Early Upgrade

hiphopopotamus

Hi all,

I'm on a 24m contract with T-Mobile at £25pm, which expires in July (so I'm eligible for upgrade in June).

The thing is my phone's on it's last legs and, I could do with getting a new one.

T-Mobile's website say I can upgrade through them and they'll discount the remainder of the contract by 25%, but going direct through the network won't get me as good a deal as going through a third-party like dialaphone, buymobilephones, etc.

So is it possible to upgrade with a third-party with so long left on the contract (even if I have to pay up the remainder of the contract)?

Or would I be best off just asking them for a PAC and getting a new contract with another operator and paying up my existing contract?

grumbler

If you pay up the remainder of the contract you can join as a new customer via a third party and get a better deal then as an upgrading customer. If it's the same provider, your number can be ported in two steps via another network PAYG sim.

That said, a contract is not the only way of getting a new phone, especially if you want to waste money on paying up for the remaining months. You can buy it sim-free on on PAYG and use on the existing contract, then on a sim-only contract or PAYG.

hiphopopotamus

Thanks, I'm after a decent phone so it's cheaper to pay up the contract than shell out the £400 for a PAYG.

Am I right in thinking that if I did go with the same network as a new contract from a third-party I'd have to pay up the original contract first, rather than keep paying it monthly side-by-side with the new one? That would be too cheeky right? :-)

jenniewb

Try Phones4u as I know they often upgrade with 6 months left on your contract. However, expect any offers to be higher in cost as a result and be wary that they tend to like offering Vodaphone a little too much- not because they are especially good but because money is involved from what I understand.

keith1950

Am I right in thinking that if I did go with the same network as a new contract from a third-party I'd have to pay up the original contract first, rather than keep paying it monthly side-by-side with the new one? That would be too cheeky right? :-)

No, assuming you are a regular payer and not in debt with them you can run two or more contracts side by side.

The only drawback would be if you were wanting to keep the same mobile number, you would receive a new number with each additional contract.

As an example , I currently have five contracts with T-Mobile at various stages in each contract.

( Some are for relatives and a couple were such good deals that I made money by taking out the deals-e.g. 600 mins/unlimited texts/500mb for £10/month, I got £80 cashback on the deal and sold the phone for £280......my daughter then used the tariff free of charge. )