http://imgur.com/xcjsjIj

Am I understanding this tarfif correctly for a Lumia 435 ?

£34.99 gets me the phone, but I must pay a £10 top up.

This £10 top up gets me 120 mins or 1G internet + 3000 texts, and is valid for 30 days.

If I pick the 120mins, after the 30 days is up, OR after I've used up the 120 mins, any more mins I use will be charged at 35p/min, and I will pay for this out of that £10 top up.

OR: If I pick the 1Gig and 3000 texts, after the 30 days is up, OR after I've used up the 3000 texts, any more texts I send will be charged at 12p/text, which again I will pay for this out of that £10 top up.

And this £10 top up remains on my phone until I've used it up, right ?! So I can not use the phone for months and it will still be there ?

(doesn't say what happens when I use up the 1G internet though. )

turns out when you use up the Gigs provided by the topup you can't use the internet. So if you opt for the talkie topup option you won't be able to use the internet at all - guess someone at Lumia thought this was a great selling point.

The tariff is not set by Microsoft Lumia but by Virgin Mobile, and I agree it's not a very good one.

However if you brought it from carphone warehouse it should be unlocked., so you can use other sim cards like Giff Gaff.

Do normal people who are not with phones really think like the OP?

If I'm honest (I think I'm just being slow) I'm struggling to work out exactly what he is thinking.

When I bought my old phone, it was a PAYG Nikia. I put 10GBP on it and that credit remained until I'd used it up making calls. At which point I put another 10GBP on. Simples.

I am new to the idea of topups which give you a set amount of mins and a set amount of texts. I was after a phone which'd be used once on Friday, then for the odd text every now and then. If the only way I could get credit was by buying these topups which only lasted for a month, then I could not use it to make these odd texts every now and then after this month was up, unless I bought another topup - and 10GBP per month just to make a text or two seems kinda steep.

I was not aware I could also buy credit. This credit remaining usable until I've made enough calls or texts to use it up. The carphone warehouse site where I saw the Lumia didn't make it plain about this "credit buying" thing. Maybe it should have been obvious, but to me this was new information.

I am just back, having bought a Lumia 435, with the 15GBP EE topup pack giving 500mins 2GB and a shed load of texts - which is valid for a month. I also bought 10GBP of credit to allow me to make calls and texts after this month is up.

Hopefully this clarifies things a bit.

btw: my keyboard has no pound sign.