IPHONE contract crippling me :(

letsfaceit

Hi,
Im a new user to this whole site and forum and have recently signed up to the 'debt-free-wannabe' group. Basically I have been absolutely crap with my money and find myself in alot of debt.

Around 4 months ago I upgraded my mobile phone contract with O2 who I have been with for a anumber of years and pay a basic of £38.30 per month for 1200 minutes talk time and 500 texts on the Iphone 16gb 3gs

I dont come close to using the talk-time but the text bundle is nowhere near what I use and I have been informed that BOLT-ONS are available at £7.50 for an additional 500. I am using around 1800 texts a month which I know is a lot and as such my average phone bill has been £200 a month ((((

I have spoke to O2 who wern't very helpful at all and informed me that I was too late to sign up to the UNLIMITED TEXT BUNDLE as it 'was no longer available' for new requests, but existing customers do still have that tariff. I was only offered the £7.50 for an extra 500. That would be over another £20 on top of the £38.30 I already pay to cover my usage. And while this is alot less than the £200 I have been paying it still seems alot. My only other option is selling the phone for however much it goes for and then paying up the remaining difference to make £810 and start afresh. I will obviously be cutting down my text usage as much as possible but I do have to stay in regular contact due to family/business requirements

Does anyone have any advice at all or tips in how I could get a better deal from O2 as I cant keep things as they are.

Thanks for ANY help

arzosahr

how about getting yourself an o2 or t-mobile payg sim card with unlimited texts and mobile internet for texting? t-mobile i believe asks for a minimum topup of £10/month and o2 is £15/month...

not ideal i know but would be a damn sight cheaper than the 200 quid a month you're paying now?

dmg24

You do not need to send 1800 texts a month to stay 'in regular contact'!

The solution does seem very simple - sell the phone and get a cheap sim free/ PAYG, and cut down on your texts. 500 texts per month equates to approx 15 per day, stick to that and you'll be within your talk plan.

iamana1ias

Why not swap some of the texts for calls if you're not using your airtime? 1200 1 minute calls plus 500 texts = 1700 contacts. Not far from what you're racking up in texts.

HopeAndDriftWood

Buy a pay as you go o2 sim with unlimited texts, and use that to text. Use your existing contract for calls, or pay it off, if you'll have that much money free.

O2 won't let you downgrade, and while they do have unlimited text tariffs, are unwilling to 'transfer' people onto them. I don't know why, but I presume in your case it may be because they earn £200 a month from you!

Kilty_2

Get the £15 PAYG "texts and internet" plan from O2 - use the SIM in your iPhone. Keep paying the contract if you want to keep your iPhone.

Result - £53.30 a month for unlimited texts, unlimited internet, £15 worth of calls on PAYG and 1200 mins / 500 txt / unlimited data on another SIM you could use in another handset.

Ridiculous amount to be paying whilst trying to fight your way out of debt but it'll get a lot worse if you carry on paying £200+ per month or waste £810 paying the contract off in full without using it.

Streeet

Use the unlimited web and wifi access with your iPhone more effectively.
Email friends instead of texting, Use the web browser to send free texts from sites that allow you to do so. Find out what phones friends have and use an AIM app.

Depending on your texting try twittering.. it's web based and may save you some texts.

I wouldn't get a PAYG sim.. it's inconvenient and are you really going to swap them over for calls / texts?

Good luck with the debt free decision.. unfortunately the only real answer if you are serious about getting out of debt is to cut down on the excessive texting.

Kilty_2

Streeet wrote: »

I wouldn't get a PAYG sim.. it's inconvenient and are you really going to swap them over for calls / texts?

£15 credit on PAYG with O2 = 75 minutes - so you'd only need to swap when that runs out.

Streeet

Kilty wrote: »

£15 credit on PAYG with O2 = 75 minutes - so you'd only need to swap when that runs out.

Fair point actually.. especially considering the OP does call much. However it means bouncing between two phone numbers.. ouch!

You might as well spend the £15 on 2 x txt bolt ons.. = 1000 extra txts

Additionally don't forget you can downgrade your package after 9 months.

Just worked out 1800 txt's is roughly 1 txt every 15 minutes!!
wow.. just wow!

staffie1

If you're using the phone for business, why are you paying for that element of its usage? Get the business to pay for that and moderate your personal usage. Can you not keep in touch with family in other ways...phone call landline to landline, email, letter, go and see them, etc...?

theesel1994

dmg24 wrote: »

You do not need to send 1800 texts a month to stay 'in regular contact'!

It is quite easy to rack up texts depending on how you use them. In my own circumstances I send goal update texts from non-league football games to various people. It is a level of football not covered by radio/tv.

If I send one text to 10 people for one afternoon of football and if I forward on texts from other games it can be quite easy to rack up a couple of hundred of texts.