11 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I know it's unlikely but if you get a call from, 0148 0710791 blow a very loud whistle down the phone at the scumbags!!

I've had a whistle by the house phone since the early 2000's just for that use ears

Best to search the number on the net and see if it's about, them if it is, report it as a scam/harassment/dangerous.....then block the number.

31 minutes ago, Ian Lanc said:

I've had a whistle by the house phone since the early 2000's just for that use ears

Best to search the number on the net and see if it's about, them if it is, report it as a scam/harassment/dangerous.....then block the number.

Done that, so sign of it...

23 hours ago, Ian Lanc said:

It wouldn't work on me too! I've no mobile and never will become one of these zombie users, typing away on an old laptop.

I have a mobile but just a 'brick' (which I would not describe it as myself as it is a perfectly working older phone but that is what most people would call it) that my mum gave me for exceptional use cases. Only turn it on when I want to call someone or expect them to call me which is very rarely.

Don't you even want one for if you were out hiking, for instance, and got lost and were in dangerous weather and fell and wanted to call for assistance or something? I admit it did take me a long time to even carry one with me just for that were it not for the constant insistence of my mother. That seems a practical type of use to have one.

As long as they are not smart phones then seems a reasonable compromise and just keep it switched off in a bag unless you want to use it.

I am also using an old laptop, also a hand me down, but I hope you are using linux because if you are using windows then you still have one foot in the commercialism trap and wasting a lot of the potential of your old laptop as windows is made to run like crap unless on overspecced machines. Linux you can run lean mean machine on even old hardware. You can get very user friendly versions of linux these days like Ubuntu Mint, geared to be user friendly, for those who are afraid of the transition and how Linux might be alien, when it really isn't if you don't want it to be these days. Maybe I am preaching to the choir but perhaps useful for anyone else reading.

2 hours ago, anotherforduser said:

Only turn it on when I want to call someone or expect them to call me which is very rarely.

Which SIM provider do you use for that nowadays?

My SIM card was cut off a couple of years ago due to lack of use. Didn't take much notice until I was in an emergency, I had seen the lack of signal but just assumed there was a faulty mast nearby. It was only afterwards I contacted the provider and they told me it had been cut-off.

I did get it reconnected eventually but it's an obsolete tariff now so I'll have to replace it with a modern one if it happens again. But they all seem to be rolling monthly or have even shorter cut-off criteria. (Think my one is 999 days without a top-up, but it's so old even the provider couldn't confirm 100%!)

4 hours ago, anotherforduser said:

Don't you even want one for if you were out hiking, for instance, and got lost and were in dangerous weather and fell and wanted to call for assistance or something?

My missus has a mobile and we take that out with us if we ever go out, being not very good in walking with a bad back and the missus suffering with other illnesses we've actually forgot what it's like to go out these days.

39 minutes ago, Ian Lanc said:

... we've actually forgot what it's like to go out these days.

It's cr*p! It's always raining, always cold, always littered with the general public who have no respect for their fellow human beings, dogs running amok, kids screaming, teenagers acting as if they haven't been brought up...etc etc. etc. You're better off staying in with a nice cuppa and a repeat of The Good Life (or even Yes, Minister...) on the telly 🤣

54 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

It's cr*p!🤣

You missed out about the thousands of potholes with the rubble from them being thrown onto the kerbs causing serious hazards for everyone on the kerbs ☠️ ☠️

On another negative note, you ever noticed when potholes are filled the surrounding rubble is never cleaned up when the pothole has been bodged, this is because it's the street cleaning teams job who are supposed to go out and clean up the rubble but guess what! They don't so the rubble stays on the kerb/roadside forever, I've reported about getting rubble cleaned up but it is never carried out, this applies to Notts County Council & Derbyshire County Council but at a good guess all other councils are the same with their negligence

Oh littered! Spotted this on a report website, so nice of the council to get the bin emptied and so nice for the scum to not take their crap home with them and put it in their wheelie bin, but oh no lets lob it around the street bin instead, there's no proud in certain people these days.

On 3/1/2026 at 1:12 PM, TomsFocus said:

Which SIM provider do you use for that nowadays?

My SIM card was cut off a couple of years ago due to lack of use. Didn't take much notice until I was in an emergency, I had seen the lack of signal but just assumed there was a faulty mast nearby. It was only afterwards I contacted the provider and they told me it had been cut-off.

I did get it reconnected eventually but it's an obsolete tariff now so I'll have to replace it with a modern one if it happens again. But they all seem to be rolling monthly or have even shorter cut-off criteria. (Think my one is 999 days without a top-up, but it's so old even the provider couldn't confirm 100%!)

Sounds like we think along similar lines on this one. hehe.

