Batter down your annual mobile costs article Discussion Area

jess2001jess

I rang Orange today informing them my contract ends tomorrow and I will be moving to a different network where I saw a cheaper deal for a pay monthly, instantly the sales person told me he could give me 1200 minutes, unlimtd texts and internet and a new HTC phone for the smae price (£20 a month inc VAT) :j Success! Of course I took him up on it! I never would have thought they would have given me such an amazing deal, ive been looking at phone deals on the net for a while now, I'm so glad that I rang them today!

Roseanne1

Hi everyone. I wondered if I could ask some advice. I lost my old phone and am pleased to say I got a reasonably priced unlocked brand new phone from Carphone Warehouse.

My replacement sim is coming from Orange in a few days as I still have a few months of my contract to run. But, now I can have my pick of the networks without having to pay to unlock my phone, I thought I should start thinking now about what I want.

Currently, I have two sims. The one in the UK is an Orange 12 month contract sim with 300 free anytime minutes to landlines and mobiles, unlimited texts and magic numbers (which I haven't used yet) for £10 per month. I also have a Vodafone Ireland PAYG sim for use in the Republic of Ireland, which I bought over there and gives me international calls from Ireland to the UK at 10c per minute, much better than the 36p per minute to make and 11p per minute to receive calls I'd have to pay Orange.

I am happy enough with these deals nearly but what I really, really want to add is free minutes to pay monthly contract to make international calls from the UK to the Republic of Ireland. I don't need a lot, 100 or even 50 a month would do me.

I am really struggling to find something in the price range I'm looking for. I'm not at all happy with Orange's deal, they have a package where you get a one month rolling contract, 400 anytime minutes, unlimited texts and 100 international minutes. They want £20 a month though and I'm not willing to shell that out on a contract. I saw a 12 month deal on the T mobile site that offered 300 minutes per month, 300 texts per month, 60 international minutes per month and I could buy a booster for unlimited texts. This costs £15.21 per month. Vodafone UK have a deal where you can phone abroad for 5p a minute but you have to pay an extra fiver, which would dwarf any saving I'd make. If you want free minutes, you have to pay an amount dependant on how many you want. They charge £10 for 75 free minutes, which is over and above your pay monthly charge. I looked into Tesco's international calling card, which would give calls at 1p a minute but you have to top up the card every 90 days and I don't phone frequently enough to do that, I just phone to book accommodation and tours so I'm not on for more than five minutes at a time, I just grudge paying the astranomical rates Orange charge on the mobile and BT charge on the landline.

Is there anyone out there who has had a deal including free international minutes for £10 a month or am I just being really greedy? :eek:

Thanks in advance for any advice and apologies for the long winded post.

grumbler

You can check this recent thread for some suggestions: Mobile phone with International calls

Roseanne1

grumbler wrote: »

You can check this recent thread for some suggestions: Mobile phone with International calls

Thank you very much, it is making interesting reading.

Harryo

Is VOIP an option for you?

I have been using voipcheap.com for years. With that you pay 10 Euros every three months (not under contract) and for that you can make up to 300 minutes free calls per week to landlines in various countries including UK and Ireland. If you don't top up after three months you are then charged 1.3P per minute for calls to Ireland. Therefore you never loose the money you have paid in.

You can set this up to work on your computer or suitable mobiles (but you will need either a data allowance or wi-fi for it to work). Also there is a code you can put into an ordinary landline before you make the call and I think then it costs 1.3P per minute (but check that out please).

There is a facility to try out your computer on their website for free. You will need headphones with a mouth piece. I bought mine from Tesco for under a fiver when they were providing VOIP.

lucidsheep

lucidsheep wrote: »

Hi, just thought I'd share my experience. My phone contract with Orange was up for renewal. I shopped around on third-party sites (like Phones4U, etc) before phoning Orange to haggle. Prior to phoning them I was paying £25 p/month for 400 mins, unlimited texts and off-peak browsing over 24 months. I was already happy with this deal because when I started it I compromised on a fancy handset and received a 32-inch HDTV (again through a third-party site, not Orange) and the minutes and texts fit me perfectly.

At the moment we are saving for another car so my aim was to either acquire a high value 'free gift' or handset to sell on or reduce the cost of my current plan to save money in the long run.

The initial offering from Orange wasn't good. It was only when I insisted on disconnecting me did they better their deals but even then it didn't really match up to the deal I'd found through mobiles.co.uk. The best offer Orange disconnections department could do was a no frills phone, 800 minutes, unlimited texts, 500MB browsing at £15 p/month. This is actually a very good deal but I rarely use more than 200 minutes and rarely browse so all those minutes would be something I would never use.

I gave my 30 days notice and a few days prior to disconnection I signed up for another contract on mobiles.co.uk.

