My pay as you go orange Samsung phone has £7+ credit left on it, but when I tried to make a call today, it said 'emergency calls only'. Put the sim card out and in again, no difference. Any ideas please?

Ok, SIM card in and out has rebooted the phone so that's all covered.

Could the phone be blocked (reported lost/missing etc) or have you had it from new ?

Get the SIM card and put it face down on apiece of clean white paper, just move it around in circles pushing on it for 10-15 secs. You're cleaning the corrosion off the chip, it forms between the contacts on the phone and the sim over time, normally it's fine but taking it in/out or it moving in the holder slightly can make it lose connection (increased resistance). The paper should show a slight black mark on it when you've done, this is normal.

Type *#06# and make sure the IMEI hasn't crashed and changed to 12345 etc or all zeros.

When my phone has not got a very good signal it shows up emergency calls only' just go outside so you have better signel. turn phone off and on to reset, hope this helps.

Thanks guys, Im dashing on a hospital visit now and will try this on my return and let your know.( Had it from new.)

Thanks everyone, I did everything and it worked in Chester tonight, so maybe it was a mixture of poor reception and "mucky card" Brilliant

Maybe a coincidence but I'm
on orange and realised earlier today my phone basically "froze" I kept having to turn it in and off throughout the day and have kept getting a no signal message. Seems ok now tho.