I did a hunt looking for bargain basement cheapy payg sims a couple of years ago, getting most of my information from the moneysavingexpert forum. 2 rock bottom ones are RWG online and Nowmobile. Rwg is so barebones as to be lacking basic useful functionality like being able to check your balance online, while nowmobile is barebones with the essential like being able to check your account online.

Rwg actually use Nowmobile and have marginally lower rates but just check out the reviews on trustpilot to see how appalling they are for any kind of customer care and I think they might even be defunct now as they had stopped all forms of communications last I checked with many angry customers left hanging for what seemed like an unmanned ship. I read on trustpilot reviews you can sometimes get nowmobile to sort issues with rwg sims, that is how thin the layer of outsourcing is. I tried that and was successful when they cut off my rwg number and wanted to use it for something before I knew it had been cut off.

Nowmobile still have poor reviews but they are good for getting into contact with and when they can help they will do it quickly unless you get stuck in the customer service script loop of them not being able to deal with your issue. I was originally was with rwg but due to the above, and finding out they were on nowmobile anyway, got a sim from nowmobile directly instead, which is what I would recommend to a fellow penny pincher/very occasional user. They all will cut you off after about 6 months or so +/- from what I understand, at least officially, while sometimes people stay connected longer, so you just have to do one 'chargeable action' in that time which can just be sending yourself, or anyone else, a text I think.

On 3/1/2026 at 4:06 PM, StephenFord said:

It's cr*p! It's always raining, always cold, always littered with the general public who have no respect for their fellow human beings, dogs running amok, kids screaming, teenagers acting as if they haven't been brought up...etc etc. etc. You're better off staying in with a nice cuppa and a repeat of The Good Life (or even Yes, Minister...) on the telly 🤣

Or move to the country which solves nearly all of those issues, though there might still be a fair few dogs running amok and other agricultural animals!

32 minutes ago, anotherforduser said:

They all will cut you off after about 6 months or so +/- from what I understand, at least officially, while sometimes people stay connected longer, so you just have to do one 'chargeable action' in that time which can just be sending yourself, or anyone else, a text I think.

In addition to that, most require a top-up at certain intervals as well. We think that's what cut mine off, as I had sent at least one text within a few months of it happening. It seems to be 999 days (just over 2.5 years) on mine, but difficult to find this info for others.

When I asked about it, I was told I needed to top up 'every month' which is clearly wrong, but they couldn't confirm the exact timescale after that.

Very frustrating that I almost never need to use a mobile, but also need it to be able to rely on it when an emergency happens, which has sadly become more frequent lately. No point getting one that has poor coverage where I live or is likely to get cut-off again, but also don't want to have to waste money topping-up every month for something I barely use.

6 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

In addition to that, most require a top-up at certain intervals as well. We think that's what cut mine off, as I had sent at least one text within a few months of it happening. It seems to be 999 days (just over 2.5 years) on mine, but difficult to find this info for others.

When I asked about it, I was told I needed to top up 'every month' which is clearly wrong, but they couldn't confirm the exact timescale after that.

Very frustrating that I almost never need to use a mobile, but also need it to be able to rely on it when an emergency happens, which has sadly become more frequent lately. No point getting one that has poor coverage where I live or is likely to get cut-off again, but also don't want to have to waste money topping-up every month for something I barely use.

No there are no minimum top ups for these I suggested as far as I know as I was specifically avoiding ones that did when I was doing my research. Well having said that I don't know about every 2.5 years as even I have had cause to topup more often than that, lol.

I do make a few calls per year necessitating a couple of topups in that time.

Certainly not every month though. I have gone many months and I have been cut-off for a none chargeable event not for not having topped up from what I remember and they just reactivated it when I asked.

4 minutes ago, anotherforduser said:

No there are no minimum top ups for these I suggested as far as I know as I was specifically avoiding ones that did when I was doing my research. Well having said that I don't know about every 2.5 years as even I have had cause to topup more often than that, lol.

I do make a few calls per year necessitating a couple of topups in that time.

Certainly not every month though. I have gone many months and I have been cut-off for a none chargeable event not for not having topped up from what I remember and they just reactivated it when I asked.

It was definitely more than 2 years since I topped up when it was cut-off. I never use calls. And texts only cost 2p each. So a £10 top-up would last me a decade.

On 3/3/2026 at 10:14 AM, TomsFocus said:

It was definitely more than 2 years since I topped up when it was cut-off. I never use calls. And texts only cost 2p each. So a £10 top-up would last me a decade.

I see, well I am not sure about their limit since I top up more frequently but I would advise you go on the nowmobile website and contact their support via livechat as they are very quick to respond and you actually get through to a human. They have also solved most of my issues quickly when I have contacted them. Not totally useless like most. There was one case where they were unhelpful but that was a website issue and was just told to 'wait'. That is a good record compared to other companies as the other times they answered fast and gave me quick resolution to my issues that I can recall.