Mobile cancelation and billing.....help!

Pixie.lou85

Hi there,

I have a bit of a problem....well confusion really. Phone companies confuse the hell out of me.

I am with Orange on a contract for my mobile phone and my contract is up for renewal.
The account is in my husbands name.
I have to give them 30 days notice to terminate my contract which is officialy up on the 4th September 2010.

Basically, I want to cancel my contract, then go through a site to make a new one in my own name and just as a bonus i get a free laptop (yay).

Im confused over when my last bill will be for my current contract phone...
i called them up and asked them and they just jibbered at me about lots of dates and numbers....here is what they said (roughly) and if anyone can shed any light, please reply!

My bill is always produced on the 26th of each month, i pay monthly through direct debit which (apparently) means that the payment is taken from my bank account within the first 2 weeks at the start of the following month after the bill is produced.
The bill that was produced on the 26th of July will be taken from my bank any day now.

If i call up and cancel today and give my 30 days notice then apparently after that, my bill will be calculated "pro rata" (wth is that?) and a bill will be produced for me to pay over the phone or in the orange shop....

so.....basically....if i call and cancel my contract today (8/8/2010) when the hell will my last bill be expected?!

I need to know this so i can figure out when to order my new contract online....i dont want 2 mobile bills in one month!

any help or clarification would be appreciated!

DarkConvict

Do you want to keep your phone number or are you happy to just cancel and get a new number.

New number is easier.
Just so you know you can either ask to cancel or ask for a PAC code (used for transferring phone number, works only if movign operators i.e. orange to 02). The PAC code is given to your new operator usually when placing an order, when the pac is used, within 2-3 days the old contract is ended and the new one started. As such there can be some overlap.
The PAC lasts for 30 days and if not used the contract continues, it does not end!

As to billing.

As the end date is the 4th September this is your minimum term date not a true end date, you have to ask to leave for it to end its not automatic, if you want to leave on that date you need to ring up now and give notice. 30 days is 7th September now and this would be the end date if you rang today.

Pro-Rata means you are paying what you owe based on usage, if you pay £30 a month, but only use it for 10 days due to cancelling, then you only owe £10.

As your bill is produced on the 26th the following would happen.
So July 26th - Aug 26th is one bill, then you get Aug 26th until Sept 7th (or whatever the end date becomes)
The prorate would be 26th to 7th is 12 days, so £30 a month becomes roughly (£30/30days * 12days) = £12.

With regards to the free laptop or any free gift, its not really free. It is subsided by the price you pay on the contract, its just commission gets paid by the operator to the person who sells the contract. They inturn spend "some" of it on a gift to market the tariff.
It is sometimes cheaper to go direct to the operator, just be sure you are getting the deal you want, not what you think you want.