What are the best cell phone providers in London?

Best way for New Yorker to have a cell phone when in London for a week?

• I'm going to London from November 1st to November 7th and I want to be able to make and receive a few phone calls... but texting/data is not necessary. I live in New York and have an incompatible Android phone. Verizon is my provider. I can also Skype but that may not always be a possibility because the person at the other end is not always at a computer. I just called Verizon and here is what they'll do: For $20 shipping both ways, they'll send me a phone. Then it costs $5.00 a month, pro-rated, so it'll cost me about a dollar for the week. After this $21 outlay it will cost me 99 cents a minute to talk to the US with the phone they'll send me. This doesn't sound like a bad deal, but I've never done this before, so I'm asking: is there any better deal out there for having a phone to call the US with in London for six days?

• Answer:

  There may be cheaper ways to do it, but you can gethttps://www.o2.co.uk/shop/phones/alcatel/ot-232/ for £10 with an "http://www.o2.co.uk/international/intsim", which when you put £10 of credit on gives you 4p/min calls to the US. £20 is about $32, so this saves you money if you think you'll call people for more than 11 minutes over the week. There are mobile phone shops on most high streets such as Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U who stock phones/SIMs from all the major networks - if you walk into one of them and explain your situation ("I want the cheapest possible phone that will let me call the US very cheaply") they should be able to find you a similar or better deal.