Samsung Galaxy Y on TalkTalk for as little as £5 per month

TalkTalk is offering three -- small, medium and large -- handsomely wrapped, monthly packages, at bargain-basement prices, meaning anyone with as little as £5 to their name each month can have a slice of smart phone action with the dinky Samsung Galaxy Y.

Sign up to the small package, and you'll be entitled to 100 minutes, 250 texts and 100MB of data. Put a bit more cash down each month for the medium package, and you could be receiving 300 minutes, 3,000 texts and 500MB of data. If you're feeling really plush however, you can opt for the large package, which packs an impressive 1,000 minutes, 3,000 texts and 4GB of data.

The price for each package depends on which phone you opt for, from the £5 Galaxy Y up to the £45 Galaxy Note. As an added incentive, you can get double data allowance when you sign up online, meaning you can effectively receive a respectable 1GB of data with your Galaxy Y, all for just £10 a month.

There is a catch though. TalkTalk isn't willing to budge on the contract length -- "It's 24 months or nothing," warns uSwitch telecoms expert Ernest Doku. In addition, for all those prolific Facebook fiends out there, TalkTalk will come down hard in terms of 'out of bundle' charges, taking 30p a minute and 5p per MB of your hard-earned cash should you go over your monthly tariff.

Keep a wary eye on Facebook and system updates if you opt for the small or medium packages, as they'll eat up your data quicker than Mo Farah eats up miles.

There are 36 handsets available on the small, medium or large plans. Typically, the cheaper handsets, such as the Galaxy Y, will come knocking at the door for monthly sums of £5 for the small package, £10 for the medium and £20 for the large. If it's the latest gadgetry you're after, fear not -- from £25 per month you could be blessed with Samsung's benchmark breaking S3, Nokia's Lumia 900, or a BlackBery Bold 9900.

There are similar deals on offer which can be found on comparison sites such as uSwitch or MoneySupermarket, but you have to look pretty hard to find a cheaper monthly deal.

The Galaxy Y, on the £5 per month small plan, is hardly the greatest phone on the market, but it's a simple introduction to what can be a daunting world of apps, touchscreens and the mobile web. This particular package would be ideal for concerned parents in the market for buying their little treasures a reliable first phone, for as little as humanly possible -- and £120 spread over two years really is very little. Another option, if you were willing to pay up front, is the more capable £100 Huawei G300.

Either way, it's worth factoring in TalkTalk's latest morsels when picking your way through what can be an endless buffet of contrasting phones and tariffs. For more phone offers, check out our mobile deals page.

Are you in the market for a new phone contract, or just dismally unhappy with your current one? Feel free to drop me a line in the comments box, or on our Facebook wall.