Title: Mel’s Derby with the UK Phone Company: No easy wins yet!
The roller-coaster voyage of setting up a phone contract in the UK continues, folks. Let me fill ya in on what’s been happening.
A couple years back, when I was bopping around the UK with the circus, I found a useful solution for my phone needs. I had a pay-as-you-go SIM card and topping it up with £20 at any EE shop sufficed for the entire month.
When I relocated here this spring, I popped into an EE shop on day one. My goal? Setting up a regular phone plan. I mean, how different could it be from the States, right? But boy was I wrong, especially as I have good credit back home.
Why was it a problem? No credit history in the UK. You could use your foreign bank card to pay for a month in advance, but clearly, that would be too easy. My Wise card, usually reliable for global transactions, let me down this time and didn’t work.
So, left with no other choice, I bought a top-up for my SIM card and bought myself some thinking time to find alternative solutions.
This is when I decided to check with Barclays, as I held an account with them in the US. But the process was more complicated than I was led to believe. I needed a British Apple account to download the Barclays app–which seemed to be common practice with most UK banks. And to switch my Apple account, I couldn’t have any outstanding subscriptions.
I canceled my Apple plus subscription, waited three weeks, and hit another stumbling block: I needed a UK issued debit/credit card with a local postal address. Clearly, that was a chicken-and-egg situation.
So, off I went to HSBC, my old bank in Sheffield, and requested to open an account in person. After gathering all necessary university papers, a couple more trips to EE for top-ups, and many hoops later, I finally set up my bank account.
A week or so later, my debit card and a PIN arrived – separate envelopes, of course. But imagine my surprise when the PIN was rejected at the ATM after an hour-long wait at EE. The bank locked my account for 24 hours due to failed attempts.
Frustrations aside, I did finally find an alternative number, the telephone security number that served as the PIN. Like I said, the saga continues!
After setting up a new PIN, I ended up at EE again amid the usual crowd and finally got to the front of the line. Much to my surprise, my bank card was declined again due to insufficient history with the bank.
You’d think that wouldn’t normally be an issue since you’re expected to pay upfront for the first month in the UK! The EE representative casually suggested I try again in 4-6 months, after establishing a payment history with my bank account.
So here I am, continuing with my SIM top-ups every month, hoping that by next year I’ll have enough of a UK banking history to get that elusive phone contract. Buckle up, and let’s see where this ride takes us next!