Moving abroad, what can I do with my contract?

dangermouse87

I took out a 2 year contract with Three in December 2010 but have since accepted a job in France and will be moving in 2 weeks time. There are still 11 months left on the contract and on phoning Three to ask what my options are they said I could either cancel the contract, paying off the remaining 11 months at £35 per month, or I could give the contract to a friend. Not helpful. I was hoping they would do one of the add-ons that some networks do that would give me some minutes/texts/data abroad but no such luck.

The phone is an iphone which I use a lot, so I was thinking of keeping it to use on wi-fi for skype/what'sapp/tango when I can, and just getting a cheap mobile for contacting people the rest of the time. While carrying 2 phones isn't ideal I'm a bit stuck, any suggestions please?

grumbler

"the add-ons that some networks do" normally are not free and you would have kept paying £35 with even extra on the top.

The only possible suggestion is to pay either £385 in one go or 11x£35 by a DD. Selling your lovely iPhone may help if money is a problem. A very decent replacement smartphone can be bought for about £100 if you really need it.

dangermouse87

Thanks for your reply, I think keeping up the DD and still having the use of the phone is preferable to cancelling it at the same cost.

Ideally I'm looking for a solution that lets me contact friends and family in the UK easily and cheaply (and without having to find wi-fi) while able to contact people in France too. Also having the capabilities of a smartphone would be useful, as I will be in a new city so things like maps and journey planners would be very useful to have access to on the go.

Alternatively, would getting a cheap PAYG handset with a French sim and also a lebara/lycamobile sim be a good solution?

NFH

dangermouse87 wrote: »

Ideally I'm looking for a solution that lets me contact friends and family in the UK easily and cheaply (and without having to find wi-fi) while able to contact people in France too.

You could have done that on Vodafone for £10/month, but all the other UK networks are a rip-off for data roaming. Ask Three whether they can price match Vodafone with regard to this and keep complaining until you get somewhere.

im-lost

grumbler wrote: »

"the add-ons that some networks do" normally are not free and you would have kept paying £35 with even extra on the top.

The only possible suggestion is to pay either £385 in one go or 11x£35 by a DD. Selling your lovely iPhone may help if money is a problem. A very decent replacement smartphone can be bought for about £100 if you really need it.

minus VAT of course

three are one of the few networks that do things by the book and
don't charge VAT on the early termination / remaining line rental

so roughly £320 to buy it out, but of course they are one month in
advance already, so that will knock another months payment off, so
about £290 to buy out the contract

grumbler

Well, it's the first time I hear this about Three. AFAIK, only Vodafone and Orange have been mentioned here so far.
So, for the record, if this information is correct, the networks that don't charge VAT are:

Vodafone
Orange
Three.

im-lost

grumbler wrote: »

Well, it's the first time I hear this about Three. AFAIK, only Vodafone and Orange have been mentioned here so far.
So, for the record, if this information is correct, the networks that don't charge VAT are:

Vodafone
Orange
Three.

Indeed, see a screenshot below. Its from 2010 though, but things
haven't changed at three, I cancelled a contract last week too, but
haven't got the final bill through yet, and it was confirmed that VAT
wasn't payable on the early termination / line rental remaining.

The 17.5% was for the line rental / other charges up until the point
of cancellation the 0% was for the termination fee / contracts remaining
months.