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[MSE Natasha]

5 August 2008

UPDATE 6pm FRIDAY 08 AUG 2008: This deal has now ended as Topcashback, Cashbackkings & Quidco now all require you to keep the Sim active for three months before cashback is paid. Only apply for this deal if you want the Sim card for at least three months.

What's the deal?

T-Mobile has a range of competitive one month notice contract Sim-only deals and at present, if you sign up via a cashback site you'll get £35.

So either grab the cheap a Sim and get cashback, or for a loophole simply sign up, cancel after a month and you're £20 up, because the cheapest tariff, with 350 mins of free calls and 650 texts, only costs £15! Even if you keep it for two months, you'll still be a fiver up.

Remember though; to make the calls you'll need to put the Sim in your phone, and that means people will have to call you on a different number (ree Cheap Mobiles for more details).

How the cashback works

This isn't the same type of cashback as is often offered with mobile phones, with those you need to jump through hoops to get it. This is via specialist cashback sites that list retailers and product providers.

They get paid by the retailers if you click through them, but importantly, they then give some or all of this cash to you, provided you've registered with it, which is free. To find out more, read the Best Cashback Sites guide.

How to get the cash

• Step one. Get a cashback account.
  
  Simply go to cashback sites TopCashBack, CashBackKings & Quidco, login and search for T-Mobile.
  
  If you don't have an account with any of these you'll need to get one. It's free to sign up, but Quidco and Cashbackkings take the first five pounds you earn each year as its admin charge. So if this is the only cashback you earn all year, the total will be £30.

• Step two. Sign up for a contract.
  
  Next, sign up for the cheapest T-Mobile tariff: Solo 15. This costs £15/month and includes 350 cross network minutes and 650 texts a month. It’s a Sim-only deal, which means they don’t give you a phone: you just pop it in your current handset.
  
  However you could also go for the 1,400 minutes and unlimited texts for £30 a month deal, which if you're going to keep it, is very competitive (see the Cheap Mobiles guide to compare) and get the cashback on that too.

• OPTIONAL Step three. Cancel the contract.
  
  The day you get the Sim, cancel the contract, or you’ll get charged for another month. You’ll still get the free calls and texts for 30 days.

Cashback sites payouts aren't 100% guaranteed

As cashback sites rely on the retailers paying them, you can never count cashback as a sure thing until it's in your bank account. Yet this has good feedback and there's nothing to suggest it won't work for the majority of people.

If you're a first time cashback site user, please do read the full Best Cashback Sites article for a full explanation of the pros and cons. Plus to see how the different sites payouts compare use the Cashback Sites Maximiser.

There are more Sim-only plus cashback offers available

Vodafone, o2 and T-mobile all offer 30-day Sim contracts, so there a few other deals lurking around using this same technique described, but with different terms and conditions and pay outs. Personally, I think this option is the most straight forward.

An example of another cashback offer is this: Vodafone's paying £90 via Quidco if you take out it's Sim-only tariff, but you'll have to keep the Sim for a minimum of four months before qualifying for the cash. And even then, although the cheapest tariffs are £15 too (so you'd make £30 profit after four months) you'll only get 250 mins & 100 texts or 150 mins & 1,000s texts.

If you find a similar Sim-only loophole, please post the details below so other MoneySavers can benefit too.

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[superstar]

anyone taken up this offer?

[Quentin]

Originally Posted by MSE Natasha

The day you get the Sim, cancel the contract

Not really the way to keep your membership of quidco (no doubt all cashback companies would have the same view on this).

The cashback companies would soon lose their partners if we all followed this plan of calculated abuse.

When you join up to quidco, you agree to their ts + cs, which include agreeing not to abuse offers like this. If they catch you abusing any offers they have the right to terminate your account, and if that happens you forfeit any cashback in your account which you are awaiting payment for.

The Quidco cooperative concept also means that it is not every member for themselves. The actions of an individual can affect the entire group and in some cases spoil things for everyone. Being a part of Quidco is understanding that you are a part of the whole and you have responsibility towards all the other members. Please do not abuse the merchant programs or attempt to create fraudulent or deceitful transactions

[adamt]

im planning to do this offer, but i just called T-Mobile, and said i only need the sim for one month, and if i was to cancel as soon as the sim arrives, will i still be charged for the second month. and the guy said NO, you cant cancel that soon, you have to leave it one month minimum???

EDIT: Just spoke to another salesman, and he has said, as long as you give 30 days notice you can quit within thw first month.

[mazdaspring]

I am using t-mobile 1 months simcard deal now. It's actually 2 months contract. You cannot cancel contract until the end of first month. I already asked them (when I already started using the simcard). It's ok for me because I need it for 2 months. It's £20 a month 500mins+unlimited texts(+5 free international texts within your first month). Not bad because I got £35 quidco cashback (already confirmed). So I will pay only £5 in the end to use this simcard for 2 months... Worth it!!!

