GeoffM

Most of that £40/month is paying for the phone itself, not the service. When my contract ran out I started paying £10/month for service with O2. With Giffgaff you can pay even less. You might have been able to negotiate a little off the £40x11 but not much. Last time I did that (not an iPhone) we got 1 month knocked off.

Can I ask what the deposit was? Did you have any history at all like an Amex transfer?

No, it only takes a few bytes every few seconds to "keep alive" an "I'm here" message to the Skype service. Once a call comes in, then it's different.

Bob

Depending on the service and rates, deposits can be $50-600

rpjs

My tupporth: I've posted elsewhere about setting up an unlocked UK iPhone to work with AT&T's GoPhone PAYG offering. This costs $2 each day you use it, and then unlimited texts and calls for that day. Data is $25 per 500MB lasting one month which I never exceed in that time. The only thing that doesn't work is voicemail, which isn't a big deal for me but may be an issue for some, and I dare say there is a work-around I've not discovered yet

I have a UK geographical number through Skype which is routed to my US landline phone, and that works well. I think it costs like a couple of cents a minute plus a yearly fee for the UK number. One caveat with Skype: make sure you update your profile to say you're no longer in the EU or you'll get charged 15% VAT on every order!

Havnfun

We are in Southern California with AT&T and we had to pay a $500 deposit per phone even though they were all on the same contract They did give us the $1,500 back after 1 year automatically. We had our SSN number and a Bank of America Visa and American Express but we had no credit since we had just arrived in the US a week previously.

GeoffM

Thanks - won't be such a shock when we get to the shop then, get it over and done with in private!

I can't be bothered with all this sim clipping and bodging, much rather just slap down a deposit and be done with it. I appreciate not everybody is able to do that.

TimberHut

Flog your i thing and get a Droid Razr when you get here. Nice bit of kit.

Kar98

Oh eff that noise! For that money I'd get an iPhone 3GS unlocked for $375, brand new and straight from Apple, and don't be bound to a contract either.

pTeronaut

Until the OP travels back home, and finds that they need a rent a phone whilst they're there.