Mobile phone bought in US

prugone · 17 Sep 17, 11:13 AM

I'm not a technology person so need some advice. I needed a mobile phone urgently whilst on holiday and bought an LG phone with a Verizon pre paid card. I realise any outstanding credit is probably lost but can I have a SIM card inserted for use back home or is the phone lost as well?

wanye · 19 Sep 17, 08:56 AM

depends if the phone was locked to verizon or not, also whether it is compatible with the right network bands. a lot of phones can be unlocked to all networks by entering a code you can (generally) buy online for a few quid (or free sometimes)... others may need to be unlocked physically by a man with a special dongle (try your local independant phone shop or market stall, failing that, try second hand or computer shops that do phone repairs/unlocking.

if you post the model of phone here, we may be able to find out more

prugone · 19 Sep 17, 09:31 AM

Many thanks for the info. The phone is an LG K8V.

wanye · 19 Sep 17, 02:17 PM

so it looks like the V is for verizon (ie its network locked)

but a quick google shows this site, where you enter the IMEI (type *#06# to find this out) and can unlock it to any network

unlocky/lg/unlock-lg-k8v/

HTH

prugone · 19 Sep 17, 06:17 PM

Thanks so much for your replies,really appreciated. I will try your advice tonight.