Contract Phone / Credit Rating

uptheblades

Just a question that hopefully somebody will be able to answer...

Do all contract phones require a credit check and are there any that are more leniant (spelling?) than others?

With so many good offers at the minute, I'm looking to get a contract phone but was wondering about the whole credit thing as my past aint brilliant!

Thanks.

impy78

The man in the Carphone warehouse told my husband that Orange are not as rigid as the others... but I don't know if we can take this as gospel. I know that Phones 4 U ocassionally have days where they wil give you a phone on a certain network without a credit check. Which is how I got a phone on O2.

uptheblades

Is the lack of credit check just with o2? And... is it just a case of being lucky not to get one?

In regards to orange, that's the one I got told to avoid re. credit checks! A couple of years ago I got an Orange contract and had a direct debit - always paid the bill etc. Not one problem - would this stand me in good stead for going back to them? Or does it hold no advantage?

UKays_Finest

impy78 wrote:

The man in the Carphone warehouse told my husband that Orange are not as rigid as the others... but I don't know if we can take this as gospel. I know that Phones 4 U ocassionally have days where they wil give you a phone on a certain network without a credit check. Which is how I got a phone on O2.

I've had the opposite experience in fact. Was turned down by Orange for a contract phone (after having been with them for 6 years!) and got accepted straight away by Vodafone. Orange even wanted to me to pay a deposit of £300 as a safety-net for them....in case things went "pear-shaped" as they put it!

Sod Orange I say

impy78

Go to an Orange shop. Say you want to reinstate your old contract if possible.

I did this in February last year and get a free phone, no credit checks, and they gave me free texts because of my past history.

If you have any details of your old contract (bill, bank statement with payments on, then you should be able to do this...but go to either an orange store or orange direct).

UKays_Finest

uptheblades wrote:

Is the lack of credit check just with o2? And... is it just a case of being lucky not to get one?

In regards to orange, that's the one I got told to avoid re. credit checks! A couple of years ago I got an Orange contract and had a direct debit - always paid the bill etc. Not one problem - would this stand me in good stead for going back to them? Or does it hold no advantage?

As said in my previous post uptheblades, unfortunately, that wasn't enough for Orange. I was with them for 6 years on a £25 p/m contract, never defaulted on a payment and still they turned me down...no idea why

If you do try them, hope you have some better luck

UKays_Finest

impy78 wrote:

Go to an Orange shop. Say you want to reinstate your old contract if possible.

I did this in February last year and get a free phone, no credit checks, and they gave me free texts because of my past history.

If you have any details of your old contract (bill, bank statement with payments on, then you should be able to do this...but go to either an orange store or orange direct).

impy, thats exactly what I did....asked them to reinstate my old contract (this was in Nov 05 btw). No such luck....seems a bit like pot luck with Orange if you ask me. Ah well.

Farhan

voda are definately the most picky of all networks, they seem to be very selective about their customer base.

Having worked in the industry customers, the general trend is that o2 more strict with the credit checks than the others- often i have had customers rejected on o2 but then they go through fine on 3g or orange.

Orange were b4 the easiest network to get onto however they have increased their customer base substantially so are now being picky about who they let on but to be honest no one really understands their system regarding rejecting people. Sometimes it can seem to be pot luck. I have friends with better credit ratings then myself yet i have, yet i currently have 15, YES 15 orange contracts on the go:) and they get rejected when trying to take out other contracts.

It also depends where you live. T mobile have a large client base in the london area and are currently trying to expand in other areas such as birmingham where they are likely to be more lenient and are offering special packages for birmingham customers.

U might as well try all the networks and if all else fails, go for 3. And if u get rejected from 3, then good luck in life!

Steve_xx

Orange use Experion I think. They do sometimes ask for cash upfront, to be held on account for a year.

It's kinda odd that one of the posters had a previous excellent record with Orange then they refused him service. I can only think that they must have credit checked and saw something on the record that they didn't like.

I had an odd experience with Orange a few years back. I bought a company phone from them, but as it was in the early days of Orange and I put it in my home address. Then we started to get more for the company so the company had an account and I used to simply pass my home bill to the company for payment. Then I cancelled the home registered phone and passed the fiinal bill to the company for payment. Somehow Orange credited the company account, instead of the individual ccount. Therefore it looked like I hadn't paid the final £16 bill. They set a few letters but I ignored them, thinking it was the company delaying making the payment.

Some while later in a shopping mall, a girl wanted me to have an American Express card. I didn't need or want it, but there was something like 2% cashback and some other bits and bats, so I said yes. They wouldn't let me have it. I didn't care, but I did wonder why. So I wrote to to American Express and I explained that I was alarmed as I knew my credit record was impeccable. They mentioned Experion and Orange and I was not amused.

I contacted Orange and explained to them that the bill had been paid - and they agreed that this was so. I asked them what they were going to do about my credit record and they told me to send some money to Experion and ask for it to be amended. I was incensed and I demanded that Orange would, without delay, contact Experion and remove any record of a default and that Orange would write to me when it had been done. The consequence of them not doing so would be that I would cancel 70 company mobile phone contracts. Needles to say, it was done without delay.

Mind you, I had no intention of severing those contracts as these were those heady days when 0800 numbers via Orange were free..................

mr_accountant

T-mobile seems to be lenient with the one experience i had with them. I ordered a new phone in early January, however for some unknown reason i have not been on the electoral roll since December, so how do they know where i say i lived? Yet i still passed ok! But i do have a long and exceptional history of paying bills on time.

To me these firms are no way near as strict as credit cards/ loans when it comes to credit checks (understandably)

smcaul

My credit record is way off in the less then perfect playing field but I got a contract phone from O2 september last year without any problems - I did it online - and got a good deal imo.