Batter down your mobile contract cost

Ardsman

I have two posts on this discussion on 13th May. I had been given a direct number for the Customer Retention department at Orange when my upgrade was due in November. I actually phoned them at the end of October.

I was on a contract paying £25 per month for 200 inclusive minutes. I usually averaged 150 minutes per month. With texts taken into account my average bill was £30 per month.

I told the Customer Retention Department that I was moving to Three unless they offered me a better deal. They looked at my average usage over the last year, and offered me 150 inclusive minutes plus 30 free texts for £15 per month. I addition I got a new Motorola V600 (they waived the £75 fee they would normally charge for this phone.)

I am very happy with this offer. If anyone wants to try, the direct phone number to the Orange Customer Retention Department is 0800 079 2288. Good luck!

iceburn

Does anoone know if the "3" tariffs include non geographic
calls?

I hope this helps

On orange select tariff no they are not, they are charge 10p a minute if I remember correctly. The OVP 02 are included. Old talkplan / everyday 50 are. For "REAL" three, "offically" they are not included. "unoffically" they are. Also OVP 02 and real 02 has one difference, real 02 has 0844 / 0845 / 0870 included whereas OVP 02 only has 0845 / 0870 included.

Riplash

Hi.

This is my first post but I've been an occasional user of the site for a while, since the last good Ladbrokes thing.. ;D



In the last couple of days I've had varying degrees of success with negotiating something good for my next year with o2. I didn't really manage to get much out of them though, in fact the the final call before this evening ended with me cancelling my contract.


I thought I'd check on MSE for any tips as a last resort, and using the info in this thread, I decided up to ring and request my PAC, explaining that I wished to switch to one of 3's tarrifs.


The end result is me getting the handset I want, with 500 free minutes and 200 texts a month, for £25 per month.

I've also let someone else know what information to be armed with when they ring their provider, so MANY THANKS to Martin and the other posters on this thread.

jordan_matthews

Upgrade time already!

Just got the 500 x network minutes for £25 using the suggestions above with Nokia 6230.  Thanks to all concerned.

Oh, by the way, they will also match 750 cross network mins for £35 (that is another 3 tariff) - might be of use to someone.

Cheers all!

David64

Thanks for the tip on Orange phone contracts Martin, I was just coming to the end of my second year at Orange and having read your advice about battering down costs, have just got off the phone after persuading Orange to give me a promotional tariff equivalent to '3's of 500 xnet minutes a month, 30 free texts for the first 3 months and a new motorola v545, all for £25 a month, saving £60 plus a year. Plus with all those minutes I won't be using my BT phone. The only down side to promotional stuff like this is that there is no rollover minutes, but hey I can live with that. So once again Thankyou.
p.s. Orange customer relations were very nice! and there number for "retention tools" is 08000792288, so even that is free. Marvellous!!

mad_as_my_dog

My contract ended a few months back but I never quite got round to getting an upgrade. On checking my bill I realised I was getting stitched and paying twice what i should have been! I fancied a new 'smart' phone so started looking around and tried to get a good deal out of my supplier (vodafone). Unfortunately I had to go through Carphone Warehouse and the deal they offered was frankly pants. I found a deal on the net with dial a phone and got a free nokia 6600, 200 anytime minutes, 1/2 price line rental for 9 months (saving £135!), free weekend calls for six months, 50 text a month, 3 months insurance, free itemised billing, (and £10 cash if I ordered online, though I didn't see this till I'd bought it over the phone). This is way better than anything I've seen elsewhere but the offer ends 31st Dec. When I quoted this to CPW the guy said it was a good deal and he wouldn't be able to match it at all. Good bye CPW. Unfortunately I'm gonna have to change my no.
Does anyone know if its possible to swap no's between contracts on the same network?

Mr_B_13

Mad as a dog

According to other discussions on the board (and the T&Cs) you don't appear to be able to change from vodafone to vodafone (or within other networks for that matter).  One way to keep your number is to transfer it to a non-vodafone pay as you go sim (cheap or free - again discussed elsewhere) then back to vodafone a little later.  You need to request a PAC code from vodafone before you cancel the contract.

Search for PAC/portability on the discussion board - also currently on the front page at the moment under
http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Telephone;action=display;num=1103631914

I haven't had to do this therefore don't know the full details, timescales etc but this has been covered by others (including the steps).

Kind regards

Mr B

malcolmord

Its a shame orange have poor coverage in my area

circuit

My contact is up today - called Orange Customer Relations (option 4, 3) and they wouldn't put me on Select 500 (after saying they would previously) or give me an upgrade! So I asked for a PAYG SIM.


EDIT...

Called the upgrades line a few hours later and got a result.

The operator was MUCH more helpful and spotted that my contract runs out at midnight today. So the Nokia 6230 which was quoted at more than £150 would be free if I called back tomorrow. The website says 'free headset' so I'm hoping it's a bluetooth one

He wouldn't put me on Select 500 but I did get double minutes as long as I upped my monthly plan. Ended up with £25/month for 120 anytime mins, 120 evening mins and some kind of text bundle - not a brilliant result, but better than nothing!

Incidentally the double minutes thing is a promotion that's on until the end of December, so if you're delaying your call, do it now.

ubidenmark

Followed it to the letter and reduced my mobile bill from £76/month to £30, in the process more than doubling my minutes and texts.

Brilliant !

In the past quarter, via this site, I have halved my home insurance, halved my car insurance, more than halved my mobile bill and unlocked two phones free.

More importantly, I have actively started thinking about how to avoid being a victim to the consumer predators.

Thanks a lot !!