T-mobile sim only: £10.21/month but £80 cashback after 3 months!

webbysnr

I've just been browsing Topcashback and noticed that if you order a T-mobile sim only (on a rolling monthly contract), for £10.21 per month you can get 100 mins of calls, 100 texts, plus a free bolt-on such as unlimited landline calls. However, as long as you keep it for 3 months, you get a whopping £80.80 cashback. Even allowing a couple of months leeway for the payment to go through & contract cancellation, you could still gain about £30 on the deal!!!

Unless I'm missing something, they must obviously just assume that once you're using it, you'll either be to happy or too lazy to cancel it.

I haven't ordered one yet - I'm going to check the small-print first. If any other MSE users would like to do the same then let me know what you think, I'd be grateful.

EDIT: Please see my post below with the TCB T's & C's in it - if it's a TCB mistake, then you may only get £20 cashback. This makes the deal roughly £25 for 5 months calls, so only go for it if this is good value to you.

EDIT 2: In the mobile phones forum, there's an item called: "T-mobile Cashback loophole. Get £55 and free minutes for nothing" from back in December when TCB had a similar deal. (Sorry can't post links.) Some people have posted in the last couple of weeks to confirm that they were indeed paid the £80. Also, by converting it to a PAYG sim one MSE'er seems to have avoided paying for a notice period? Hence there does seem to be a reasonable chance of getting the £80 ... it's up to you to judge whether it's worth a punt!

Thanks, John.

webbysnr

Well I can't see any hidden catches, in fact it's better than I first thought - T-mobile only change you half price for the first month, so you get £5.10 knocked off. Hence, as long as you stay within your contracted call plan the figures look like:

First 5 month's cost = £5.11 + £40.81 = £45.92
Topcashback rebate = £80.80
Potential profit = £34.88, not to mention all those 'free' phone calls!

As a newbie, I can't post links, but for info, the call plan offers a basic 100 mins of calls plus 100 texts plus the option of 1 of the following 'flexible boosters': Internet; Unlimited Texts; Unlimited Landline Talk; Unlimited T-mobile Talk; Europe Talk & Text; Europe & Australasia Talk; USA & Canada Talk.

Please can someone else confirm that I'm not just imagining this??
Maybe it should be moved to the 'Up Your Income' forum ....

azza87

webbysnr wrote: »

Well I can't see any hidden catches, in fact it's better than I first thought - T-mobile only change you half price for the first month, so you get £5.10 knocked off. Hence, as long as you stay within your contracted call plan the figures look like:

First 5 month's cost = £5.11 + £40.81 = £45.92
Topcashback rebate = £80.80
Potential profit = £34.88, not to mention all those 'free' phone calls!

As a newbie, I can't post links, but for info, the call plan offers a basic 100 mins of calls plus 100 texts plus the option of 1 of the following 'flexible boosters': Internet; Unlimited Texts; Unlimited Landline Talk; Unlimited T-mobile Talk; Europe Talk & Text; Europe & Australasia Talk; USA & Canada Talk.

Please can someone else confirm that I'm not just imagining this??
Maybe it should be moved to the 'Up Your Income' forum ....

If the first month is £5.11 + two further payments of £10.21 to meet the requirements for the cashback the total spend would be £25.53

So potential profit would be £54.47

Why keep paying for 5 months when you only need to pay for 3?

webbysnr

I've assumed that if you ring them to cancel it before the 3 months is up, you won't qualify for the cashback.

Hence by the time you can safely cancel (hopefully with the cashback already safely in your hands) it will be into month 4. In order to give them the required notice, you'd then have to pay for month 5.

Cheers, John.

pepperoni_2

Same deal is only £20 cash back with quidco- it needs a £20 month sim to get £80 cash back.....I wonder if TCB are missing something

webbysnr

I hadn't considered it, but it could obviously just be a mistake and Topcashback might simply have got it wrong.

Any idea what they'd do in such circumstances - i.e. would they honour the advertised amount, or just excuse it as human error and pay you the £20?

Waynewonder

Great deal - Cheers!

webbysnr

Buyer beware! Just read through the TCB terms & conditions, where it says:

From time to time retailers may increase or decrease the commission paid – in which case the cashback offer illustrated on our site may be incorrect. By default, your applicable transactions will be credited in line with the commission reported to us by the retailer, which may be more or less than the advertised rate.


Hence there's a reasonable chance you may only get £20 cashback, so please only go for it if you think their call package is a good deal at £25.92 for 5 months.

pepperoni_2

I saw this last night...it's probably a standard clause in all cashback sites but it does give license for a cashback site to advertise any amount cashback regardless of the facts. Can't imagine TCB or Quidco would stoop to this but a mistake could be made, I know I'm waiting for TCB to sort a cashback claim for me that was showing as 16% cashback but on purchase the retailer claims it was 1%...and it was for a large purchase.
But as everyone always says..cashback is never guaranteed...but nice when it works:D

webbysnr wrote: »

Buyer beware! Just read through the TCB terms & conditions, where it says:

From time to time retailers may increase or decrease the commission paid – in which case the cashback offer illustrated on our site may be incorrect. By default, your applicable transactions will be credited in line with the commission reported to us by the retailer, which may be more or less than the advertised rate.


Hence there's a reasonable chance you may only get £20 cashback, so please only go for it if you think their call package is a good deal at £25.92 for 5 months.

webbysnr

OK, since I can make use of the calls, I decided to risk it.

I ordered one 2 days ago, so it's not even tracking yet. The crazy thing is that I only ordered a £10.21 a month SIM but they've sent me a phone as well. I've double-checked my order, and logged into my T-mobile account - they've correctly got me down for just the SIM only deal.

The phone is the Android Sony X10 mini that I think is posted elsewhere for the same monthly fee but a 24-month contract? Maybe this or just the number of these phones they're shifting has caused the confusion? Anyhow, I'm off to wrestle with my conscience about returning it or saying nothing....

Am I the only one who's gone for this TCB deal?

taiko01

I went for same deal but I never got a phone just the sim and cashback is showing up as 80.80 outstanding in topcashback.