Orange UK UMA Phone
 

I have an Orange OVP Virgin account. I know there are better deals out there, but everyone has this number and this makes it easy. The one down side is that I don't have roaming on it. While I can pass a UK credit check, I can't pass the secondary one for roaming. While all prepaids now roam throughout Western Europe, there is no limited roaming option on the contract side.

Every now and then I have the need to access the darn account from outside the UK, e.g. I will loan the SIM to a friend who fails to reset the call diversion when he/she leaves or I want to create minimal usage on the SIM card just to make sure that it somehow doesn't go to inactive status.

Anyone have a suggestion for a cheap compatible phone that I can get from Fleebay?

Stu -
Will an old T-M U.S. UMA phone work for you? I have a lst generation Nokia 6086.

...mike

Slightly unrelated... but have you tried to do this again recently? I understood that separate credit checks for roaming have got quite a bit easier lately. Perhaps ask them to set a lower credit level or something? Seeing that you have (obviously) been a postpaid customer for absolutely ages (I can tell from the tarrif) I really can't see how you should have any problems activating roaming.

I'll try again, the problem is that they probably get 40 quid a year of business from me.

You'll be surprised how desperate they are these days. 40 quid is not actually too bad! Don't forget they also make decent revenue off incoming calls to your mobile (and diverted calls etc.). In any case, you wanting to roam only means you are willing to spend more.

If they are still not too helpful, threaten them with asking for your PAC code. They should patch you through to customer retentions for that, who will talk you through the reasons why you want to leave, and usually miraculously solve everything "there and then".

I still get very nice deals off UK mobile phone companies, and keep some contracts going, even though I no longer live there.