Mobile

It's hard to believe that getting a mobile phone is such a hassle, but I have finally acquired one. The American Rhodies were quite stupid in how we went about it, but that's all moot now. In the UK you basically have three options: pay as you go, monthly contracts, and 18 month contracts. Monthly is preferred by people like me because you get close to contract rates (pay as you go is quite expensive) but you can cancel your contract with just 30 days notice. The difficulty is that US credit history does not translate to the UK, so with my bank card came a brand new undefined credit history. Now of course I wasn't buying my phone plan on credit, but some genius over here decided that it is reasonable to run credit checks on each potential new customer. I'd have been more than happy to just pay 6 months up front, in cash even, but that's not an option. So after having my credit rejected about 4 times by several companies (which surely isn't helping the credit rating any), I finally ended up getting vodafone (with help from Rhodes House) to let me sign up for a £15/month plan. They had to take a refundable £100 deposit and I had to pay another £25 for the phone, but at least I can now make a few phone calls ... once my mom buys me some friends to call.