Can i get a "custom" contract for the Phone i want? (Samsung Galaxy S2)

thezeronumber

To get right to it: Can i make a "custom" contract suited to my needs with a provider? Do such things exist?

My contract with Orange on the Sony Ericsson W995 has recently ended and now i am after the Samsung Galaxy S2. My friend's sister got one a couple of months back and i had a test run on it; i was impressed before but even more so after that, so it's definitely the Phone for me.

Move to a couple of weeks back and i receive a call from mobiles.co.uk, telling me that i have been a loyal customer for 2 years, my contract is ending soon, etc, and asked me what i am interested in if anything. I mentioned the Samsung Galaxy S2, she threw some plans my way and i basically asked if she could call back in a week's time as i needed to do some looking around myself. A week on after being too busy to do my own searching, same woman calls back (bonus for consistency) and we discuss some other plans. Told her i am after internet more than anything else and as before she is calling me back in a week's time. That date is Friday, less than two days from now and i'm still not too sure on what to go for.

I want to use my Phone as a Phone when i need to, so a couple of hours of call time and maybe a couple of hundred texts, but most of my communication (and everything else for that matter) is done through internet services and i would be treating the Smart Phone as a small Tablet half of the time.

Three caught my eye with their truly-unlimited 'all you can eat data' with 'The One Plan'. Brilliant i thought, until i saw the rest of the package and the price. Aside from the data, there are 2,000 minutes and 5,000 texts, coming to a total of £35 a month. Bear in mind my old contract was costing me roughly £25 per month. If i go directly with Three there doesn't seem to be a cost for the Phone, but if i go with mobiles.co.uk there is a £59.99 charge. Either way, those minutes and texts are gigantic and i would struggle to use more than 5% of it all. If i could, i'd cut 90% of those minutes/texts off my contract and save an extra few quid. But can i? There is also a (cheaper) T-Mobile plan with "unlimited" internet but download/stream is actually 500mb and surfing is 3 or 4gb, which isn't enough sadly.

Any experience with this stuff? Help/suggestions? Feeling a bit overwhelmed and lost!

grumbler

I think they will try to sell you the same deals that they have on the website. You can do better by going to their website via quidco/tcb or via a price comparison site like moneysupermarket or omio.

thezeronumber

Thanks for the reply. £35 a month is the best i can find, both through those sites and elsewhere. There is no contract available that offers unlimited data usage with less texts/minutes which is ideally what i am after. Spending £35 every month when i will barely touch the several thousand texts and minutes, well, it will feel like a waste of money. Not sure if custom contracts exist or if anything else can be done but that's why i've come here.

diamonds

I considered the 3 One plan - Dad is a Virgin Media customer so got the Virgin Liberty Plan only 30 day sim ordered the other day for my 3GS iphone

£20.99 3000 mins, 3000 V to V mins, 5000 texts & 1GB but for £5 a month bolt on I can get another 5GB so £25.99 all in for 6GB, £9 cheaper than 3 with 6GB data.

Might be worth a look and begging anyone you know on Virgin Media to get on it & buy a GII sim free/ebay etc if you can afford it upfront.

diamonds

Dial a phone had a £22.99 plan yesterday, unknown what network or data...check it out.

grumbler

There is 24x£25+£99 deal for talkmobile that is better than 24x£35.

However, IMO the best deal is 12x£30+£99. Assuming 12x£10 for the next 12 months airtime this is the same as 24x£24

thezeronumber

diamonds wrote: »

£25.99 all in for 6GB, £9 cheaper than 3 with 6GB data.

Might be worth a look and begging anyone you know on Virgin Media to get on it & buy a GII sim free/ebay etc if you can afford it upfront.

Appreciate the idea but the Samsung Galaxy S2 is £500 from reliable/typical stores or £400 from eBay and i'm not sure i can afford such a large purchase at the moment. If i got it for £400 with one of those Sims it looks like it would cost me more than going on contract. £35 for 24 months comes to £840 but paying £400 with £26 a month for the same length of time comes to £1,024. Admittedly i probably wouldn't stick with that Sim for a whole 2 years but you can see what i mean.

diamonds wrote: »

Dial a phone had a £22.99 plan yesterday, unknown what network or data...check it out.

I will check it out, thanks.

grumbler wrote: »

There is 24x£25+£99 deal for talkmobile that is better than 24x£35.

However, IMO the best deal is 12x£30+£99. Assuming 12x£10 for the next 12 months airtime this is the same as 24x£24

Both of those have restricted data usage (think 1gb) and i would hit the limit within a week of use. Not suitable i'm afraid.

thezeronumber

Sorry to double post but maybe i misunderstood you Grumbler! I did a little digging around on T-Mobile and found their fair-use policy, which was mostly normal as expected, but then saw something which took me by surprise:

"If you join T-Mobile before 30 September 2011 and select a 24-month price plan of £25 a month or more, the good news is that there's no fair use policy."

Seems almost too good to be true but it's there in black and white and maybe what Grumbler was originally pointing out. I cannot post a link due to being a new member but if you go to the T-Mobile site and go right down to the bottom, click the fair use policy and it will be near the top on that page. If this is truly no fair use then i will take up the offer for sure.

grumbler

Are you sure that "4gb... isn't enough sadly" for "communication ... and ... treating the Smart Phone as a small Tablet"?
What kind of "communication" it is I wonder...

thezeronumber

Sounds dodgy when putting it like that! By communications i am referencing Facebook, Twitter, Skype, general Forum posting/browsing, maybe a bit of MSN, etc. It would be nice to have them running in the background most of the time so i can check whenever i get a free moment. I'm a bit of a social addict in that aspect.

I'm a heavy YouTube user too so i'd need the data to watch things while on the move.

grumbler

Ah... it's youtube then...