Batter down your mobile contract cost

qwer78

How to spend the least on having a mobile phone

200 mins and 500 texts for £12 a month for a new customer

I think one thing that some of you moneysavers have been missing is that you should not focus on how much you have "saved" but on how much money is going out per year!

12 months ago today, I rang and signed up to Orange for the first time and got a new Motorola phone with 200 anythime mins and 500 texts for £30 a month (i.e. £360 over the year). I immediately sold the phone on ebay for £220 and continued using my old phone, so the cost was reduced to £140 for the year, or a total monthly cost of £12 for 200 mins and 500 texts.

The point is that there are lots of moneysavers on this site who faff around saving £25 on their electricity and then spend (yes spend) £200 on a "free" phone which they don't really need and might prefer to spend on a weekend skiing or whatever. It's not free; you are paying for it monthly, and should sell it if you don't need it.

The best renewing deal with a decent number of texts: 200 mins and 500 texts for £10 a month

As my 12 months is up, today I rang Orange on 0800 079 2288, pressed 3 for disconnections. I said I was thinking of moving to three.
The man offered me

• 500 mins (like three) for £25 a month or else
• 120 mins and 250 texts for £25.

I needed something between the two and initially nothing was available.
However, he then said I could have

• 200 mins and 500 texts for £30, but have an immediate £60 line rental credit (which reduces it to £25 a month over the next year and is a cash flow advantage).

I will sell the phone for £180 on ebay, (£15 per month over 12 months) so it will only cost me £10 per month for 200 mins and 500 texts.

150 minutes and 30 free texts per month totally free

Another moneysaver, on renewing with orange as described on these boards, got 150 minutes and 30 texts and a V600 phone for £15 a month. This is effectively free as he could sell the phone on ebay is £180.

By the way, the phone call to Orange is straightforward; there is no need to lie or be aggressive - you just say you are thinking about leaving. I didn't even have to be transferred after ringing the above number.

BaritoneUK

My wife is on £25 a month for 60 xnet mins and 80 txts.

She has just phoned Orange disconections. they offered her 120xnet mins, 90 txts with a free Motorola V600 with a bluetooth headset for £19 a month inc VAT. Is this any good?

She doesn't need a new phone, but bluetooth headset is good as she will be using the phone more.

She uses texts a lot, but the xnet mins on her phone would do our landline phone bill a favour. I am sure she can get a better deal, but not sure. She doesn't want to pay any more than £19 a month.

The 02 deal of 300 texts a month for a min £10 top up worth of calls per month (PAYG tarif) seems excellent if she is to only use that amount of calls. Any ideas?

srv128

My contact was up in December - called Orange Business Customer Relations (345 as Business users, all one of me) and asked about a new deal and phone, after 10 minutes of checking this and checking that she said that the best she could do was put me on the 02 tarriff at £45 a month. (currently on talk 150 for £25 a month yes a very old tarriff with no cross net).

I asked to be transferred to Disconnections and the nice lady did. After several minutes of checking my monthly spend and bills.

I was offered Select 500 with 30 free txt messages for the next 3 months,  additionally 30 txt messages for the next 18 months, both to run concurrently so I get 60 txts for the first 3 months then 30 from then untill the 18 months is up.

On top of that I get a brand new Sony K700i all free of charge.

Oh and forgot to say its all at £25 a month.

I have to thank you all for the info as it works like a charm, just be honest and off you go.

Steve

konni1

My contract is with T-mobile, £29.99 p/m /200 mins free anytime any network talktime and Nokia 3510i mobile phone. Tried to upgrade with T-mobile using Martins advice about network 3 but it did'nt really work the best T-mobile will do is an extra 100mins and 30 texts for £29.99 plus a choice of phones free
LG C2200
Sagem MYX5
Ericsson T630
Nokia 3220
Siemens MC60
I would appreciate some advice on this deal and if anyone knows of a better one let me know. The guy from T-mobile is going to ring me back at 9.00 tonight. By the way my contract is due to run out beginning of feb so not much time.Thanks
PS. What phone would you recommend

Matt_Nixon

Well rang Orange today as I'm now out of contract, in the hope of battering down the £250 they want for a shiny new SPV M2000.

Before I could say PAC Code got put straight through to disconnections who instantly texted me my code ???

