lf1

I have just sent you a reply

Easterndawn

Not sure where in Scotland you are living but I am in Ayrshire and I am sure that Freeview will do you fine, as for mobiles, I am currently with a contract with Orange and I have also had a contract with Three, as soon as this contract is finished I am going to go with pay as you go. Must less hassle and you can control your costs much better. Was told that it would cost me £30 per month for mobile and £15 per month for mobile but so far it has never been below £60.00 per month and has been as much as £91.00. I do not call long distance and very rarely text, also I have found service is horrible, Three's call centres are in India and Orange seems to have a lot of people who are new and know nothing.

lf1

Easterdawn, thank you for your reply. I have a pay as you go with Orange and to be honest, I have seldom used it. I don't want to pay high fees for something that I don't use, so for the foreseeable future, I will stay with PAYG. Your reply has confirmed my suspicions and I don't think my usage could justify a monthly plan. Even in Canada, my OH used to say to me "I don't know why you have a cell phone, because you never turn it on"

Oh, by the way, I am in the Scottish Borders, near Kelso. I think you and Curleytops are right, Freeview will be all I need as there are so many interesting shows on. I had heard of a channel called GOLD that airs old shows that I can probably relate to, but I am sure most of the shows will appear on Freeview from time to time.

Does my memory serve me correctly and you moved from PEI to Scotland? On our way back to Scotland we went to PEI, to visit some friends who moved there from Calgary.

jasper123

Englishmum thanks for the link to Megabus, I never heard of them before, you see all the valuable information we get from this forum,
Great!!! so I explored there site and typed in Portsmouth to Manchester leaving on a Wednesday in Sept and coming back on a Friday, it was £5 going out and £24 coming back ---- big difference, so then I re-typed it going out on a wed and coming back a week later on Wed and it was £5 going and £5 coming back, so as long as you go on a Wed and come back on a Wed wherever you go in England and Wales you will pay only £5 each way, £10 for the return trip, how can you beat that, what a deal, I have saved this link it will come in handy later, thanks again,
You know I would love to take a trip to Manchester, I actually do know a person from Bolton which is just down the road, trouble is I havent seen him since 1969, I did call him once while I was home on a short visit from the States, that was about 20 years ago, I wonder if he still has the same Phone number?

jasper123

Yes Don I never thought about that, your right, there route is kinda limited,

jasper123

curleytops I just gotta agree with you on this, in the U.S. I had also a very big cable package that cost me close to $100 per month, all the premium chanels, 24/7 movies galore, but after a while you have seen all there movies and they just keep on recycling everything, many an evening I would be searching my 200 plus chanels ----- only to find NOTHING worth seeing, ---- here in U.K. me and me Mum enjoy BBC 1, 2, 3, And ITV 3 and all the many freeview chanels and WOW I must say the British technoligy is so far advanced to the Americans in regards to electronics,
In America if you only have an antena indoors or on the roof you will only get maybe 2 or 3 chanels and the reception would be bad, so you are really forced to pay a lot of money each month for at least basic cable to get more chanels and a good quality picture,
Here in U.K. the T.V.licence isent too expensive and if you live with someone who is over 70 or is it 75? then you dont pay a penny for the licence,
And all these chanels and cable quality picture and sound ----- all from just an ariel on the roof, WHAT A FANTASTIC DEAL!!!!! ----- Love it!!!!

cheers

Ya, but we get advertising on TV in America and plenty of it. How else would we know what products are the best if they didn't tell us on TV

We pay $47 per month for 200+ channels and about 10 of them are not junk. We also have an endless view of different ways man can be violent to their fellowmen.

Easterndawn

Good Morning If1, I was at Kelso last month, a friend invited me to go to the horse show that was in the castle grounds. I fell in love with the area unfortunately my friends sister would not let us stop to see some of the scenery and visit some of the lovely little stores in the towns we went through. I plan to visit again and take much more time enjoying the area, perhaps we could get together for a coffee when I visit. I did have plans to go camping up there this summer but unfortunately things did not go to plan, there seemed to be so many places that would be wonderful to camp at.

