Do you keep a PAYG handset in your car for emergencies?

Published by Ewan on Tuesday 7th October 2008, 12:37 | Related | Filed Under

I popped out the other night for 10 minutes.

Just 10 minutes. Popped to the shop to get some stuff then back again.

Didn’t take my phone. I was traveling light. Living for now. Frankly I couldn’t be arsed to stick the Nokia E90 into my jeans pocket.

On the way to the shop I passed a guy who’s car had obviously broken down. A nice new BMW X6. He was a bit annoyed judging by his expression on his face as he (presumably) called the AA.

When I drove back home I saw the AA had already arrived. The chap was being taken care of. No need for me to stop and offer assistance.

It got me thinking though.

I felt naked without a handset.

I normally take a handset (or two) with me whenever I go out. But on this occasion I didn’t. And it would have been typical if that had been the time when the oil or whatever screwed up on my Range Rover and woosh, I find myself stuck in the middle of nowhere with a long walk ahead of me. And no handset.

So maybe I should have an emergency PAYG handset in the glove box. That’s what I started thinking.

Then I thought I better ask the MIR audience and see what they do. They’ll know best.

Thoughts? Should I go and get one, stick a tenner on it and leave it in the glovebox?

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Viewing 23 Comments

Steve Clark 1 month ago 1 point
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good idea in principle except when you come to need it you will find the SIM card has been disabled (unless you make a call every month or so!) - I had exactly this problem recently.

Steve

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http://www.jackpotjoy.com/mobile

FeeG 1 month ago 1 point
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How would you keep it charged? Sod's law would dictate that the battery would be dead in any kind of emergency. That said, having a car was my reason to get a mobile back in the day, in case it broke down.

Just make sure you always have your own mobile on you when you go out. Or that you're with someone who has one with them instead.

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Michael 1 month ago 1 point
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Ewan: I agree that keeping a back up phone in the car is a great idea.. But Stateside, PAYG handsets are only good for 60 to 90 days at a time. Then the credit gets erased, and you have to buy another top up card and re-register the phone. If anyone knows a provider that can accommodate this need, I'd love to know.

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http://www.golivesms.com

meraj 1 month ago 1 point
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Why not just carry your phone around and leave a car charger in the glove compartment instead? That's what we do, never let us down

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Rob 1 month ago 1 point
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I've found that a PAYG simcard which doesnt register with the network and/or doesnt make calls or send text messages every so often can and will be disabled by the mobile networks.. not even receiving text messages counts to keep it active!

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jdbradford 1 month ago 1 point
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Always have a spare phone in each of the cars (and a charger).

The car mobiles are also a different network from my (and wifes) network - so that if we hit a dead spot - there is a chance the second phone will work.

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Mac Morrison aka mostlythis 1 month ago 1 point
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Have a phone that you take everywhere - not an E90 - which is only any good if you have a bag with you

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Mike42 1 month ago 1 point
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Mmmmmm...manbag.....maybe in MacLeod tartan?

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MarkW 1 month ago 1 point
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Spare Nokia with an O2 SIM (not my usual network!) stays in my tank bag - spose that's basically the same thing! If I really feel the need to be prepared, a Virgin SIM goes in alongside that. Pretty sure Virgin is currently T-Mob, though I stand to be corrected...

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DanLane 1 month ago 1 point
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The trouble is that many PAYG networks will expire your topup and as far as I know ALL of them will cancel your account after a certain period of time without any activity. The only PAYG SIM I operate is the one in my SMS gateway which is on Orange who thankfully treat incoming SMS as a valid activity for keeping the account open as it's only had about 10p of credit for the past five years.

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bitflung 1 month ago 1 point
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no no no - you're asking the wrong question. the real question to sak is, "why didn't you have a handset on you at the time"?

there are 3 fundamental reasons to not have a handset with you, in any situation:
1. inconvenient
2. not allowed/feasible
3. no compelling reason to have the handset

take the converse of these and show WHY anyone might have a handset on their person:
1. convenient
2. required (i.e. my job function requires that i have a blackberry, etc)
3. a compelling reason exists to have the handset on my person

---

now consider where you fell short: you had no reason compelling enough for you to inconvenience yourself with a handset you didn't really need on that short trip. fix ANY of those problems, and you'd likely have had the handset with you. take these possibilities:

1. inconvenience: this is how you're suggesting to fix the problem. make the handset extremely convenient by always having it in the car. can't get anymore convenient than that. of course, long term, you've got some issues like cost, maintenance, etc. and this only helps you in YOUR car and only when you don't have ANOTHER handset on your person...

