Pay a year's rental up front?

grifty

This isn't something I've got the foggiest about, so I wondered if anyone has tried this...

Would a mobile phone company mind if you could offer a slightly lower lump sum for a full year or 18 months line rental? For instance, if the tariff was £20 a month (so £240 over a year contract), would they entertain an upfront payment of less money, such as £200 perhaps?

It just sounded like an idea that might give a little extra discount. Or is this cloud cuckoo land?

jf2404

They wont budge on the line rental as there are lower tariff's if you can't afford the one you chose.

But you can pay up front on most contracts, as you say £20 a month x 12 months = £240 you can pay that onto your air time account and aslong as you don't go over your free minutes, your monthly line rental will just be deducted from your credit and nothing will be taken by direct debit.

It's a sad state of affairs, but the networks are making millions a day and don't really mind declining your line rental reduction and losing your custom.

For evey 1 person cancelling, they probably have 5 people signing new contracts.

Good luck.

grifty

Thanks jf2404. It is strange that the companies generally try hard to keep a customer who asks to cancel, offering them the world sometimes and yet they wouldn't want to take a slightly reduced amount of money upfront from a brand new customer. Because it's not something I have regularly seen talked about on MSE or elsewhere, I guessed it wouldn't be a real goer, but I'm still confused about some of the decisions the companies make.

Maybe you're right, jf2404...perhaps they know the customers will still flock in other ways.

jf2404

No probs.

Sometimes they will let you cancel also.

I used to work for Vodafone and if someone came through saying they'd like to cancel, i'd do everything in my power to try and keep them, offer them whatever they want and about 98% of the time i managed to get the customer to stay .

Now i see people signing up getting better deals than people that have been a loyal customer for years. There happy to take your money each month, but not help your requirements when you need them changing.

I've been on Vodafone since 1997, i don't spend much each month and hardly go over my free minutes and i'm charged £200+ for a phone a new connection would get free.

Stupid, but there making loads of money and hardly anyone complains, so they will keep doing it.

redux

I've had T-mobile contracts discounted by 5%. Maybe they still do.

michaels

afaik t-mobile still do this - especially useful to do on u-fix if the phone plus rental package is to be a present

Steve_xx

If you want to pay up front for using your phone, you buy into the Pay As You Go concept!

I wouldn't advise anyone to pay upfront for a service where doing so could be avoided. Far better to pay in arrears in case the company you're paying to goes bankrupt.

There are always deals about on mobiles. You have to shop around and you have to change networks now and then. This is the effect of competition. No point in staying with any one service provider if they don't look after you. In general, retail customers aren't looked after very well at all compared with corporate customers.

redux

Steve_xx wrote:

Far better to pay in arrears in case the company you're paying to goes bankrupt.

What are the realistic chances of Deutsche Telekom going broke?

The other advantage of this on T-mobile is that the cashback comes from the dealer in a month instead of after 6 months, thus cutting exposure to risk not increasing it.

Steve_xx

I don't remember specifying a particular company.

redux

Steve_xx wrote:

I don't remember specifying a particular company.

T-mobile is the only network that gives a discount for annual payment of line rental, which is what this thread and the answers are about.

Steve_xx

The original poster and the three subsequent posts to yours did not mention TMobile specifically. Nor did I.