Switching from (UK) Orange Dolphin to iPhone 35 Tariff?

[Simacca]

I'm currently 12 months into an 18 month contract on Orange Dolphin 35 with a Data plan. I was using an android phone, but have sold it to get a 2nd hand iPhone 4.

I phoned Orange to enquire about switching to an iPhone 35 tariff and the lady said that I would have to pay an extra £5 per month for the iPhone tariff. This would take me up to £40pm for a 35pm tariff. I don't quite understand and she couldn't really explain this properly.

Could I just cut my current orange sim down to a micro sim and pop it into an iPhone 4 and use all the iPhone services, or would Orange find out i'm using one of their animal tariffs in an iPhone and make me pay the extra?

Thanks for any help

 

[Simacca]

Follow up

I just had another conversation with a very nice lady from Orange to discuss my iPhone options, and I asked her if I was to cut my sim card down and pop it into an iPhone 4 would there be any problems and she said no . But she did say that if you damage your sim, when you ring up for a replacement "do not" say that you damaged it trying to cut it down or they wont send you a replacement. She was very helpful. My other options were to drop my dolphin tariff down and pay the extra £10pm (thought it was only £5), for the iphone bundle so I wouldn't have to go over my £35pm limit, but I would end up losing over half of my free minutes!

She said the only thing I would lose by cutting down my sim card is BT openzone wifi hotspots, which i'm not bothered about.

Now the only question left is whether to go down this route or just go back to my trusty Blackberry bold 9700 (less hassle), which I love, but really want a touchscreen phone, hence why I changed to an android phone for a while.

Decisions decisions

 

[chriscl]

You can cut the SIM down, and it will work just fine.

If you previously had an Android phone, then you will have a data plan enabled. Whilst - strictly speaking - it's against the terms of the contract to substitute an iPhone, it would work.

Alternatively, you can wait for approx 3 months, at which point you *may* find that you are eligible to upgrade to an iPhone on Orange.

The cheapest (overall cost) way to get an iPhone on Orange is to buy the 16GB iPhone 4, for £169, then put it on a £30/month plan for two years - combining the cost of the phone and the plan, that's the way to do it for the least amount of money.

What you could do of course is buy an "Orange" iPhone (or an unlocked one) second hand, and cut down your SIM and say nothing for six months; then, when your contract has expired, you might find it cheaper to drop to one of their "Pay as you go" Animal plans, depending on your usage (if you have regular access to wireless, and rarely use cellular data, this is the way to go!)

Either way, *carefully* cutting down your current SIM card will work.

 

[Simacca]

I think I would rather buy the phone 2nd hand as I have a credit note to spend in a shop that sells phones amongst other gadgets. I could wait until April when I'm due for an upgrade, but I'm too impatient . I will most probably cut down my sim (after practising on a few spare sim cards first lol), and not say anything to Orange. When my contract is due for renewal, I can just drop down to a lower sim only tariff.

Now the only thing I didnt think of is, if I buy the iphone 2nd hand locked to Orange they wont unlock it for me in the future as its not registered to me. Might have to save some more pennies to get an unlocked one unless anybody knows if one of the major networks unlocks 2nd hand iPhones?

Thanks