I like you do not use my phone very much and feel that I am paying a lot of money for something I really don't use. I have plans to go pay as you go and have BT put in land line and internet for I think the price is £13.00 per month. The only reason I went with contract was that I was working in Inverness and needed a dongle for the internet and mobile phone for work.

lf1

Good Morning Easterndawn, Yes, the Borders is a lovely area and I love Kelso and Melrose. The scenery is lovely and I love being within easy reach of the coast. I think it is an unknown little gem that people don't think of visiting. Also, I am looking forward to discovering Northumberland. From what I have seen it is a very beautiful area and I especially love Bamburgh. We are going to Galashiels today, so I will be able to get my M&S fix. If you are back in the area let me know and we can get together.

I am not familiar with the campgrounds in the area, other than the one across the street from us. It seems to be quite popular, even although it is quite small. This weekend, Floors Castle is hosting the massed pipe bands, so we may pop by there.

lf1

Jasper/Curleytops. Same here, I was paying a small fortune for Internet, Cable and landline. Even when I take into account the cost of the TV Licence, TV is much better value for money and for my tastes, a better selection of programmes that appeal to me.

rebs

I'm not a heavy user of my mobile phone, in fact these days I find it's more useful for mobile internet than making calls and I find that invaluable.

I'm on a contract with O2 and I pay £16.50 a month, never any more than that. That gives me all the calls & texts I could possibly use and 500mb data usage which is also plenty for me.

My son & husband are both on PAYG with t-moblie- I guess their average top up would be no more than £10 per month, sometimes less. There again, it's all about mobile internet and they can get 6 months unlimited internet for £20, which I think is a really good deal.

The only reason that I am on a contract and not PAYG is that I wanted a nice phone and you have to factor in the cost of the phone which can be very high on PAYG for a nice smart phone. I still couldn't justify the cost of an iPhone though, which I would really have liked

One other point is the coverage in your area - I'm on O2 and my signal is almost never as good as the t-mobile signal that DH gets on his phone, so we tend to use his phone as a mobile hotspot to attach the ipads to when we are out and about.

curleytops

I got a Sony Ericcson w/ walkman for about £20 when I came back, opted for a Virgin PAYG, top it up for £10 per month which gives me 300 free texts, sometimes more and 1G internet usage (hardly ever use it) when there's a special, top up at Sainsbury's for double nectar points and that more than sees me through the month. Can't say I've ever had any bother with coverage so I'm quite happy. I should have enough Nectar points to pick up Downton Abbey Season 3 on DVD when it becomes available free of charge. How easily pleased am I?

jasper123

OMG Peigi how come its so expensive, I know you said you dont dial long distant, but do you talk a lot on your phone? most big mobile phone companies offer a monthly package where you only pay one set charge and you get ---- like 800 minutes and like 800 text's,
Ive just talked to my Nephew and he has Vodaphone, and he gets 600 minutes, and unlimited text, and unlimited email and on line surfing, all for a set monthly fee of £25, all calls anywhere are covered, except 0800 numbers, they charge a lot if you dial those type of numbers ----- But his company charges £2 a month extra if you want, and then you get to call unlimited 0800 numbers, there free on a landline phone but not a mobil, looks like you are being ripped off,
Me ------ well I have only had the same pay as you go T-MOBIL since Ive been home, I top it up about once every three months for £5 I very rarely call anyone on my mobile I always use my landline phone at home, theres nothing so important going on in my life that it cant wait till I get home
A mobil for me has only ever been used for emergencies or if I really really need to speak to this person right this minute or not while Im out,
What amused me in the States was when I was in the supermarket you would often see young men shopping and there on there cell phone talking to the misses on what to buy? what would these people have done I wonder if they lived in the days not too long ago when there were no Cell phones ----- Oh those were the days!!!!!

dontheturner

Peigi - My wife, Tippawan uses O2, and renews by pay as you go, at any local shop @ £10 each time - which seems to last ages, although she is on regularly. Seems fine for her. Love Don

cheers

I suppose I'm not in the minority because I don't use the cell very much at all as some of you have mentioned. I'm mostly at home and I have so many options for phoning. Two phones are on the computer, Magic Jack and Google voice phone. Both free sort of.
Lately I have been closing more than half my bank accounts and now I' m reducing the number of cellphone accounts.
Due, I think, to competition there have been so many good offers on cell phones that I have a draw full. Now how can I sell them?
I'm down to three cell phone companies. One of them is Virgin which is expensive but it has a really good signal. They charge 20 cents per minute. I even have a hands free phone (OnStar) in my car which is handy because I drive in states that will fine you if they see you using a cellphone. My third phone is AT&T and is on my old iphone.
Sometimes I want to go back to the simple black phones that we use to have because they had good signals and where dependable.

Cheers