best moby deal for limited use

lucylucky

lurkylurky wrote: »

For my DS's birthday I signed him up for a 24 month contract with Orange through Dial-a-Phone and he's getting a Blackberry Curve 8520 with 300 x-network minutes, unlimited texts, 500 mb of mobile internet and unlimited Blackberry e-mail. It works out at £14.58 a month (after cashback via redemption). I signed up via Topcashback and it's currently tracking at £35 with payment due on 31st October. If Topcashback pays that will bring the cost down to £13.13 a month. And DF will be getting £20 for recommending me to Dial-a-Phone.

The Dial-a-Phone website was easy to use and Customer Services was good when I phoned with queries before placing the order.

The only downside so far was the fact that phone insurance and a subscription to a Gadget Helpline (free for 1 month then £17.94 every 6 months) is automatically added to the order. I cancelled the Gadget Helpline which was easy to do online and phoned to cancel the phone insurance when the letter arrived with the policy details.

So far he's hardly used any of the talktime minutes but makes good use of the texts and Blackberry internet services (twitter, facebook etc). We have registered online so we can keep an eye on his usage. I'm also on Orange and have just been given another magic number so have him as a magic number and he has me as his magic number so any calls we make to each other don't come out of our allowances.

To be honest, like you, I was concerned about signing up for 2 years in case his usage changes. My contract will be up for renewal in February and if need be I could take over his contract and sign him up for something else. But so far so good. He loves it.

There are many better options than a 24 month contract tbh.

macman

I am with Orange currently but they won't give me a deal for her, only for myself.
Sorry if I misunderstood you here , but no mobile co. will issue a contract phone to an 11 year old. You have to be 18 to enforce the contract, so it will have to be taken out in your name anyway unless you stick to PAYG.
Subject to the topping up issue (which takes only a few seconds if you register a debit card to the phone), ASDA Mobile is a great value PAYG service at 4p per text and 8p per minute for calls. It runs on the Vodafone network.

foxie_1968

We can get the blackberry on Virgin as an exsisting customer for £10 but just worried that someone may try to take it from her. Other half is considering getting that deal and giving dd his old phone.

Tried to register my debit card to the phone with T-mobile several times now but it always fails due to something going wrong with their system.

As always your advice is gratefully received.

lurkylurky

lucylucky wrote: »

There are many better options than a 24 month contract tbh.

I know what you mean - but my 18 month contract ends in February and I'd be more than happy if it had been a 24 or even 36 month deal. I'm not expecting to get half as good a deal again.

foxie_1968

Since my contact is up with Orange in Jan I'm thinking of trying to use Virgin's deal to get a better deal out of them for the both of us. OH has just tried to order the Blackberry of Virgin using quidco but came back with a 'card hasn't worked' message and a telephone number. When he calls it ends up talking to India who then want him to put the order through again. Think this is there way of getting out of giving quidco. So may try to use the deal to get all 3 of us a better deal from Orange as he's currently with them too.

lurkylurky

Virgin are giving £30 on Topcashback.

Has your DD started at senior school yet? When posting about moby phones earlier in the year a forum member warned me that my DS's usage would likely change when he started senior school, and boy was he right. They all talk to each other by text/Blackberry messenger between lessons.

Good luck with Orange - when I was negotiating with them for DS they did offer me a good deal for 100 minutes, but I was looking for 300/400 minutes to allow him increased usage as he gets older or in case I take over his contract in the future.

Let us know how you get on.

anonymousie

lucylucky wrote: »

There are many better options than a 24 month contract tbh.

Especially as we are talking about an 11yr old :rotfl:

I'm on O2 and the kids (17 14 11( are on the family bolt on at £7.50/month as is DH.We cut DH SIMplicity package from £15 to £10 when we took that out and rarely top up the kids phones at all! THe eldest maybe every other month has £10 (gets her unlimited txts when we top up that last a month and the 2nd month she spends the credit).

OK I have an iphone:o but I do use it all the time for work and organising the family etc. but it is a brilliant package for the kids- they can ALWAYS call DH or I and it doesn't cost anything (eg the youngest started secondaryu and we had lots of "at bus stop" "on bus" "nearly home" txts etc. Made her feel happy and safe and didn't cost a penny.

anonymousie

lurkylurky wrote: »

Has your DD started at senior school yet? When posting about moby phones earlier in the year a forum member warned me that my DS's usage would likely change when he started senior school, and boy was he right. They all talk to each other by text/Blackberry messenger between lessons.

Absolutely not allowed at my kids schools- phones live in lockers during the school day.

foxie_1968

DD has just started High School however they are not allowed in school and she's not one for breaking the rules so she drops her's off at the office in the morning. She herself doesn't want a 'flash' phone as she's worried about somebody trying to take it from her. For now we've just topped up her T-mobile with another £5 which will get her through the next month while we look around. Do wanna get her a new phone though as the old one she's using is not an easy one to use and it's got a short battery life. My contact is up in Jan (with Orange) so may try to get us both a better phone from them.

Once again, thanks for all your advice.