mobilephonesontheweb

This is a new dealer on Quidco. I took a look as I do with all these companies but think I'll stick to some others I use which offer higher Quidco cashback and better cashback claiming terms. There are some excellent deals on a couple of the safer sites and three other sites which sound great but I would definitely avoid (The Mobile Outlet, Phones2uDirect and Buymobilephones).

However, before ordering anything you really MUST fully understand the cashback (and other) t&c or you could lose out. I've been doing deals for just under 12 months now and have eight contracts at present. Most companies have people with severe and often justifiable grievances, but many complainants on here simply haven't followed the t&c and have lost out through silly mistakes.

Get it right and it's ALL free (plus Quidco money). Get it wrong and it's gone!

At first I used E2Save and Onestopphoneshop. It's a bit complicated, but they are owned by E2Save. ThePhonespot is also owned by cpw - and anything ordered via them is adminstered by E2Save. I mainly used Thephonespot while they offered £50 cashback but now they pay £36.50 - the same as E2Save. However, E2Save currently offer £50 on one 12 month free deal - Nokia 6300; an excellent phone by all accounts but not for me (low battery life, low internal memory and no memory card with the phone AND it's on Orange; there are better networks). Your wife might like the phone though.

Having said ALL that it's more complicated now. cpw sites are pretending to match deals from Coolnewmobile and Phonebox Direct (they are in effect a company called Mobile Affiliates). In my view the best deal is 12 months free on the k800i - but you must make sure you understand the t&c precisley and follow them. A lot of people don't (not sending claims by recorded delivery and then finding they "never arrived", sending the RIGHT bill (easy to get THAT wrong!) and they pretend they're a much bigger company than they are. They now seem to take over 2 months to pay each claim and there are penalties if you get it wrong (e.g. changing banks for the dd will cost £50 etc). I now use them in prefernece to cpw, but more dangerous because they stand more chance of going bust. Also you get no real company documentation with the phone. However, generally they do seem to pay IF you do everything right. What I am really up in arms about with cpw companies (E2Save/Onestopphoneshop/thephonespot) is that they have recently copied (word for word) the t&c of Mobile Affiliates sites and so using THEIR terms and conditions as well. They use the excuse that they are "price matching", but in my bitter experience they very rarely pricematch and this is simply an excuse to make the terms more difficult, the cash-flow worse and make more people lose out on their cashback claims. Further, since cpw sites didn't consider and write these terms themselves they really haven't thought them through. At least with the Affiliates sites I understand precisely how they work (although I haven't made a claim yet on my two contracts with them I will go for more in due course).

Additionally, cpw was dumped for strategic business reasons by Vodafone last year. Yet their tariffs are MUCH better (Stoptheclock effectively gives you thousands of off-peak minutes PLUS 500 on-peak). On the other hand, cpw O2 deals do offer 0845/70 numbers as part of the bundle; O2 themselves no longer do. cpw also administers their own O2 administrative centre and seem to offer excellent renewable deals. I was recently offered a credit of £300 and an off-peak 750 min 125 text tariff for £25 a month - effectively meaning no money comes from my bank and there are no cash-back claims to make. O2 are changing their tariffs imminently though and deals come and go quickly.

As I said, there is so much knowledge here; MOST cpw site deals are "clearance phones". Most are as new (even suspect most of mine have been) but some aren't. They may not come with headphones (required for the radio to work) etc. Got two deals for my ex from them and she had to change the phone twice because it definitely was used and (worse) locked to a different network so she couldn't use it. I would also generally use E2Save in preference to Onestopphoneshop. Have a look, read through the t&c VERY carefully so you know EXACTLY what is required and decide whether it's worth the risk. I do a few deals for frineds and relatives and make sure they do everything they can to get things right throught the contract period - but there are no guarantees. Even the likely national postal strikes which are looming (in case you haven't heard) could mean you can't claim on time (and on the "matched" t&c lose one claim, lose the rest). Further, even if there are no strikes Royal Mail staff (especially the management and customer relations (ha!) ) aren't that great and recorded delivery sometimes fails to track on their site (i.e. no signature!).

I love these deals and am grabbing loads - but need to be confident and very organised throughout!

mobilephonesontheweb is owned by mobileconnectionsonline

0845/70 (not 0871) numbers only through cpw. Vodafone tariffs don;t include them and only through non-cpw - such as Phonebox Direct amd Coolnewmobile.

Basically, this works because the networks pay the dealers throughout the contract term, hoping you'll stay with them afterwards and/or exceed your bundle limits or use non-bundle features such as the internet. That's how the dealers can only pay you back a bit at a time, but in turn they calculate they will make a profit because a lot of people either forget or don't comply with the terms of the cashback claims.

No problem. If she likes the Nokia 6300 and you can put up with Orange, the E2Save deal may be the best option. Just make sure you understand the t&c first and keep copies of everything!