Looking For New Contract Phone - Additional Charges?

SJames_3

I am looking for what will be my first contract phone, as I'm fed up with topping up my PAYG phone and not getting much usage out of it before the money's gone again. :mad:

I am strictly limited to Orange phone only, as I have tried every other network I can think of, but can only get a signal on Orange where I live.

At the moment, I'm looking at the LG Cookie with 600mins, unlimited texts and £160 cashback from Mobiles.co.uk for £20 per month which I think is a very good deal, but I as I haven't had a contract phone before, I not entirely sure about other charges. I'm going for the cashback rather than 13 months free as I have heard some mixed opinions on Mobiles.co.uk's reliability when it comes to redeeming these offers.

I'm not a heavy user, so don't really want to be paying more than around the £20 mark per month. I take it that the included minutes cover landline and mobile calls (to any network?). Do they cover 0845, 0870 calls at all? I don't use mobile internet at all, so that isn't an issue. Are there any other additional charges to take into account?

SJames_3

0845 numbers etc. not being included is understandable, but disappointing for me as that's what drives up my home phone bill seeing as I have free local and national calls. Being charged for calling other mobile networks would be the last nail in the coffin as far as going for a contract phone is concerned, can anybody confirm this?

Thanks for the info, Merlinexcalibur. :beer:

SJames_3

It is the Dolphin 35 tariff I'm looking at. I have had a look through the Orange website and it's amazing how much content it contains without actually giving you the information you need. I been looking on other websites such as Carphone Warehouse, which does state that the minutes are "Any network, any time", so that seems pretty straightforward.

I was hoping to save money with the 0845 etc. calls, but I guess that would have been too good to be true, especially as even my local GP which is just around the corner has an 0845 number rather than a local one and the calls do add up, like your £60! At least I think I have everything covered now so I know where I stand before signing up to a 18 or 24 month contract. But I may give Orange a call tomorrow to double check and hopefully I won't need to spend 20 minutes on the phone with them trying to sell me something I don't want. :rolleyes: