Mobile phones. Humph.

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I have had enough of o2. I'm currently on their off-peak call package. I pay £20 a month and get 1000 off-peak minutes to o2 mobiles and landlines, 25 off-peak minutes to any mobile, and 100 text messages. However, I usually make about 200 or so minutes of calls (some during the day, some evening, to my parents landline and mobiles on a variety of networks) and send about 150-200 texts. My bills (with VAT) end up costing me £30+, even if I try really hard to stick to my 100 texts. So it's not really such a good deal after all.

However, I have 7 months left of it - until June. And I can't just afford to keep this contract, nor cough up the £140 necessary to buy my way out of it. So. I have the clever idea of selling my Samsung e900 (unfortunately it's fashion over function - the LG Chocolate touch sensitive buttons look great but I keep pressing them by accident and ringing people, even after having my phone for 3 months or so) which should raise about £120-150, as it's like new and unlocked, and I have a spare charger, 1gb memory card and a PC adaptor. I don't have a spare phone so I can't just go back to Pay as You Go (300 texts and 150 evening minutes did me perfectly, thanks) as I can't really afford to buy a new mobile. Thus I'd have to get into another contract (defeating the point one may say) but not with o2, and obviously one that actually reflects my phone useage rather than some smelly boy.

I really like the look of T-Mobile's Flex-T. Online they're offering £5 off each tariff, so I could get their usually £30/month package for £25/month, and get £90 worth of calls/texts/whatever. It's an 18 month contract but I guess I can ignore that since my phone use hasn't particularly changed over the past 5 years or so, and I can't imagine it changing now. Sounds perfect, right? Well. Then I saw the £3 charge for paying via anything other than direct debit (and I really do prefer paying by card over the phone or 'net or sending a cheque, so I can make sure I have enough money in my account first), and they also charge £1.50 for itemised paper billing. Humph. Suddenly not such a good deal.

Then I looked at Virgin, who have an internet only £25/month package offering 300 anytime any network minutes and 300 texts, which are rolled over for a month if you don't use them all up (how handy!). It's 12 months, and if you want to continue with the contract after that, the price lowers. But what if I go over the limit? 35p/minute?! (And I don't know anyone on Virgin mobile, as far as I know, so I can't take advantage of the 5p calls and 3p texts.) Also, it means Richard Branson.

I tried looking at 3's website but I don't get their tariffs. I don't want video calls. I don't want WAP. I want to call people and text people and maybe take photos now and then when/if I can figure out how to do it. I want a fancy phone that I can show off to people/thieves and increase my street cred (debatable). And I want it to work (the most important thing I suppose) and last me for the next year or two (because I really don't like all this phone swapping, honest guv'na).

Help?