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Mobile Phone Help

FIXED
gleneagles
Aspiring Legend
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Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Mobile Phone Help

My knowledge of mobile phones is zero but I am looking to buy a cheap mobile.

swmbo has given me her old mobile which is years old and despite getting rid of all the junk the internal memory is poor and there is insufficient room to install the HERE gps app which would be useful to me so the plan is to purchase a cheap 3G phone.

What I need to know is,

1. swmbo's old phone has a 4G sim card in it, providing the size is right and the new 3G phone takes the same physical size of card can I use it and keep the same number and retain any credit on the pay as you go account ?

2. should I format the sim card before using it in a new phone to ensure all the junk is deleted or am I likely to lose the basic stuff such as the phone number ?

3. If I need to format the sim card how do I do that ?

4. Any additional info it would be useful or aware of regarding mobile phones.....PAYG.

I have looked some of this up on the internet but many posts are years old and it might be a lot harder or impossible to undo a specific action based on out of date advice.

Thank you.

We are born into history and history is born into us.
7 REPLIES 7
SpendLessTime
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Re: Mobile Phone Help

Fix

@gleneagles

  1. If swmbo has not transferred her mobile number from the old SIM card (so she is using a new number on the new phone) then yes you can carry on using the SIM card from the old phone as is. Credit and all.
  2. SIM cards only hold details of the phone provider and optionally phone number (but most people just store them in the phone's memory these days). There is nothing to format here.
  3. No
  4. You will need a phone either on the current PAYG provider's network (from step 1) or a SIM Free Unlocked phone into which to put the SIM from step 1. Unlocked phones allow SIM cards from any mobile provider to be used.
Ex - Plusnet Customer (2009 - 2023) now with BT
gleneagles
Aspiring Legend
Posts: 11,105
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Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Mobile Phone Help

Thank you

Thumbs_Up

We are born into history and history is born into us.
SpendLessTime
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Re: Mobile Phone Help

Use Google to find out the size of the SIM card in the current phone and then also for the size required in any phone you are interested in. There are 3 sizes of SIM cards. Why do manufacturers go out of their way to make life harder!

You should be able to order from the PAYG provider a replacement card of the correct size should you fancy a phone with a different size SIM but they tend to invalidate the current SIM before sending out a new one so giving some down time. But check with the mobile company first.

Ex - Plusnet Customer (2009 - 2023) now with BT
2u2me
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Registered: ‎27-09-2013

Re: Mobile Phone Help

Wife is on O2 PAYG, she has just changed her phone, old phone had standard sim/new phone micro sim, took it into O2 shop, transferred her number to micro sim (they provided for free) and no downtime.  

PeeGee
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Registered: ‎05-04-2009

Re: Mobile Phone Help

The zero cost alternative is they crop it to fit, as I had done to mine.

Phil

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twocvbloke
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Registered: ‎06-11-2014

Re: Mobile Phone Help


@SpendLessTime wrote:

There are 3 sizes of SIM cards.

 

Actually it's Four sizes, the full-sized one was the mainstay in mobile phones & vehicle phones (some of which are still in use today), it was when phone makers wanted to shrink their phones that the Mini-SIM came about, but, the Micro and Nano SIMs I see no point in as most phones have plenty of room to take a Mini-SIM...

 

sim-card-size-comparison

 

 

 

 

 

 


Browni
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Re: Mobile Phone Help

My phone uses nano SIMs and they are a right PITA to fit.