Contract ending soon(ish) best way to proceed

rubble2

Hi,

I currently have a 24 month contract with Buymobiles.net using the o2 network.

The contract ends at the beginning of February 2014 with the option of an early upgrade with o2 one month earlier. I am currently using a Motorola Defy+ which has been trouble free and am therefore looking at changing to a Motorola MotoG for my new contract.

Buymobiles.net have the 8Gb version of the phone on o2 for £14.00 per month with 100 mins, unlimited texts and 250Mb of data (with £35.00 cashback)

Tesco mobile have the 16Gb version of the phone for £12.50 per month with 250 mins, 5000 texts and 500Mb of data.

In both cases the phone is free, and the either package would be suitable for my useage. On the face of it, the Tesco deal is best - I know that Tesco use the o2 network so reception etc won't be a problem.

My dilemma is, do I wait until the contract is due to expire and jump ship to Tesco (is this price likely to still be valid in February?) or do I just wait until my early upgrade is due and try and negotiate a better deal from Buymobile?

As I have never changed networks before, can someone advise how traumatic it is likely to be and the best way to time things so that I do not end up paying for two contarcts during the switchover and do not lose service for any appreciable time.

I assume that once the o2 contract runs out I automatically go onto a rolling monthly deal at the same price as I am paying now, so would that be the correct point to take up the Tesco deal?

macman

Your contract doesn't end in Feb, it continues until you give 30 days notice. The minimum term ends.
Porting your number is not traumatic, just obtain your PAC and use it within 30 days. The procedure should all happen within one working day.

grumbler

rubble2 wrote: »

I currently have a 24 month contract with Buymobiles.net using the o2 network.

Your contract is with O2, not with Buymobiles.

Earthworm

Buy the phone outright and look at an Ovivo SIM with 150 mins, 300 SMS and 500MB at £0.00 per month. One off charge of £20 for the SIM and around £90-£110 for the phone it works out much cheaper. That works out around £5 per month when averaged out over 24 months.

rubble2

macman wrote: »

Your contract doesn't end in Feb, it continues until you give 30 days notice. The minimum term ends.
Porting your number is not traumatic, just obtain your PAC and use it within 30 days. The procedure should all happen within one working day.

Thanks for that, I understand what you are saying about the contract - in my case I would probably be best off trying to haggle a better deal on an upgrade in January and if I can't get a ggod deal then askfor my PAC in time to switch to Tesco in Feb.

rubble2

Earthworm wrote: »

Buy the phone outright and look at an Ovivo SIM with 150 mins, 300 SMS and 500MB at £0.00 per month. One off charge of £20 for the SIM and around £90-£110 for the phone it works out much cheaper. That works out around £5 per month when averaged out over 24 months.

That makes good sense financially but I really want to keep my current number

Lisaberry

rubble2 wrote: »

That makes good sense financially but I really want to keep my current number

Just port it over.
Also look at giff gaff, I've been with them a few months and they are great.
Don't tie yourself into a 2yr contract, not when the phone is so cheap!

Pippin12

Yes, don't tie yourself into a contract when the phone is so cheap. Get a sim only deal - as mentioned Giffgaff are good. I'm on a Virgin 30 day rolling contract for £15 - unlimited everything. I know you're not a heavy user but a sim only deal is definitely the way to go imo.

Cisco001

rubble2 wrote: »

That makes good sense financially but I really want to keep my current number

You can keep your number with ovivo. Just request PAC and transfer over. It just same as every other network.

Or ring up O2 at the end of the contract and ask if they can match tesco deal.

macman

rubble2 wrote: »

That makes good sense financially but I really want to keep my current number

That's the whole point of requesting your PAC.

Lisaberry

O2 were crud when my contract ended. I told them about what I could get with Giff gaff (£10 a month auto top up gets my 500 mins unlimited texts and 1gb data). They could just about match that but only on a 12 month sim only deal. I'd been with them about 4 years.
If you're on O2 already then Giffgaff uses the same network, you can put a new sim card straight in and you'll get the same coverage you do now.

I read about the ovivo deal when I was looking...but I read that you get quite a lot of adverts when surfing the web? That was a big factor in me looking elsewhere.