So off to OneStopPhoneShop for a shiny new XDA 2s, same thing with a different badge for £150.

Looks like Orange won't miss my £50 / Month ???

bwatt00

So how would i stand? i myself have been with orange for year but mostly a payg customer.
But last year on this thread i got the good deal that was mentioned of the brand new released t610 with a data tariff contract at £10 per month and the phone for free.
But soon after they started charging for the phone but i got in early.
As my 12 months has past several months ago i am thinking of an upgrade as the t610 is crap i think for pics,but when i was away from home overseas i emailed them and said i wanted an upgrade and they said i could not.
Is this because i am only paying £10 per month and hardly use any credit for calls or do i need to try them again and try and keep same contract but change phone.
I would not mind the 3 phones that are coming out but im not sure if they have strong or any signal near me and i would love the sony v800 but orange does not have it, i would even cancel my contract and take another one out if i got a good phone and paid not much more.
What do you think? its still a cheap contract i am on and could just transfer the sim to new phone.
But as said orange will not upgrade me.

Barnet_2

Anybody been with t-mobile/one 2one,long term(ie 5 years+),
with average monthly bills of £80+,
tried this and managed to get the sort of deal most orange customers have done??

Is orange the only network prepared to match 3 tarrifs?

Has anyone done better with t-mobile, than an extra 100mins and 30 texts?

Is so,any help would be great!

(sorry about all the questions!)

many thanks,

Barnet

qwer78

Beware what you might lose when renegotiating
I renegotiated as described above. I was told I would "remain" on 200 mins with 500 texts. I noticed that no minutes rolled over onto the first invoice of the new year. I rang to complain, and discovered that I have in fact been moved from a "Talktime" to a "Yourtime" plan with the same minutes and texts, as a benefit of the free upgrade, but without being warned when we made the agreement.
Orange are saying they cannot back down as the old plan has been removed from the system.

This could be quite a loss as if you average nearly 200 minutes but vary above and below it could mean hefty call charges where there were none last year.
The moral of the story is to list exactly what you are getting now before renegotiating. Included minutes (rollover y/n) texts (rollover y/n) (for how many months) length of contract, any free evening minutes/ texts.Please post if this list should be added to.

I've spotted a couple of people on these boards who have got great voice deals for inclusive minutes but no or only 30 inclusive texts. If you use text messaging, the bill will add up quickly. You should therefore be careful if you currently have texts included to factor this into your calculations.

Fry_2

Phoned Orange as out of contract. Used 0800 number given above.

Very helpful, I agree that been honest and putting the case forward calmly seems to work better. I have always been very impressed with Orange's customer service anyway.

Details:
Been with Orange for 5 years
Contract: Everyday 50 - very old talk plan (which is not available now) which normally the company hate and try to pull you off at the first opportunity. £0.50 a day for 50 mins of off-peak Orange/landline calls thus approx. £15 a month before texts and other networks.

Discussion:
The staff member at Orange after I put my case forward that I could move to another network and get a decent phone for free. After checking I was happy with my talkplan, he offered me the phone I wanted (SPV C500) for £0!!! Normal upgrade price was quoted before hand as £79.99 from several sources.

Did ask for a free text bundle but agent said not technically possible with this package.

I did not push my luck, that £80 saved and the phone arrived 24hrs later.

Thanks to all for the comments above. ;D

Essexdelboy

My girlfriend is on vodafone and was due for an upgrade, so she called them and gave authorisation for me too speak, and this where the moneysaving began

She was on a very good contract anyway and they refused to keep her on it and wanted her to pay an extra £15 per month, so I asked to cancel the contract.

They went through their little spiel and to cut a long story short, she stayed on her introductory offer, with the added bonus of free weekend calls. She was quite happy with this, as it was lower than most other companies would offer her. Once the tariff was sorted we negotiated phone and got the Nokia 6230 for free, then I asked for a free headset. They said they didn’t stock them, so instead I asked for 1 months free line rental (£34 approx.) so that we could buy a headset. They reluctantly agreed.

We could have pushed harder, but all in all she was pleased

So I am off to order a headset now, £15.99 from cdwow.co.uk (inc codes) and to list her old phone on ebay.co.uk.

Thanks for all the previous posts, which contributed in some excellent money saving