Apologies to those more tech savvy than me to whom this will be less than useless but this is for my fellow luddites.
My phone was getting a bit slow & losing its charge, etc so rather than pay £30/40/50+ a month for a new one I took it in to have a new battery fitted. A relative bargain at £36 except the process restores the phone to it's factory settings and wipes out any apps you've installed, including the notes I'd added with various passwords and pin codes to the disappeared apps (not attributed - even I'm not that daft).
I was also slightly taken aback when my phone which came out three years ago was described as "retro" by the infant in the shop.

I buy second hand ones from CEX which is a high street chain that do refurbs. You save hundreds of pounds and even on the latest models.

It means that I can have a SIM only deal of £6 per month which is more than adequate for my needs.

One more point

Thanks, good to know. I'll run this one out first though. I'll probably have just reloaded the apps by then.

You can download a copy of your phone and reload it afterwards - the repair shop should be able to do that for you. You can also do it yourself. I've forgotten what the app is called - phone clone or something. The shop should do it for about a tenner - maybe 20. It really doesn't cost them anything.

Red and Blue Army!

What phone is it?
If it's an iphone you should already have a minimal icloud backup and every app you ever put on the phone with your account is listed in the app store.
If it's android, normally the same scenario and apps acquired from google play etc should be available to load again.

Also changing the battery shouldn't wipe your phone.

Edited by mr. apollo (19 Oct 2023 8.21am)

Edited by mr. apollo (19 Oct 2023 8.22am)

That describes monkey to a tee lol