Want to cancel a contract but stay with orange...

daisybcfc

Hi guys, Im pretty naive regarding phone contracts, been with orange for 10 years plus and always just renewed contracts etc as ive gone along.

The thing is I have 2 phone contracts with orange (me and the partner) which orange say we are eligible for an upgrade on the 22/11/12. I was wondering is their anyway I can do this early. Its both of our birthdays soon and also we both have got new jobs with pay rises so i wanted to treat ourselves as a bit of a surprise for the other half and get the new iphone 5 by the start of October as we've never had any snazzy phones before.

Is it even possible? How would I do it? I've had a read through on here and on the main site and I assume that if I downgrade my contract for 1 month then cancel it is cheaper? I pay £25 a month for both phones if that helps?

Any advice/help/words of wisdom are welcome, I feel a bit stupid not knowing whats going on but hopefully I can get this sorted.

grumbler

daisybcfc wrote: »

... Its both of our birthdays soon and also we both have got new jobs with pay rises so i wanted to treat ourselves as a bit of a surprise for the other half and get the new iphone 5 by the start of October as we've never had any snazzy phones before....

Just treat yourselves with two sim-free phones bought from Apple directly and use them on your current contract then. Combined with a sim-only contract after the current contract expires this will be cheaper in terms of the total cost over 2 years.

IMHO, anyone who cannot afford buying a phone outright cannot afford a long £40+ contract either.

prowla

They will usually let you upgrade early, especially if it's only a couple of months.

Naf

Expect the iPhone 5 to be exorbitant at £25 per month for a start.

With Orange the date they quote you for an upgrade is 90 days before your contract end date - these 3 months are simply added to the end of the new deal.
There's no foolproof way to get it early. Sometimes you can persuade them to do it extra early if your old phone is really broken. They do have a system that assesses you and can give a cost for an early upgrade, but this doesn't always seem to be offered.
The other option is what you seem to have in mind; cancel the existing ones and take new. There are issues with this too. Firstly you won't be able to keep the existing numbers; not usually an issue, but worth being aware of. Secondly if both of the existing phones are in the same name there is no guarantee Orange will offer an additional 2 connections on the account (given your history I would guess they would though), or even of getting them in separate names - just to warn you of the danger of getting one but not the other and being disappointed.
The other consideration related to your upgrade date (and the 90 day early upgrade) would be how much you'd have to pay if you tried the second option. They will only let you downgrade one price-point (usually) so you'd have £20pm to pay on each phone for 3-4 monhs = £120-£160.

robbies_gal

the upgrade amount of days is now 45 not 90-i doubt you will get anything offered on the iphone 5 anyway they always have set tariffs

RICK..._2

Indeed, earliest you can upgrade is now 45 days before the contract ends.

The only other way that I know of to fast track to upgrade is to pay off the remainder of your contract.

simax

If you upgrade between 6 months into your contract and more than 46 days from the end of your contract you pay your remaining line rental minus 25% as an early upgrade fee.