I want an iphone but am in an orange contract already - help please!

brassmonkeyman

Hi

Can anyone offer any advice here?

I am a long standing orange customer and got a great deal on my last upgrade in August. Ideally I wanted the iphone but at the time it was only available with 02. I didn't want to change networks because I got free broadband thru orange. In the end I managed to get a cracking deal of free w995, 1200 mins of calls, unlimited texts, unlimited mobile interweb and free home broadband all for the princely sum of about £24 per month on an 18 month contract. This is a great deal by most standards. Admittedly I was stiffed by P4U last time and was spending far too much on that deal so I was probably seen as a good customer. Who knows!

Anyway at the time of my upgrade in August I spoke to lots of different orange depts to see if the iphone was on the cards - I read rumours but was told that there was no chance of it coming to orange uk, even though the French orange network have had it for a while now. With that in mind I went ahead with my upgrade. Needless to say I was a bit peeved to see the recent news about the orange iphone!

The question is, I am tied into a contract with orange, who I am more than happy with, but I want the iphone. I can upgrade next october / november by my calculations, but has anyone any knowledge of whether it is possible to change my current contract and if so how do you go about it? Incidentaly my other half is a long standing orange customer who has just upgraded to an iphone at no cost on a £35 p/m contract. In my experience I think the customer loyalty thing is rewarded at orange with good deals.

Gutted :doh:To be honest I wished that I had waited a few months but I am hoping that some wise owl on here may be able to advise me, and I am clinging to the fact that I may be able to negotiate a bit with orange.

OneADay

Of course you can have it ...... next year though!
If you are desperate for it - sell existing phone and buy an iphone to use with contract.

You would not have got the iphone for £24 a month even if you were steeped in Orange medals - so selling the existing phone and buying the iphone directly as a pay and go is only option (me thinks).

brassmonkeyman

Thanks OAD. I was wondering if there was some sort of upgrade charge that I may incur if I wanted to change ealier than the scheduled end of contract date. Obviously the monthly iphone contract would not be as favourable as the £24 I cough up at the moment, but I can live with £35 per month. If there is a financial penalty for early release from the contract I reckon the w995 would fetch £150 ish, maybe a bit more on ebay that would offset part of the costs to change. On the other hand it may be worth trying to buy an iphone sim free - but that all depends on costs.

Has anyone done something similar or have any idea of the financial penalties?

Jon_01

The only way would be to pay off your current contract ( number of months left times what you pay) and get a new one. The only other option would be to buy an iPhone on payg and stick your sim in that...

laney85

My online acc with orange says
As your current contract hasn't ended yet, any days left on it will be added to the length of the new contract if you choose to upgrade today

have 2 months left on contract, not sure how long it has says that for though.

Jon_01

laney85 wrote: »

My online acc with orange says
As your current contract hasn't ended yet, any days left on it will be added to the length of the new contract if you choose to upgrade today

have 2 months left on contract, not sure how long it has says that for though.

You can upgrade up to 3 months before the end of your contract. Normally you'll get a better offer if you wait til the contract ended, but as there are no deals for anyone on the iPhone it make no difference. . .

Ste_C

Their system doesn't allow a change before the final 90 days, it's effectively locked.

I doubt they'd let you do it mid contract anyway as they'd probably make less money from you on a £35 iphone contract than your current one due to the margins on the iphone being so small.

If you rang up and said you wanted the £100/month contract on the iphone I reckon they might be able to sort something out, but who wants to pay £1200 a year for a phone contract?