what is wrong with getting a pay-per-go SIM, use it for whatever is needed, and simply, switch it off and put it on a RFID bag afterwards?
Problem solved…
I have a cousin back home who is paranoid about things like mobiles (she follows conspiracy theories about anything you can think off). She has one but only switches it on when she needs to. That in itself can bring difficulties though, when her niece collapsed and died last year her nephew couldn’t get hold of her as her mobile was switched off, he had to ring my sister instead who was having lunch with her.
I’d honestly say my own mobile use is pretty minimal, I only make or receive the odd phonecall, the rest is just texts and looking at emails. The other apps I use are mainly just the alarm, calculator and calendar, plus the fitness tracker.
If all you need is sms get a feature phone.
Nokia offers a good selection.
https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s1/product/nokia-105-4g-2nd-edition-180-feature-phones-53975742
Then get prepay from Swisscom. A phone call up to 2 hours cost less than a frank.
If you’re absolutely sure you don’t need a smartphone, other than for the utility apps or sms, you can buy as well a tablet with GSM. It can run all the things a smartphone can, but it’s perhaps more useful as a stationary home applicance
Ours is all combined: internet, phone, TV and internet security.
TV has become noise pollution unless its some specific program/film. Otherwise its full crap. When I turn it off its like a breath of fresh air. People have to boycott alot of this digital crap.
So clearly you do need one. It doesn’t mean you have to use it as a phone, access social media or anything like that. Just get the cheapest Android mobile handset you can, with the cheapest prepaid plan you can find, then use it with wifi only. You do have wifi, I hope?
Which looks like around 65 francs for a Android 14 handset, and less than chf5 per month.
Yeah, it sucks, but you’re soon not going to have any choice in the matter, unless you completely eschew any sort of online transactions.
1 Like
How do you expect them to access the order? Log in to your post account?
It’s not final until it’s paid for so they have nothing to look for and thus have to type all the info I to their system and that’s what they add the extra fee in for.
A pay as you go mobile would be a simple solution, lots of true pay as you go options exist so you wouldn’t be locked in to paying a monthly fee every month.
I barely use my mobile but I wouldn’t want to be without one in case of emergencies.
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book” (Groucho Marx)
1 Like
It costs them more to deal with you, so quite reasonable they should you for being a nuisance to them.
No need for any monthly payment, I still have an active SIM card from Swisscom, I left over 11 years ago & have not added any money in years. Not even sure it has been activated more than once a year.
Does it still work? I saw on some prepaid SIM cards if you don’t use it once per year, they deactivate it.
I use sometimes the calculator-like device. The phone is more practical, but the calculator is plan B in case the phone fails.
Yeah, I thought that might be the case - I retained a UK number for many years like that - wasn’t even a PAYG one, which normally will expire after so long with no use, they just offered me a zero-price contract with very high call rates if I ever actually needed to use it when I was asking them to cancel our numbers after we first moved over here 25 years ago.
But anyway, I couldn’t find any in CH in my cursory search.
1 Like
Absolutely agree! And if you do have a phone, to even get the discounts, you have to download an app for each and every store you shop at. Then every business has your data and knows what you buy. For me a big waste of time and personal effort only in the end to collect personal data and perhaps save 10 rupen on a Snickers bar. And in the end you have a phone bloated with apps from Migros, Coop, Lidle, Aldi, every gas station in town, Qualipet, Manor, Jumbo, Swiss, UBS, restaurants, take aways, SBB, etc.. In the end who really owns your phone?
Wifi would be useless for what the OP originally wanted to do.
The OP said that a mobile phone was needed to retain the mail. In order to do this, only an SMS must be received on a mobile phone. So all that is needed is a dumb phone (must not be even android) with any sim card. Ideally a prepay sim if one hardly never uses their mobile.
In fact I would stay away from old Android phones for functionality and security reasons. At least nothing older than version 15.
1 Like
Swisscom sent me a warning notification per email recently.
It was originally on a contract but converted to PAYG in Sept 2014, the phone was always on for about 5 years & I did send a text every 6 months. After that I seldom turned it on, yet amazingly was working when I last tested in 2025 with a credit sub CHF10
Just not winning with this one. Tried again today with husband’s credit card since the PO account is in his name and got a message that the centre had returned an invalid response. Looks like we’re going to have to go into the post office to get this set up.
Went into the post office and got it sorted.
Still haven’t heard a dicky bird from Swiss Post to the comment I sent them. Must be even more swamped with e-mails than ever before. 
And that “bit more” BelgianMum was CHF25 instead of the CHF13 it would have been if I could have done it online.