2. allowed/required: this doesn't apply to your current situation, but it's important in other situations to make this general algorithm require at least a mention of it. here, the handset is neither required nor forbidden: it's your choice alone.

3. compelling reasons: "in case of emergency" might be a compelling reason for some people, but almost never suffices for those who have had mobiles for more than a year or so -- unless they feel unsafe on a regular basis. what about the camera on the phone? mobile email? weather alerts? the ability to check prices online? play a game when you're bored? these are all well and good, but require action from the user -- there is no intrinsic value to always keeping the phone on you. but rhere are other cases where there IS intrinsic value to keeping the phone on you at all times:

1. LBS: location based services, like perhaps having a TODO list that triggers when you've moved nearby the location requiring you to perform an action.

2. how about good-ole Nokia Activity Monitor (Step Counter, etc)? i keep this running all the time. not so much because i'm trying to be healthy, but so i can figure out when i was where: i KNOW i was at work by 8:30 because the step-counter flatlines at 8:30 am. an lunch? why yes, i took a LONG lunch break, i can see that in my step counter's records. so, rather than try to work out my time sheet as i go, i can rely on this information to give me starting and stopping times later on... maybe there are much better purposes for this info - regardless, if step counter is always running you've got a history of this info available for future reference.

----
this is where i think you're going the wrong direction: don't look for ways to make having a handset more convenient (unless you've got a monster of a device, i've never carried an E90 so i can't say whether i'd be willing to). a better option is to find ways to make carrying the device more compelling - otherwise even the most convenient device out there will eventually be provide some degree of effort and become the next device you don't have on your person when you need it.

-bit

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Ewan @ MIR 1 month ago 1 point
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Good man Jared. I think I need to dump the E90...

2008/10/7 Disqus <>

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Phil 1 month ago 1 point
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Why not get a Virgin mobile PAYG SIM but put it on direct debit? It's basically a contract with a zero monthly bill unless you use it.

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Ewan @ MIR 1 month ago 1 point
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That might be the way ahead!

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Phil 1 month ago 1 point
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But don't use any data!!

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Ewan @ MIR 1 month ago 1 point
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Absolutely not!

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edgar1013 1 month ago 1 point
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i do have a tmo paygo phone with about one hour on it.
however, i needed to use it today and much to my surprise the battery on the device was dead.
so i guess i wont be recharging that sim anytime soon...nor the battery.

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jamesbody 1 month ago 1 point
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If the US experience is anything to go by, I think that we are likely to see new cars with built in telephony rather than have to rely on a dodgy el cheapo PAYG handset in the glove compartment.

There are so many advantages that this could offer, including:

- Increased peformance - external antenna plus built in handsfree
- Location tracking of the car, linked to a myriad of LBS applications
- Remote assistance - summoning help if you crash, unlocking car if you lose your keys, disbling engine if stolen
- Pairing with personal handset - when in car, calls to personal phone 'parallel ring' car phone
- Providing data bearer over which automotive systems report and are remotely updated
- Every car becomes capable of 'mobile mapping' - building up coverage/location maps
- Mobile WiFi access points - think JoikuSpot in every car, providing passengers with WiFi based internet services

And I think that we could go on further!

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Mike42 1 month ago 1 point
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I'm not so sure James...I don't know how many cars come with mobile capability, but it's not a cheap thing to install correctly - the wiring, mic, speaker, GSM chipset, antenna all add up to several (3?) hundred dollars. That's a lot of money for an accessory that most will never use.

Most of this functionality is already here - In the US the OnStar system is pretty popular, with 5m subs across the US & Canada. It's CDMA on Verizon, and you can pay extra to use it as voice, not just emergency help. Not sure about the rates tho, their site is down.

The need to swap USIM's is a barrier to this sort of thing, and I can't think of an MNO offering a dual-SIM auto-divert anymore. Much easier to use autoforward on no answer IMHO, esp. with Spinvox to glue the end-message delivery together.

When Onstar recently changed from Analogue to digital, just the replacement CDMA module was $200.

/m

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