Can anyone steer me in the right direction, im really not technically minded but since my husband is in hospital for a few weeks,ive been thinking i should get a mobile phone  for emergencies.I dont want to get into contracts or owe people money or have to keep getting top ups, and i dont want to do texts,i  just want to put a small amount £ on the phone for emergency, just the cheapest one easy one to use, but have no idea how to start, can anyone explain in easy English? Thankyou.

Tesco do a very good pay as you go deal (they use O2's masts network) where you top up with £10 and they give you another £20 worth of calls to use that month.

As for handsets get a cheap basic unblocked one, you can get them for as little as £10 - £15

Is there one where i dont have to keep topping up, just put £10 on and thats it til i decide to put more on if needed 'ever'?

That is all you need do with any of the Pay as you go ones.

I only use about £5 for every two months!  Hubby unless he is away less than that.

As long as you make a chargeable call at least once in 6 months then it will stay active.

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/buy/NOKIA-1661-VRW10-WEB10

my daughter has a vodafone cheap phone and she uses it once a month, my other daughter bought an orange pay as you go and if she did not top up everymonth on hers the phone was no usuable even if she used it she had to put 10.00 on it every month, so she now uses vodafone and just puts 5.00 on when she needs it

> just put £10 on and thats it til i decide to put more on if needed 'ever'?

Just beware that many , if not all , phone companies shut off your phone if it is not used at least once in 6 months on a pay-as-you-go contract . It is easy to re-start it with a phone call to the phone company but you don't want to find it has been locked when you need it in an emergency . Just ask about this when buying to be sure .

I use virgin and only top up with a fiver every 2 months or so ;-) As said, so long as you use it once every six months (I rarely make calls from it, just text) then it stays active.

I use T-Mobile where I just put so much in when I need it.  Easy to do.  Phone was around £30 from Tesco's and you can get on the internet and all sorts. I only use it for emergencies and the odd text.

I have Orange and only ever put on £5 as and when, it does depend on what plan you choose.

In fact we have three mobiles, I have two hubby has one as reception on Exmoor where our Caravan is can be iffy.

We have Orange, Virgin and Vodafone, I did want to change Orange to Tesco, but I do use the Orange Wednesdays for cinema tickets, get free Virgin mobile calls from my house phone, and Vodafone has good reception down country, and I don't know how O2's network coverage (Tesco use it) is down there.

Does anyone know how well O2's reception is in the West Country???

My daughter is on O2 and lives in Mid cornwall.She also regularly uses it when away and has had no probelms,even in an iffy area at her BF parents house.Though their dongle on her laptop is O2 and that is not so good.

right might change the Vodafone over to Tesco then.

I live on Exmoor and Orange has the best coverage here.  O2 is patchy and Vodafone a nightmare! Family 'up country' bought Orange phones for when they visit me. Near our village, we have an Orange mast 'disguised' as a tree!

Best wishes.

What about Virgin? 

I haven't tried Virgin and don't know anyone who has, but as you have one it will be worth you trying it out. It would be interesting to know how you get on. Even with Orange there are 'dead spots' where I always hope I won't get a puncture or something! There are very few public call boxes here now and BT have been trying to remove some more in several remote places.

Best wishes.

Well the Virgin seems to be best reception in Bridgewater, and about the same as the others on the Brendon hills

Thankyou...my cousin gave me her spare phone which is t mobile and i just bought a sim card and did a £5 top up on it at asda.

Hope all is well and you have your phone sorted out. If husband in for a while has he got a mobile phone, the charges for using the bedside phones are horrendous, 40 - 50p a min. If he's not on a coronary ward he should be able to use one.

Sorry Lacey didnt see your message before,my hubby has been through hell and back ( me too) and still in hospital,for over 2 and 1/2 months now.Im on t mobile and when i top up £10 a month i get free unlimited texts didnt think i would use texts but i do, so that suits me for what i need.