Getting the best deal as a new customer

akasa1

Hello at present I am a pay as you go mobile user. However I am wishing to move to a mobile contract. My current phone is on its last legs, so I would like to have a new phone with my contract.

Mt local Three store has a deal on for £10 a month for 75 minutes and unlimited txts with a sony ericson phone. Now I do not like this phone. Do you think it would be possible to haggle any other providers down to a £10 a month contraact for the same txts and minutes but with a slightly better phne than that provided by Three?

Do you have any tips or guides as to how is the best way to try this? SHould I do this in store, or via a telephne ordering system?

Thanks

I_luv_cats

Virgin have 100 mins and 100 texts for £8.50 mth

Get a Carphone Warehouse brochure as a starting point and peruse.

There are so many deals for new customers. £10 might be a bit too low for an extra special deal (good phone and loads of mins - depending on what you want?)

I_luv_cats

Shame your phone is on its last legs as you can get some excellent sim only deals.

Also you can get some good payg deals if you top up a certain amount each month.

It racks your brains as it depends how often, how long and to whom you call to work out the best tariff!

akasa1

At the moment the best I seem to be finding are with Three. They have a Nokia e63 smartphone (built in wifi etc) with 75 mins and unlimited txts for £15 a month. SO I may end up stumping for that.

The problem is, I find it difficult to work out how much I would spend a month on pay as you go. Texts are what really costs me. Soe months I may send 200, whilst others I may send in excess of 600, so it depends.

Virgin is a no go for me, there coverage were I live is appalling. The majority of the village has no signal for Virgin mobile.

gk172

Have you tried a 3 payg sim to see what reception you get with 3 before commiting to a 18 month deal?

akasa1

The reception is really quite good where I live for Three. I do not understand why Virgin is so poor though. I have better reception for Three, than I do for T-Mobile.

diamonds

Try a dual 2G/3G sim from Virgin, call & ask for a NEW 3G compatible sim as T-Mobile 2G signal is the worst in the UK & old Virgin sims are not ALL able to access 3G - Virgin/Fresh(CPW)/Ikea and numerous VIRTUAL networks that run off T-Mobile have the majority of handsets on these are 2G handsets even though 3G access was granted ?


I found Virgin/T-Mob 2G was substantially worse in England & Wales than Scotland on my extensive travels, T-Mob built the strongest 3G network in the UK and any wonder why....of course the VIRTUAL networks are told by T-Mobile 2G is robust as 3G and that's just a complete pile of poop !

My dads local T-Mob 2G transmitter/cell has been faulty for 3 years, T-Mobile has a bad policy of COMPLETE FAIL & REPLACE with its 2G cells & upgrade such cells to 3G at the same 2G replacement time, similar to a format Orange had & shelved due to the damage to the brand.

andyfff

I got a 300 mins and 300 txts for £10 a month - I’m not sure if this is tied in to having other Virgin services. Generally they offer 100 txt 100 mins for £10 - and the 300 one now and again. But I haven't noticed over the last few months. Don’t know if someone else could advise if the 300 offer has been repeated recently.
You also build up £10 per year towards a new phone - mines on its last legs too!

iceburn

diamonds wrote: »

My dads local T-Mob 2G transmitter/cell has been faulty for 3 years, T-Mobile has a bad policy of COMPLETE FAIL & REPLACE with its 2G cells & upgrade such cells to 3G at the same 2G replacement time, similar to a format Orange had & shelved due to the damage to the brand.

Dont the 3G transmitter also broadcast in 2G than? ie have two outputs attach to the mast?

diamonds

akasa1 wrote: »

The reception is really quite good where I live for Three. I do not understand why Virgin is so poor though. I have better reception for Three, than I do for T-Mobile.

Try a Virgin/T-Mob 3G handset & sim, 2G coverage is nothing in comparision to T's 3G coverage.

diamonds

iceburn wrote: »

Dont the 3G transmitter also broadcast in 2G than? ie have two outputs attach to the mast?

Some 3G info:

The technology has different frequency standards. So a 2G/3G poor signal may benefit from trying the other, 3G is ran on 2100mhz in most of Europe like UK, the higher the frequency the more base stations you need for coverage.

3G in America & Australia is based on 850mhz frequency as it is wide ranging to cover the massive landmass.


Orange & o2 had a policy of EDGE for data where no 3G existed, EDGE is the difference between 2G & 3G for data only and commonly known as 2.5G, but served ONLY by a 2G transmitter/cell/base station.

We are now on 3G & have 3.5G which means we are not restricted to 364/512 kbps 3G was set at, currently mobile phone devices support upto 7.2MBPS, Australia : Telstra on 850mhz has just introduced a data card capable of 21MBPS !!!! ( if you can get online at 3am when the cell is far from congested no doubt ! )