Making the iphone cost effective

lufcgirl

I've got my heart set on an iphone after my friends brother showed me a demo of his. It's the only phone I'll consider moving from PAYG to contract to.

The problem I have is making the phone cost effective in terms of a price plan. I don't mind paying a bit extra per month because it's a top of the range phone.
Currently I'm on Orange PAYG and top of £30 per month and get unlimited texts and calls to my three magic numbers for 20p for an hour. As I can see, the highest amount of texts I can get with o2 is 500 on the iphone, is there anyway this can be altered?! 500 mins is fine with me, but on average I send around 1500 texts a month so the bill will be so high.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

jasonwatkins

lufcgirl wrote: »

I send around 1500 texts a month

50 texts a day ? *faints dead away*

I know it's stating the bleedin' obvious but I would actually go into one of the O2 branches and talk to them. Explain how much you spend on Orange and how much you want to switch networks and see what they say - if they realise they'll get a lot of money out of you then they might be able to offer you an incentive.

Anyway, i've just looked and you apparently can add an unlimited text bundle for £7.50

So for £42.50 a month you could have 600 minutes, unlimited texts.

But you could always see if they'll entertain a 24 month contract - if you're willing to sign a 2 year deal, they might be able to drop the price for that. If you take out the £35 a month tariff for two years, ask them if they'll add the unlimited text bundle for free.

z4kir

As far as I know the iPhone tariffs are fixed and cannot be altered... only option is to add on bundles and that's at the normal cost!

lufcgirl

I went into o2 yesterday but they seemed really busy so I walked over to CPW who stated 'You cannot add another bundle onto an iphone account because these tariffs have been designed by Apple and o2 specifically for this phone'. I will try them again today and explain what I use, but even in the other o2 shop in the Metro Centre, the guy didn't even come up to me, and I thought I'm not wasting my time with him!

1500 texts is just all my social life planning lol!

jasonwatkins

i guess there's always the option of buying an unlocked one off ebay.

yes, it will cost a small fortune in the short term but if you spend as much as you do on orange PAYG, it may well even itself out on the long run.

although saying that, for some of the prices quoted for unlocked iphones on ebay, you could arugably by a half decent car

lufcgirl

I guess so. I'm starting work for apple next month so it'll be nice to have an iphone, just to keep up to date with everyone. And before anyone asks, I can't get a discount!

jasonwatkins

maybe as an apple employee, they'd give you preferential treatment for an iphone?

although it may not be something you'd ideally ask on your first day

Cavey

lufcgirl wrote: »

I went into o2 yesterday but they seemed really busy so I walked over to CPW who stated 'You cannot add another bundle onto an iphone account because these tariffs have been designed by Apple and o2 specifically for this phone'.

Nice to see they know what they are talking about. From the O2 iPhone tariff page...

Add extra minutes or texts

You can also create your perfect iPhone bundle by adding Bolt Ons for use when you are in the UK or abroad. How about unlimited O2 to O2 calls or unlimited anytime texts for just £7.50 per month? Find out more

m00

1500 texts typed in on an iphone is going to take you all month to type in on that screen!

lufcgirl

I've been into an o2 store today, waited around 25mins and nobody was free. I did read that I can add unlimited texts, so thats a good idea.

Think I'm just going to wait for the price plans to change/costs to come down before I get one. They can't stay expensive forever!

Firefly

If I was your mum I'd be really worried about you sending 50 txts per day! That surely isn't either a) healthy or b) sociable! How do you manage to find time to send all of those?

Are you sure you've got time to fit in a job between texting?!!