Are contracts really value for money??

sroper45

I complained with tmobile and they swapped me over to a plan which includes all 08 numbers im on £36 pound a month plan and get 900 mins 500 texts unlimted internet and my 08 numbers are inluded in the deal. I dont see this plan offered on their website though

Phils_debt

Changed my contract to a sim only deal still through vodafone and pay £12.36 or something for 300 mins unlimited texts and interweb

Planetspa

I am in the worst nightmare contract ever, my advice is to ensure you look at a reputable company....you will be tied to them, else like me, you could end up paying for a contract with no service.

Guys_Dad

zagfles wrote: »

Rubbish - have a look at the PAYG bundles here: http://phone-shop.tesco.com/tesco-mobile/help-and-support/bundles.aspx

Example £5 for 150 mins, and you can buy when you want, rather than having to buy the same thing every month as you do with a contract. Plus you can get free bundles when you top up a certain amount - if you top up £15 you get a free 150 min bundle and then you could use the credit to buy 3 bundles for the next 3 months.

So if you use 150 mins a month, that's 4 months for £15, ie £3.75 a month.

Sensible use of bundles on PAYG is generally cheaper than a contract unless your useage is very consistent and predictable.

Wouldn't want to argue with you as I don't use PAYG, but could you explain this bit from your quoted page. This is referring to the free bundle you think can be spread over 4 months.

"Free bundles
If you top-up £15 or more in month you’ll get one of the bundles below free of charge.

How does it work?
We’ll send you a text at the end of the month to let you know that your free bundle is about to end and to remind you to top-up £15 or more to get your free bundle again next month.

If you don’t top-up £15 or more in a month, you won’t get a free bundle but you can still buy our minutes, texts and data bundles, from the drop down sections below."

That suggests to me that you have to use the 150 minutes within the same month that you spent £15.

Have you actually got this deal or have you just assumed that the £15 can be spread over 3 months?

Kels488

Planetspa wrote: »

I am in the worst nightmare contract ever, my advice is to ensure you look at a reputable company....you will be tied to them, else like me, you could end up paying for a contract with no service.

Which company are you with?

zagfles

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Wouldn't want to argue with you as I don't use PAYG, but could you explain this bit from your quoted page. This is referring to the free bundle you think can be spread over 4 months.

"Free bundles
If you top-up £15 or more in month you’ll get one of the bundles below free of charge.

How does it work?
We’ll send you a text at the end of the month to let you know that your free bundle is about to end and to remind you to top-up £15 or more to get your free bundle again next month.

If you don’t top-up £15 or more in a month, you won’t get a free bundle but you can still buy our minutes, texts and data bundles, from the drop down sections below."

That suggests to me that you have to use the 150 minutes within the same month that you spent £15.

Have you actually got this deal or have you just assumed that the £15 can be spread over 3 months?

You don't "spread the bundle over 4 months", bundles almost invariably last a month with any network.

You top up £15. That gets you a free 150 mins bundle which lasts a month. You still have the £15 credit because the bundle was free, the credit itself does not disappear after a month (PAYG credit usually lasts forever as long as you use it it least once every 6 months).

Then a month later you use £5 of that credit to buy a 150 minutes bundle, same the next month and the month after (this is automatic after you've bought the first but can stop it easily enough - it'll stop automatically once the credit is used up).

So you've spent £15 and have got 4 months of 150 mins a month, ie £3.75 a month.

Kels488

Thanks for the replies- the SIM only contract deals per month seems good rather than being locked into a contract for 2 years!! Looking at 3, but need an upgraded handset so was thinking of recycling my old one on mazumba or efone and, then putting this towards a new payg phone was thinking Gumtree, rbay or a C-ex shop. What are peoples thoughts??

Guys_Dad

zagfles wrote: »

You don't "spread the bundle over 4 months", bundles almost invariably last a month with any network.

You top up £15. That gets you a free 150 mins bundle which lasts a month. You still have the £15 credit because the bundle was free, the credit itself does not disappear after a month (PAYG credit usually lasts forever as long as you use it it least once every 6 months).

Then a month later you use £5 of that credit to buy a 150 minutes bundle, same the next month and the month after (this is automatic after you've bought the first but can stop it easily enough - it'll stop automatically once the credit is used up).

So you've spent £15 and have got 4 months of 150 mins a month, ie £3.75 a month.

That certainly looks like a pretty good way to keep your costs down and I wasn't aware of this method of getting minutes.

I do note, however, that there are no texts in this scenario. Presumably these would come out of the initial £15 top up or would erode the £15 at 10p or so per text or £5 per month for a bundle of 5000 per month? Starts to look like a not-so-good deal if you send, say, 100 texts per month.

zagfles

Guys_Dad wrote: »

That certainly looks like a pretty good way to keep your costs down and I wasn't aware of this method of getting minutes.

I do note, however, that there are no texts in this scenario. Presumably these would come out of the initial £15 top up or would erode the £15 at 10p or so per text or £5 per month for a bundle of 5000 per month? Starts to look like a not-so-good deal if you send, say, 100 texts per month.

Indeed - if you send a lot of texts you'd probably want to buy a text bundle as well, you can do the same thing and get one month free so it'd be £30 over 4 months, £7.50 a month, exactly the same price and mins/texts as the cheapest no tie-in contract.

Tesco also have this "triple credit" thing, on topping up £15 you get £30 to spend the next month on standard stuff (normal calls, texts) so that could be used to cover at least part of a month's usage so it'd be cheaper than above.

Plus you get the flexibility with PAYG - some months you may hardly use the phone, or you're going abroad and so can't use bundles/inc mins, you don't bother buying a bundle. Other months you may use it a lot, so you buy a second bundle when the first runs out.

Contracts are better value for those who can predict their usage long term and usage is consistent every month, and have usage that fits with typical tariffs. Otherwise PAYG is usually better value.

Cash-Strapped.T32

I like the way this thread is going - I too have sometimes wondered if PAYG is necessarily less efficient than a well chosen SIM-only deal.

I say SIM-only, because I honestly think the majority of contracts out there are simply a vehicle to shift expensive handsets, because even though relatively few people will lay half a grand down on the counter for what is essentially a toy to them, you can always fool them into buying it in £30+ p/m chunks.