If you are not sure you can give them a call again as "adamt" said. They might cancel contract for you after you finish your first month. However they said I could call them to cancel the contract after the end of first month. (they didnt say you can cancel now)

[greencode]

I can't actually see anything in their "Legal stuff you need to know" section that says you have to stay with them for 30 days. The only bit I can see that mentions 30 days is:

"If you decide to upgrade or cancel your contract you'll need to give 30 days notice to us by phone. We'll issue you a final bill at the end of the 30 days to cover the notice period and any services used."

[greencode]

Okay, just to confirm. I received my Solo SIM Card today and before I even inserted it into the phone I called t-mobile to cancel the contract. This was absolutely fine to do. I thought it would be as I saw nothing in the contract that said you have to keep it for 30 days before cancelling.

Basically I said I'd just received the SIM card and that I would only need to use it for the 30 days and wouldn't need to make any further calls outside this time frame.

[adamt]

I have just recieved my sim today., and can confirm the above.

Phoned T-Mobile straight away, said to cancel as only required for One month, he said fine, i would only be charged for one month, and the sim would be cut on on the 7th September. So i only pay one £15 monthly fee.

My cashback is already displayed as pending, not bad for a free £20.

[greencode]

Originally Posted by adamt

I have just recieved my sim today., and can confirm the above.

Phoned T-Mobile straight away, said to cancel as only required for One month, he said fine, i would only be charged for one month, and the sim would be cut on on the 7th September. So i only pay one £15 monthly fee.

My cashback is already displayed as pending, not bad for a free £20.

Mine too is marked as "Tracked" so let's just hope it all goes through okay - shouldn't see why not as there's nothing in the Quidco page to indicate a timeframe, unlike the Vodafone one which stipulates 4 months.

[Donal]

Just ordered this, let's see how it pans out!

[jdeez88]

Just found the T-mobile link on TopCashBack.co.uk, and it states

Please note that the Cashback on the SIM only monthly deal will only be paid once you have had the SIM active for 3 months.

So surely they won't pay out if your SIM is canceled as soon as you receive it??

[greencode]

Originally Posted by jdeez88

Just found the T-mobile link on TopCashBack.co.uk, and it states


So surely they won't pay out if your SIM is canceled as soon as you receive it??

Umm, interesting why they include it on the TCB site but not Quidco. If there's ever any Terms they usually include this on the page with all the other info.

[jdeez88]

so maybe Quidco will pay regardless of how long the SIM is active and TCB wont? I'm new to these cashback schemes so am just being cautious!

[INeedATissue]

Originally Posted by greencode

Umm, interesting why they include it on the TCB site but not Quidco. If there's ever any Terms they usually include this on the page with all the other info.

They have the same 3 month warning on Cashback Kings.

You can get £30 cashback on this same deal with Dial-a-phone at Cashback Kings (I couldn't find it on Quidco and TopCashback) and there doesn't seem to be any restictions on it there.

[mazdaspring]

Can I ask anyone here????

Now I have this T-mobile simcard (1 month contract and ordered through quidco) which I plan to use for 2 months. If I cancel the contract after 2 months and after that I buy new 1 month contract simcard again through quidco, will I be able to get cashback from quidco again???? or it is only for first order??? Thank you

[lexa34]

I am just waiting for it to track!!

Have double insurance of doing street checker before confirming order which means if I happen not to be happy with the coverage I receive I can return for a refund within 14 days. If anyone signs up you may want to consider doing this to?? Guess they would have to stick to this... hopefully!

[mazdaspring]

Can I ask another question? I bought the simcard last 2weeks and quidco has Validated the cashback for this deal. Will I be able to cancel the contract after 1 month? will I get cahback if I cancel the contract after using 2 months???

[AndysDad]

Far better to go for the Vodaphone deal of a simcard only.Its £90 cashback via Quidco aslong as its active for 4 months @£15/month.I intend to keep mine for 6 months anyway so its free if the cashback gets paid (Already validated after 24 hours)They also do a £20/month for more mins if you need them.

[greencode]

Originally Posted by mazdaspring

Can I ask another question? I bought the simcard last 2weeks and quidco has Validated the cashback for this deal. Will I be able to cancel the contract after 1 month? will I get cahback if I cancel the contract after using 2 months???

See the note at the top of this forum post with regards to this advice being cancelled due to the 3 month minimum requirement. Just on the phone now to t-mobile to cancel mine. If you have purchased the SIM card and wish to cancel then you can do so within 7 days of receiving the SIM. This is part of the Consumer Protection Regulations 2000 and so they have to cancel it by law. You'll probably just have to pay for any calls you've made in that time.

Just got off the phone and everything's cancelled - oh well, sometimes you find the loopholes with cashback sites and sometimes you don't - nothing gained, nothing lost.

[Donal]

What's the best number to ring T-Mobile to cancel? Their website's not being very helpful!