On Orange contract, want to make it PAYG

complimentschemistry

Hi,

Not sure what to do or if this is even possible... I'm on a contract with Orange and I'm trying to reduce all outgoings to pay more of my debts off. I'm currently paying £45 per month and really want to make it PAYG.

I was thinking of writing to Orange and explaning what I want to do and just see what they say, but I'm hoping there's a way I can definately get them to do this. My contract doesn't expire until August 2012 so I really hope I'm not stuck with it!!

Any ideas on what I can do? Please let me know!

CyCo_2

If you want to change to PAYG, you'll have to buy out the remainder of your contract. They wont just let you out of it.

Jon_01

They'll let you do that at the end of your minimum term, but you'll have to complete the time you agreed to or (as above) pay off the rest of the time.

fergieforever

From a legal point of view you will need to honour the entire contract at the price you signed up to. However you could try offering to return the handset if you can reduce the the amount you pay each month. They may say no, but it's wortha try.

Stuart_W

...and if that doesn't work, given that you're paying £45 per month you must have an impressive handset. You could try selling that on ebay and putting your simcard in a cheap budget handset. It will at least give you some money towards line rental costs.

NVRAM

As above, and probably not what you're wanting to hear...

You signed/agreed to a legally binding contract up until August 2012, you WILL need to honor that.

As Extortionate as the plan sounds Im assuming you received a high end handset, this could be partially the key to lowering your costs. Which handset was it you received?

Also was £45 the initial plan you signed up on or have you raised the mins/texts at some point? Most mobile operators allow you to move up and down plans throughout your contract as long as you don't go lower than the initial one you agreed to.

Other than that you could try requesting your buy out charge and see if its financially feasible, take into considerationt he money from selling your handset there too.

Long shot which would get the payments out of the way for the time being is requesting they palce your contract on "hold" I can't remember the exact term for this but it woudl allow you a bit of a breather before finishing off the rest of the contract.
I'm sure I read somewhere Orange allow upto 6 months "hold/holiday" in special circumstances. you would of course from what I understand still need to honour the rest of the contract ofter this period.

Millionaire

Normally you could reduce the plan after a set period of time, depending on the contract length. Previously an expensive plan could be dropped quite a bit, but I think Orange now only allow one drop. e.g. £45 to £40. Still saves a fiver a month untill contract end.

Also as previously mentioned on that sort of tariff you must have got an expensive phone. (iphone?) If so sell it on ebay and should get a few hundred quid for that.

To buy out a plan it usually is at the tariff rate which case would be£45x months remaining on contract.

complimentschemistry

I unfortunately got on the iPhone bandwagon when I had a bit more spare cash thus why contract is so expensive... please don't judge!

I will definately be asking about the hold/holiday thing it sounds like something that would help for the time being. If I show them my I&E and debts, etc, I'm hoping they will allow me to take a break from paying for a bit and although I'll need to pay it all back in the long run, I hopefully won't have as many debts to pay back in about 6m time.

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

macman

Why would they let you switch to PAYG, on which the future revenue flow for them is precisely zero? You could simply then use a PAYG SIM from another provider, and would walk away with a high-end handset for nothing.
Assuming you took the contract out for 24m in August 2010, they haven't even come near to recovering the handset subsidy yet.
As suggested, sell the handset on eBay and use that to set against the remainder of the contract costs.

reduceditem

Tell them you're moving abroad:





terminating your Contract because Orange is no longer able to provide access to the Network

4.4 If, for reasons beyond our control, we are no longer able to provide the Services, we will at our discretion either:
4.4.1 make arrangements for you to be supplied with equivalent Services by another network at no extra cost to you, or
4.4.2 accept written notice from you that you wish to terminate your Contract. In such cases we will refund any pre-paid Charges that have not been used up.

keith1950

Hi, approximately one third the price of the contract pays for the tariff and the remaining two thirds pays for the phone and any cashback/free gifts/commisions. Assuming you are on a 24 month contract at £45/month then the contract is worth about £1080 so deducting one third gives about £720 which means you got a really expensive phone or took out an inflated contract to get a large cashback or free gift. I am afraid that legally you are stuck with the contract. Dont waste your time even asking them. Downgrade the plan when the time comes and as previous advised, sell the phone to subsidise the payments and use the sim with a cheapo £10 mobile.