12 month free deal with reputable retailer

BigDonut

Hi All,

My current 12 month free deal with the Link is up and I'm looking for a new deal.

I've found quite a few options but not with known retailers. My worry is I go with a smaller company and they end up going belly up leaving me having to (shock horror) pay for my contract!

Waht are the current best deals with reputable retailers?
Or who would people recommend for taking cashback deals with?

Thanks

Skint1

Try going direct to your mobile supplier O2,Tmob,etc and tell them your going to leave see what they offer you to stay. It's cheaper for them to deal with than a second party. If the offers not good enough start looking. There's plenty of threads on here to give you an idea of what you can get.

anandp

Just had my first payment from a phone contract bought from https://www.easyphoneshop.com. Looks like they use the same people MobileShop.com do so probably just as reliable.

k_sta

They don't have stock in but take a look at:

https://www.time2talk.co.uk

Not as cheap as some but they refund up front as you prepay the 12 months contract. So the money should be in your account before the cooling off period!

I used them and there is no forms to fill in or bills to retain and return to get the refund.

K

[Deleted User]

Not sure if this will help you or not but I was pleased with the deal.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=204032

Reestit_Mutton

k_sta wrote:

They don't have stock in but take a look at:

https://www.time2talk.co.uk

Not as cheap as some but they refund up front as you prepay the 12 months contract. So the money should be in your account before the cooling off period!

I used them and there is no forms to fill in or bills to retain and return to get the refund.

K

I know the previous owner of this business and he sold it to a long-standing business acquaintance earlier this year.

The word on the street is that they do intend to reinstate the 12 months upfront packages as soon as possible - the "out of stock" markers are simply there to prevent people placing orders while they put together a new set of deals. However, it's been like that for a while and I feel an email to my old friend coming on to ask him if he knows what's happening in this area (the last time I spoke to him he was still involved with the business in a purely consultative capacity).

HtH
Reestit Mutton

BigDonut

Skint1 wrote:

Try going direct to your mobile supplier O2,Tmob,etc and tell them your going to leave see what they offer you to stay. It's cheaper for them to deal with than a second party. If the offers not good enough start looking. There's plenty of threads on here to give you an idea of what you can get.

Thanks. I already tried this but the deal was very good but not worth it for my needs at the moment.

Thanks for the other info. I like the idea of paying up front for 12 months. It sounds a wimple way to deal with the cashback.

Reestit_Mutton

BigDonut wrote:

Thanks for the other info. I like the idea of paying up front for 12 months. It sounds a simple way to deal with the cashback.

It certainly is...in fact I would dearly like to see ALL retailers move towards this model. However, customers would need to be aware that it will result in a significant increase in cost as the current cashback levels are predicated on a percentage of customers failing/forgetting to claim.

By making the cashback automatic, the failure rate would drop to zero which, in turn, would require the retailers to lower their cashback levels for the deals to remain financially viable for them to offer.

However, I wouldn't expect to see the retailer payout until at least month 4 as, to the best of my knowledge, retailers are penalised for customers who default on their contracts during the initial 4-6 months. To pay all customers their full cashback entitlement earlier than this would expose the retailer to an unacceptable financial risk. The Time2Talk T-Mobile deals were different in that they required the customer to opt for annual line rental payment such that the network was in receipt of the full line rental for the year by the time the cashback payment was made. Nowadays it just requires quarterly payment which, I guess, is enough to safeguard their commission. I don't believe the same option is available with the other networks.

A good middle ground would be for the retailers to offer two prices to the customer, one for an automatic cashback payment and another if the customer is prepared to manually claim their cashback over a number of installments.

Mobileshop's offer to its customers prior to Christmas last year to pay off their cashbacks instantly in return for a reduced level of cashback is a very good example of this middle ground solution.

HtH
Reestit Mutton

derrick

k_sta wrote:

They don't have stock in but take a look at:

www.time2talk.co.uk

Not as cheap as some but they refund up front as you prepay the 12 months contract. So the money should be in your account before the cooling off period!

I used them and there is no forms to fill in or bills to retain and return to get the refund.

K

But you have to BUY a phone,cheapest appears to be £50. or have I missed something?

siaoeh

has anyone got any experiences with onecompare.com? saw the link for it on one of the articles on MSE and had a look. plenty of very good deals there, just that have never seen anyone talk abt them here...

BigDonut

I've used the one compare site to find some deals but not ever gone with them.

Do you have to go with them to get the deal or could you just use them to find the deal?