds – iPad 3G on their network. I would give their PAYG or monthly rolling sim only deals a go.

Android phone to get at the mom is the Nexus S but PAYG price is 50£ more expensive than the 16GB iPhone 4….

San Francisco here, great performance for the cost (under £100). Unlocked it, rooted it, custom romed it, got a T-Mobile 12month sim only contract for a tenner a month – 600 mins, unlimited texts, 3GB data, and it switches to the Orange network should the T-Mobile one drop.

Chaps over at the MoDaCo forums are very knowledgeable – expect they’ll get Android 2.2 on it before long (if they haven’t done already).

Thanks for the replies, giffgaff looks good, I’d stay on tesco PAYG if their data charges were better.