Batter down your annual mobile costs article Discussion Area

smarkalfat

Martins approach is genius, i have been on 3, started off with 400mins 250texts for £17.50 for first 3months, £25 next 3months. then upgraded to 750 mins, 250 texts & £30 for the last 6 months.

and now with 2months to go after readin on here claimed for another upgrade and after threatening to leave unless they offer me the NOkia N73 for nothing, hehehe funny they gave me the new sony erickson K610i for 11 months free, 1oo mins, 100 texts, and pay £20 quid in the last month. am smiling at that now. since the phone is worth atleast £100 quid on ebay.

genius advice here, they'll do anything to keep you.
good luck pple and stop paying more for your contracts.

han2505

I am currently with O2 and I am on a £50 contract. I get 1000 mins any network anytime and 1000 texts. I got this after a lot of work with them as I was spending way over. UNFORTUNETLY i am still spending over this every month and my last bill was £200+. :eek:

My partner travels alot so we spend a lot of time on the phone, day and evening. Does anyone know any networks, tariffs that could help me? Where i can get signal lol! Am in the Manchester area. I know im asking a lot. Thanks

gpage2000

Don't know if anybody's mentioned this (as there's so many posts i don't have time to read them all!) but I used to work for a v well known independant retailer of mobiles, and the answer is quite easy...

First note though: if you're on a 12 month contract, ring up 29 days before those 12 months are up, 18 month contracts, you can call 59 days before the 18 months are up.

DO NOT go into the shop/branch/retailer where you got the phone from unless you desperately need a 'sim free' upgrade phone.

Call your network direct (as Martin MSE did with Orange) - but I would be prepared with a NEW deal you have seen somewhere that suits you, whatever it is.

Ask for your 'PAC' (not PUK!) number, which is the code required to transfer your number to another network. They will then transfer you to a retentions team (90% of the time! some annoying networks will get you to write in first, then call YOU up with the ultimate deal)

Explain the offer, and that is why you wish to leave, and generally they will give you what you want, if not better. If they can't, then unless you have to have that particular network, simply wait for the PAC code and transfer for to that better deal.

You can't really lose!

CarphoneWarehouse and phone4U are generally quite good for new deals in terms of being able to give you cash, on top of any cash back offer. they will even buy you out of an existing contract (up to £80 i beleive) to gain the new business, but you will still end up with £35 per month ish, whereas via the network direct, you usually get discount on the bill, i.e. the money that leaves your account, which is the main thing.

Dont trade in your old phone for £50 or for 'free' accessories, best bet is to simply sell it on Ebay or privately for CASH money, which can fund your new deal for a while!!

The other tip, is to watch out for the companies that insist on you taking the insurance, it's quite unlawful, but if the advisor offers you a better deal IF you take the insurance, simply cancel it the next day: there'll be no penalty so long as you stop the DD in advance of 10-14 days of taking the contract. You can completely use their commission hungry thoughts against them!!

So there we are! Hope this is of some use, and I'm sorry if it's all been said before.

gpage2000

I also forgot to mention, that if you do end up with a cashback offer, it's not the end of the World so long as it's with a reputable company and you post any documents recorded delivery + you need to be disciplined!

I am on Tmobile getting FLEXT 35 (£180 of calls per month) for £17.50 due to my PAC code shennanigans and believe it or not, as i went through Carphone, i get £70 back each 6 months in cheque form (offer around when tmob introduced flext march last year)

All i do, is when i get the cheque, i pay it in the bank (derrr!) wait for it to clear... then I call tmobile and make a £70 bill payment by Debit card, meaning it's actually going towards the bill.

My next 4 months will cost me nothing! Beats blowing the £70 on nothing.

:j

ScreechMF

My contract is up with "3". So I phoned them looking for a new deal. Eventually, they asked if I was happy to keep my existing phone. If I was, my monthly line rental would reduce from £30 to £5 for 500 xnet minutes and 100 texts. Thats £60 for the year! I have a good phone so will probably go for this.

sadiedoll

ScreechMF wrote:

My contract is up with "3". So I phoned them looking for a new deal. Eventually, they asked if I was happy to keep my existing phone. If I was, my monthly line rental would reduce from £30 to £5 for 500 xnet minutes and 100 texts. Thats £60 for the year! I have a good phone so will probably go for this.

Man Alive, that's a good deal. I'll bear that in mind for when I come up for renewal with 3 next year.

Good on you!

special_k83

I have two lines with t-mobile and I called up to cancel one of them because I hardly used it. They offered me so many different deals and I just kept saying no. In the end he offered me free off peak calls to landlines and t-mobile phones for £1 a month. Yes, just ONE POUND! It was a 2 year contract, but it was only £1 so I couldn't resist. I kept it and have given it to my mum to use instead of her PAYG.

When my other contract is up, I will really push my luck. I have been with them for over 5 years and a lot of my bills are over £100 because I travel a lot.

gyinnit

I just called Three cause my contract is coming to an end to request an 'upgrade'.

I wanted the K800i and along with that I was offered the VTT 700 (400mins, 250txt, 25 video and photo msg, £5 downloads) for 15 months half price line rental. Normally £35 a month, but £17.50 for 15 months. I can get this as a new customer also with a memory card and a bluetooth handset which they were not willing to give me, even though the online store would to a new customer.

Everyone else on this board seems to be getting great offers and deals from their networks - has anyone had any 'extras' from Three?

He did say that they get new offers in March, so might call back to see if there's anything worth staying for.

gyinnit

Update on my 3 upgrade. Since they weren't offering me anything I wanted I decided to go and get myself a new 3 contract, via quidco.

I called 3 to cancel because they didn't have what I wanted and genuinely wanted to cancel it. Then the guy decides to offer me 100 mins, 100 txt, a free 6280 (bit dated now but really good phone), for 11 months free line rental. So £20 for a year, it'd be rude to say no, wouldn't it?!

jswaminathanuk

Hi All,
What do you say?
last month managed to get offpeak 1000 to O2 and landline @ £10 pm
£100 cashback for not having phone
So paying £20 for offpeak1000 (some text as well but I don't care much abt texts I have got other phones for that)

Yesterday managed to get
25 mins + 25 text @£6 per month
S.E. K610i
Free bluetooth car kit
so paying £72
Aaah did I mentioned that both are 12 mnths contract
Not too bad what do you think?
My target was to bring my phone bill down to £10 but I did better and managed to get it for £8
Got a phone as well. I don't need much minutes (I just wanted but I will cut on my calls and will try to do over weekend or more landline)
hey£24 is not bad for this year.
Guys what do you think not that bad isn't it?