Contract ended, - want a Note II... - advice...

PJD

I've got an HTC Wildfire, I pay £12.50pm for unlimited txts, 300 mins and 500mb. Now my contract has ended Vodafone have offered the same bundle at £10.50pm.

I would like a Note II, - I have been looking around and it seems that I could get a contract similar to above with a free Note II for £29pm (with O2). So i'm guessing that my next step would be to approach Vodafone to see if they can offer something better, or i'll leave them. Or, another option would be to buy the phone myself outright (ebay £360), and to continue with the £10.50pm deal they're now offering?

I was wondering if anyone had a better ideas or suggestions on the best way forward for me?

Many thanks for any help.

DUTR

Buy it out right and get a sim only deal, sim only = same airtime for less than your £10.50 or more airtime for the same monies.
I'd be wary though buying it from ebay.

smartphone

By all means see if you can get a better deal out of Vodafone, but with the cost of the handset I'd be surprised if it was anywhere near what you are currently paying. As per the previous post, I'd be very wary of purchasing a handset from eBay. Someone like Amazon, UR Mobile or Mobile Fun are better bets, even if you have to pay more. SIM only also gives you far more freedom to move networks should you have any issues.

Fifer

There's a deal on HotUKDeals for a Note 2 on T-Mobile (through mobilephonesdirect) for Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for just £465. Upfront fee of £345 and a 12 months contract with T mobile worth £10 per month which includes 30 minutes, unlimited texts and 250MB mobile data allowance per month.

The 250MB isn't as bad as it seems unless you are a heavy streamer or downloader - T-Mobile don't limit normal browsing of you go over the limit and it is only a 12 month contract.

jumpsuit

I,m in exactly the same boat as PJD, out of my Dolphin7 contract with Orange and looking at Sim Free Note II,s.

Its a minefield to be honest, Many of the cheap Sim Free phones for sale (even on Amazon) can be traced back to Hong Kong which worries me.

Ive looked at Expansys and Handtec and they have phones at decent prices but are Eu phones with "valid warranties" ?

Whole thing makes me nervous.

Can anybody recomend a reliable source of UK spec phones before i give in and just hand a load of cash back to Orange again.

Sorry if ive compounded your problem but my problem seemed exactly the same as yours PJD.

Fifer

I think Expansys are a fairly reliable supplier. They've certainly been around for a good few years. That said, their SIM only price is no better than the total price of the mobilephonesdirect deal above, so even if you never used the contract, you are getting £100 interest free loan, paying the same price and getting a phone from a reasonably trustworthy source.

PJD

Many thanks everyone for their suggestions so far.

I have brought a second hand phone from ebay before and it worked out fine, - I just presumed that many were unwanted upgrades.... - what is the danger from buying from ebay?

Lifeforms

Primarily they get sold as unwanted upgrades, then you find that your mobile doesn't work all of a sudden because it's been blocked by the original provider. Turns out the contract they were on has been defaulted on for whatever reason. You lose the cash you paid, and have a non-working phone with an imei block on it, and can't do much about it.

Thus said you can buy phones off ebay and have it work, but usually its the newer phones that this comes with, and idk, it's the risk of buying on ebay. I had to do it to source the iphone 4s I wanted, as I simply could not get elsewhere, but i took a very careful approach to it, including tracking out the seller, and making sure it was a business rather than a personal seller. *thus allowing me to search up on the business, person, and any sites they run. Possibly makes no difference in the case of my phone being blocked in the future, but it made me feel better that it was a registered business with all names being connected correctly, and having a physical address to chase up.
Wasn't really an enjoyable experience though.