Possibility of free use of a mobile phone

jasavib1

While browsing through tiscali money (portal) I came across an article on how It is now possible to get a free mobile phone and pay nothing for the duration of the 12-month contract.

The independent mobile phone tariff comparison and switching website OneCompare.com is offering free up-to-date phones which, when combined with cashback deals, effectively means the user pays nothing.

I have posted a link to the original tiscali article below.

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/money/guardian/features/2006/03/4/how-to-get-free-use-of-a-phone.html

regards
jasavib1

jasavib1

I was just looking through the OneCompare.com offers to see what handsets were available free so I thought I would include them below in case anybody is interested.

Nokia 7360, Nokia 6111, Sony Ericsson W550i, Sony Ericsson K750i - all of these phones are available (at time of writing) with the free line rental on a twelve month contract.nth

An example being Nokia 7360
Orange 1000 minutes offpeak (orange mobile and landline)
£20 per month
Money reedemable by cashback - Direct credit £68 (sent via cheque), followed by £58 cashback on months 4, 8, and 12.

The Samsung D600 is also available with 11 months free line rental on a 12 month line rental which works out at £1.67 per month.

Cheers
Jasavib1

redux

Yes, this has been possible for a year or two, but with better phones now, and there are often threads about them. The networks original idea must have been that these were loss-leaders, but when there are more than enough minutes for almost anyone, you can't see how they can make any money!

Alltheloginsaretakenappar

The tariffs mentioned above (1000 minutes offpeak to orange mobiles and landlines) would in most cases make money for Orange by the calls made outside of the free call allowance. (This allows the mobile companies to pay commission to the retailers, who then are able to offer these deals) That's why the best phones are available on these rubbish tariffs.

Of course the sensible thing to do is sign up with one of these for the free phone and then use a different sim card. But if everyone does this they will eventually have to rethink these offers.

There are also many good offers on better tariffs that work out cheap but not totally free, e.g. 200 minutes for £5/month after cashbacks. These are the ones where I doubt they make much money. Last year I got 500 minutes and 100 texts and a free phone for £5/month with 3 and I've rarely used anything outside the free calls and texts allowance (except for £50 on that addictive Walkers crisps competition in September, but I did end up with two ipod minis!)

Then there's also a high % of people who forget to send off for the cashbacks. I doubt that they've budgeted for 100% of people claiming ther cashbacks so if everyone did they'd be in trouble - a good reason to stick to the better known retailers for these offers.

brigittejohn

The phone company makes money on these so-called free deals in the following ways:
- People use more than their free allowance
- some phone numbers are never included in the free allowance, and they hit you hard there
- they give you a 3 months "free" insurance and make you continue to pay after the 3 months, if you don't actively cancel it.

Don't worry, they make their money!

That's why I stay with pay as you go. I KNOW what comes off my credit card!

*!*HIBS*!*

Some companies say that if you are not successful for one claim your subsequent claims will be void so they end up paying for a contract that they could (maybe) never afford.

However there may be other companies who deal in cashbacks, say that if you are not successful for this particular claim, you can still claim the others.