What low cost phone for very occasional use?

Jon12345

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I want to get my 87 year old father a phone for Xmas. He would hardly ever use it, but when he is out driving, if his car broke down he would need to get in touch with someone. And very occasional use for other stuff.

What phone and deal would you recommend?
 
Would agree that Doro mobile phones in general are good for being simple phones without being "insultingly" simple, and any I've recommended for older people (in that for people at least in their 50's) have been happy with them.

If the phone is planning to be used by your father how you describe it in your opening post, then there's little point in taking out a contract and better to look at a PAYG service that is fairly cheap for very occasional use - Asda mobile might be worth looking into, they piggyback on the Vodafone network for their coverage, all calls are a flat 4p per minute (to landlines & all mobiles) - as long as you make one chargeable call every 180 days, any PAYG credit you have won't expire.

Some might suggest 1p mobile (uses EE's network), but since they now charge a minimum use fee of £2.50 a month for their service, they're not really suitable for someone only making very occasional use of their mobile.
 
Agree with @2wo Thir3s asda is a great choice for light use, but like all PAYG sims you need to be careful when topping up, the first option they give up is to buy a bundle instead of just adding credit.
 
Great recommendations. I think I will go with that.

Edit: I just noticed that on the Asda site, it says:

Transfer your number

But he doesn't have a number. Or does getting a PAYG SIM give you your own unique number?
 
Great recommendations. I think I will go with that.

Edit: I just noticed that on the Asda site, it says:

Transfer your number

But he doesn't have a number. Or does getting a PAYG SIM give you your own unique number?
Yes when you buy the sim it has its own phone number.
 
Mrs TG and I (both over 70) each have a Doro 6040 and I can't praise them high enough.

Clam shell design (so you can't press button accidentally whilst in pocket or purse), open to answer/close to end call, one button speed dial and emergency button on back.

You can even program them to only allow known numbers to call, so no cold calling from undesirables!

This last feature is especially useful for my son (with learning difficulties) for whom we've bought a Doro 6060, which also has a display to show it's his mum or dad calling.

As I said, 100% recommended. :smashin:
 
Confirming what @2wo Thir3s said.

We've been with 1p Mobile for a couple of years as our house mobile and existing users have a minimum spend of £2.50 per month, we spend around £2 so still worth it but not for a very occasional user.

As a very low-minutes user for my personal mobile I switched to Asda Mobile a couple of months ago. You can set an automatic "low balance top up" when your balance falls below a certain amount (you decide the balance and top up amount). I've spent 80p in two months.
 
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