Vodafone stop the clock

Degeneratemoo

I'm planning to go back to uni next year so I really don't want to have huge mobile bills each month.

My bills average £30 a month on 200 xnet & texts etc, last month it was £56, this month it was £98!!

Obviously I want to sort this out as I simply won't be able to afford it.

My girlfriend is on T-mobile and this is where most of the call charges come from.

I'm going to try and haggle with them when my contract is due but I really don't know whether to stay with vodafone or try someone else.

I notice that vodafone are doing this stop the clock thing where you only pay for 3 minutes for the first hour of talking on evenings and weekends, is this a good thing or another daft gimmick?

I also noticed that most mobile companies are doing 18 month contracts now....

Are there any decent PAYG deals out there? PAYG has always seemed to be a good deal because you are not tied down but the call charges are often higher and you don't get any free minutes etc.

pennypincher_2

If you are cautious buy a Vodafone prepay phone then you will benefit from stop the clock.

esuhl

Vodafone "Stop the Clock" is great, and works as it says - but it only applies to off-peak calls. The thing to remember is that not all of your calls will be exactly 60 minutes long, so it's no good thinking "Hey, I've got 9 minutes of inclusive minutes left this month, so that's 3 hours off-peak with Stop the Clock"!

If you don't mind paying out £30-odd quid a month (which you'll get back later) and are organised enough to send in vouchers at a pre-determined time there are some great online deals to be had.

For example, https://www.mobileshop.com are offering a free Nokia 3120, 250 minutes cross-network and 100 texts (double minutes & texts for the first 3 months), free delivery, and free line rental for the first 12 months (it's a 12 month contract).

Buy the phone through Quidco, and don't exceed your free minutes and you could be £20 IN PROFIT by the end of the year!

For details of how these cashback deals work, have a look at my more detailled web page at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/insanity/mobile.html The deals on there are a little out of date, but the basic principle still applies.

:-)

trinnylilac

I am never any good with claiming back money so I have gone with the t-mobile 25% off line rental for life. I have a Sony Ericsson W800 and I get £60 worth of any network mins/messages/MMS for £18.75. This is on the flex plan and you can have more allowance for upping yur monthly charge. Either way it would be chaeaper than what you are paying now. Also go via quidco .

Murtle

I've got VF stop the clock, not gimmicky really good - don't need half my minutes now as I just don't seem to get through them anymore. It's competition against the landlines like Talk talk who let you natter on for hours to talk talk customers etc for free.

cheapaschips_2

I spoke to a girl in the v/fone shop about stop the clock, and she said...
it's a very good deal if you use your phone liek a home line. think about your calls, if you dont make long calls in the evening on your mobile, then it's not worth having. unless of course you change your habits to suit the deal.
it sounds great but in reality there are very few people who actually exploit the benefits of this tarrif.

Adam_uk_3

I work for VF so maybe a bit biased, but it is a really good deal provided you intend to talk to your gf in the evenings and a weekend more than you do during the day.

misskool

Have been on voda stop the clock as soon as it was launched and since then have almost never exceeded my 200xnet anytime minutes as I rarely make daytime calls. I natter mostly in the evening and if I know a call is going to last a long time, I put the timer on the phone and when it gets to 55-56 mins, I'll ask the person to stop and I'll call them back.
If you get a stop the clock online tariff, you also get 250 text included.

BlueICe_2

Degeneratemoo wrote:

I'm planning to go back to uni next year so I really don't want to have huge mobile bills each month.

My bills average £30 a month on 200 xnet & texts etc, last month it was £56, this month it was £98!!

Obviously I want to sort this out as I simply won't be able to afford it.

My girlfriend is on T-mobile and this is where most of the call charges come from.

I'm going to try and haggle with them when my contract is due but I really don't know whether to stay with vodafone or try someone else.

I notice that vodafone are doing this stop the clock thing where you only pay for 3 minutes for the first hour of talking on evenings and weekends, is this a good thing or another daft gimmick?

I also noticed that most mobile companies are doing 18 month contracts now....

Are there any decent PAYG deals out there? PAYG has always seemed to be a good deal because you are not tied down but the call charges are often higher and you don't get any free minutes etc.

if you live anywhere down east london there is a shop doing a really good offer its a tmobile offer

you pay 99p and u get a whole years linerental free its like cash back but better then other because they give u the full cash back b4 tmobile taks you phone bill

Dan_G_2

I'm thinking of buying this as a seperate SIM just to use to call people on and keep my O2 because its the only network I can get at home.

If I put £5 on a VF Stop the Clock SIM, how long could I use it before the money expired? If its a decent while then it sounds like a great deal! It must equate to about 0.5p / minute I think...

TIA

bbb_uk

Have you thought about o2 Online Contracts. They do come without a phone but are only 30day rolling contracts instead of 12 months (i.e. give them 30 days notice and you can cancel and don't have to wait 12/18months). Ideal if you are happy with your current phone.

For £30 per month you can get 400 anytime, xnet mins and 1000 texts.

More info see here.