For £25.54 p/month I received a Samsung Galaxy S on Orange (which I have sold £275), 300 minutes, unlimited texts, 500MB data. Also I went through TopCashBack to claim £40.40 referrall commision, and, I will receive 9 months bill payment back by redemption (£229).

I would never recommend saving money via redemption because I have friends who have been stung with these deals but in this instance, the cashback via redemtion is a bonus 'if' it pays and if it doesn't... I was after this contract anyway because I wanted to release the cash from the value of the given handset. Having said that I have dealt with this site 3 times now and had no problems (probably because they are owned by Carphone Wharehouse). At best I got over £500 worth of 'free' gifts in the past for this same contract over 24 months (Nokia 5800 when they first came out plus an Xbox 360).

In summary:

-£613 Total Cost of Contract (24 months x £25.54)
-£14 Cost of paper bills needed for redemption (9 months x £1.50)
+£229 Cashback via redemption
+£275 Samsung Galaxy S sold on eBay.
+£40 Comission from TopCashBack

---

-£83 This is the total cost of my contract after cashback etc which equates to approximately £3.50 each month for 24 months if I continue using my old handset. I.E, The equivalent of £3.50 per month 'SIM only'.

---

Like I said, you shouldn't go for redemption/cashback deals unless it's 'instant cashback' or 'auto-cashback' because people do get stung including a few of my friends. My reason for this contract is not the redemption, however, I have dealt with this site several times and had no problems which instills a bit more faith.

The redemption value on this is purely a bonus as I wanted something of value to sell quickly to help towards a new car. I saw a better deal that gave £400 instant cashback @£25.53 p/month (24 months, 600 minutes, 500 texts) with dial-a-phone which would have been better for my purposes but that is with T-Mobile which doesn't work well round here at the moment (not sure if you get cut-off mid-call if it switches from T-Mobile to Orange in poor signal areas so, 'better the devil you know.')

The moral of this story is, although it is worthwhile to haggle with your network provider, it's always good to see if there is a better deal out there.

Links below (if they are still active):

Orange/mobiles.co.uk
T-Mobile/Dial-A-Phone £400 Cashback (on page 2!)
TopCashback/mobiles.co.uk

Sorry it won't let me post the links because I am a new forum user and it prevents spamming! Never mind!!!!

Just a quick update... a fellow MSE user pointed out I didn't need paper billing as I could submit my bills online. So far it's gone smooth, Topcashback paid the commission shortly after I signed up for the contract. I have received one cheque for £45 already and will continue receiving these every few months so long as I keep my contract. If it all carries on smoothly my monthly contract works out at £2.88 per month. I'll update again if anything changes...
:rotfl:

mobilejunkie

Nothing new under the sun...

MoneySavingBlagger

I am looking at upgrading or switching in the next 2-4 months so I called T-Mobile to check my usage over the past few months.

I am usually very good a sticking to my allowance but occasionally I have gone over my minutes and been charged 30p/min+ for the privilege.

I'm on a £25/month plan with 600 mins but I noticed a new plan from the same price has recently come out with 900 so I asked if they would give me some extra minutes and they offered 100 extra for free which will cover me nicely.

It always pays to ask. The worst that can happen is "no!"

MSB

Sjdbailey

I have been with O2 for over 10 years and my contract is about to end. Omio shows that I can get an Nokia N8 refurb with network 3 for £21 per month with data, 800 minutes and loads of texts. I spoke to O2 cancellations and explained that I did not want to leave them but they were very expensive, could they do anything. They checked and the best deal they could offer was £32 per month for only 600 minutes, free o2 to o2 calls and 500mb data - nearly £11 per month more expensive. Both are 24 month contracts.

Can anyone suggest a way to get them to lower the tariff as I don't want to leave them but will have no choice as really need to save money.

Also am dubious changing to 3 as have heard dodgy things about them - any comments would be appreciated.

Doc_N

Sjdbailey wrote: »

I have been with O2 for over 10 years and my contract is about to end. Omio shows that I can get an Nokia N8 refurb with network 3 for £21 per month with data, 800 minutes and loads of texts. I spoke to O2 cancellations and explained that I did not want to leave them but they were very expensive, could they do anything. They checked and the best deal they could offer was £32 per month for only 600 minutes, free o2 to o2 calls and 500mb data - nearly £11 per month more expensive. Both are 24 month contracts.

Can anyone suggest a way to get them to lower the tariff as I don't want to leave them but will have no choice as really need to save money.

Also am dubious changing to 3 as have heard dodgy things about them - any comments would be appreciated.

I'd suggest a cashback deal with e2save or CPW. As for 3, don't even think about it - they're appalling to deal with.