iPhone unlocking on a budget

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I've recently bought a second-hand iPhone 6 for £55, and upon replacing the cracked and beaten up LCD and back panel, it looks brand new! It does have the notorious "searching" issue, however, so only time will tell how long I can actually use it as a phone for.

Here is my question: I'd like to unlock it from O2, since I'm already in a contract elsewhere. The thing is, looking at O2's help page, I need to use a PAYG SIM for 1 year, topping up £20 before using £15 on an unlocking fee. Not only is the prohibitively awkward and expensive, but there is every opportunity that I could loose cellular function altogether.

I'm a student, so money is very right (that's why I buy second-hand), and I'd also like to use the phone as soon as possible. I believe the previous owner had the phone on contract with O2, but they haven't responded to my requests to help me unlock it.

I understand that unlocking can incur admin costs, but Vodafone and Three, etc, do it for free online. O2 is missing a trick here. Is there any other way I can unlock this phone?

Thank you!

[MI5]

If you can use a contact sim it’s free
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-guides/Unlocking-an-O2-phone-to-use-a-different-SIM-card/ba-p/1...

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I don't have any O2 SIMs on contract that are available to me.

[MI5]

Your only other option is to see if market stalls are any cheaper.

[Anonymous]

I believe they use software to fool the device, so upon upgrade you loose the unlock. Is there a form where I can suggest free unlocks as an idea to O2? The other networks beat them hands-down on unlocking.

[Cleoriff]

Hi @Anonymous Just a quick question. As it's a 2nd hand phone did you buy it from someone you know personally or was it bought from sites like Ebay or Amazon marketplace etc etc?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. It's a mixture of both, being Shpock: I met the person who lives in my local area, but it was arranged via the app. I don't know them personally.

[MI5]

We used to have an ideas section, but O2 didn't like any of our ideas

As it's free to get a contract phone unlocked, I suggest you persevere with the person you bought it from as they will be able to get it done for you.

Unless they are trying to hide anything of course?

[Anonymous]

Just to point out the phone needs to be used on O2 for 12 months if it was purchased as Pay & Go if you bought it off someone that had it on contract you can unlock it straight away. Buy a classic sim with £20 credit £15 for the unlocking fee £5 to make some calls so it registers on the network and you are good to go. But all above is only if it was purchased as contract or purchased as Pay & Go more than 12 months ago.

[MI5]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The thing is, looking at O2's help page, I need to use a PAYG SIM for 1 year, topping up £20 before using £15 on an unlocking fee. Not only is the prohibitively awkward and expensive, but there is every opportunity that I could loose cellular function altogether.

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Just a small correction here for you too. You don't need to use it on PAYG for a year.

That rule only applies to PAYG phones bought from O2 and it also excludes iPhones.

I'm also not sure why you would lose cellular connection unless the devices was faulty or barred.