[The Bolers]

Hi

My husband and I are emigrating in 4 weeks eek! Anyway i was wondering whether it might be better to buy a new vodaphone mobile phone in the UK rather than in NZ as I've heard there is more range and the handsets are cheaper in the Uk

Can anyone help?

[Duncan74]

Not sure vodaphone Uk and vodaphone NZ are linked, but I doubt you can do that even if they are. If you buy here you'll be in a uk contract and it will be in 'roaming' mode over there, ie $$$$$. Even PAYG would be a UK number and tied to the Vodaphone sim.

If you want a new phone then pay for a sim free one which will work with any sim, including a NZ one when you get there. Will cost £150-300 depending on the phone, but then you can save that over a year by getting a sim only 'contract' tarif.

So look into it more, but I would be very very surprised if a phone you bought here would accept a NZ sim unless you get it unlocked by a shop / market trader. Definately don't sign up to a UK vodaphone contract.

[IanW99]

Hi

My husband and I are emigrating in 4 weeks eek! Anyway i was wondering whether it might be better to buy a new vodaphone mobile phone in the UK rather than in NZ as I've heard there is more range and the handsets are cheaper in the Uk

Can anyone help?

Wouldn't guarantee that handsets are cheaper, really does depend on the model / sale etc, but yes I'm sure that there is more range of phones.

Vodafone UK and Vodafone NZ are not the same as far as network is concerned i.e. if you buy a phone that is locked to the Vodafone UK network it will not work in NZ until it is unlocked.

Ian

[Twig]

Unless you know where to get it unlocked cheaply, and you don't demand that much from a mobile I would recommend just getting a $99 this end, some even come with a SIM included so works out even cheaper. Might be worth checking out some electrical outlet websites, to see if they have any offers on.

[ricky1981]

I'd have to contradict the advice so far, we bought 2 vodafone pay as you go phones in the UK for £40 each and just picked up a sim card in NZ and put it in. Both worked perfectly and we saved a packet as the same phones are almost $300 here. This was only 2 months ago and as far as I know nothing has changed since.

Obviously you shouldn't sign up for a contract phone as you would still be liable but pretty much all pay as you go phones are unlocked so you can use them on any network by just putting the new sim in.

If in doubt, just tell the person in the store what you are planning to do, they can check that the phone will work in NZ and is unlocked.

[bobo]

So look into it more, but I would be very very surprised if a phone you bought here would accept a NZ sim unless you get it unlocked by a shop / market trader.

Prepare to be surprised. OH and I brought our Vodafone Prepay phones over from the UK. I just simply bought a new sim and all good. OH had to get her phone unlocked. Took it to a small stand in one of the malls. Cannot remeber cost but was not expensive.

[nellyt]

Agree with ricky1981
2 years ago it was much much much cheaper to buy a pay as you go in the uk and pick up a pay as you go sim in nz.
The answer probably depends on if you want a high or low end phone and whether you want pay-as-you-go or a contract. We wanted low end phones and pay-as-you-go and had no troubles doing this.
10 minutes on vodafone.co.nz and carphone warehouse or similar should provide the cost comparisons.
I think this is still the case as the OH nearly bought a new phone in UK last week but visiting M&S was more important.

[KatieBen]

Our old mobile phones were pay monthly but out of contract (both Sony Ericsson cyber-shots, about a year old). When we got here they accepted vodaphone p-a-y-g sim cards with no problems.

Now all I have to do is wait for someone clever to be able to unlock my iPhone from O2 UK so I can get a NZ sim for it!

[Flutterby]

They have to be unlocked, normally in the UK a contract phone comes unlocked (because you are tied to a contract) and a PAYG phone is locked, but if you tell the shop that you are buying from often they will check that it is unlocked before they sell it to you.
DP bought his from vodaphone UK and was told it would be £30 to unlock it......but as luck would have it they accidentally sold him one intended for contracts so it was already unlocked!

It would depend on the make and model of your phone as to wether it will be easy to unlock once in NZ, some simply require a code, others need to be reconfigured using computer and cable.

Phones are a lot cheaper in the uk than many other countries at the moment!

[The Bolers]

Hi everyone

Thanks very much for all your helpful replies. I was planning to get a relatively cheap pay as you go phone and to buy a vodafone sim - I didn't realise that Vodafone UK & NZ were different companies.

So as long as i buy a phone that is (or can be) unlocked I should be ok - I'll start looking on the net for deals

Thanks again

Jenny

[ricky1981]

They are different companies but that makes no difference to what you need to do. Just go to carphone warehouse as pretty much all their pay as you go phones are unlocked. I bought one on O2 pay as you go and it worked perfectly here by just buying a vodafone sim in Christchurch.

For KatieBen: An unlock for the iPhone is coming in the next few days/week. I'm in the same position and can't wait to be able to use my iPhone again. The software you need is called redsn0w and ultrasn0w, the latter hasn't been released yet. There are plenty of places with loads of details on this but send me an email to rpoole at gmail dot com is you want some help :)

[IanW99]

They are different companies but that makes no difference to what you need to do. Just go to carphone warehouse as pretty much all their pay as you go phones are unlocked. I bought one on O2 pay as you go and it worked perfectly here by just buying a vodafone sim in Christchurch.
...


But if they were the same company then it would make a difference wouldn't it? Surely then you could just go and buy any Vodafone phone in the UK and be sure that it would work in NZ.

The fact that they are different means that you have to buy a SIM free phone / phone that isn't locked to a network, or one that you can get unlocked (hopefully easily).

Ian

[ricky1981]

Yep, but that's what I posted earlier, that's what I meant by it doesn't change what you need to do. Just treat them as two totally different networks.

Either way, it is actually harder to find a locked phone than an unlocked one these days other than premium ones like the iPhone. It costs the carriers money to do it rather than just sell phones direct from the factory with no locks.

As I have said a couple of times, just go to one of the independent stores and tell them you need an unlocked pay as you go phone for as little as possible (assuming you don't care what it looks like). When I went to the carphone warehouse they said every pay as you go other than the iPhone was unlocked, this was a few months back but I can't imagine it has changed.

[wellywally]

Vodafone UK have recently changed their policy and all phones sold on either payg or contract are now unlocked and they will unlock older phones free of charge if you have been with them > 12 months.

I've seen basic phones with sim here in NZ for $99 so if you just want a basic phone the savings of buying in the UK are not amazing (say phone at GBP20 and then $30 for NZ voda sim).
Can be worth it though if you want a snazier phone.

Incidentally if you have an older nokia phone these can be unlocked for free - see guide on moneysavingexpert.

[Will_2007]

I brought my Vodafone branded SonyEricsson k800 over, bought a PAYG sim here and it didn't work. Emailed Vodafone UK, they emailed back a code to tap in to unlock it, it now works fine with NZ sims. No charge, very helpful - I contacted them through vodafone.co.uk, they emailed me back at my private address.

If all you want to do is talk and text, you can pick up a basic phone+sim PAYG package for $89 in Noel Leemings, Harvey Norman etc. Contracts seem reasonably priced but you will pay a couple of hundred bucks for the phone, depending on the model, and only get probably 5-10% of the free minutes and texts that you would for an equivalent contract in the UK.