Unable to paay phone contract:(

Goodwinners

if a contract you have taken out is something you can no longer afford due to a change in circumstances is there anything you can do any way to fight your corner?

grumbler

No, you can't fight, but you can ask/beg.
You are at the mercy of the network.

macman

Death or bankruptcy are the only ways to terminate your contract within minimum term without penalty. 'Financial hardship' doesn't count, or the world and his wife would claim that.
As above, you have nothing to lose by asking, but don't expect to get anything.

anotheruser

Let me guess, some sort of iPhone right?

People should really save to buy a phone outright. Then you don't get locked into these silly 2 year contacts at £40 a month. I always have spare allocation on my £10 a month from Tesco, but then everyone is different.

Sim only is the way to go though.

When your contract is up, go sim only, but pay extra into a separate account. By the end of the year you should have enough to get yourself a good handset, which can then be sold whenever for half the value, which then funds the next handset.

gjchester

anotheruser wrote: »

Let me guess, some sort of iPhone right?.

Big jump, all the top of the line handsets come in about £500, does not have to be an iPhone.

grumbler

Yes, but iPhones are much more common reason for people overstretching their finances to the limit.

Buzby

Better than than paying than money for a naff unsecured OS. That said, you can often assign the contract to a third party - some folk want a shorter term contract phone and are willing to take on the remaining period if the price is right.

A few websites offer to connect buyers with sellers.

NFH

anotheruser wrote: »

People should really save to buy a phone outright. Then you don't get locked into these silly 2 year contacts at £40 a month.

I totally agree. It's all part of the "buy now pay later" consumer debt culture that is so prevalent in the UK and US. Either that or the customer mistakenly believes they're getting the phone for free whereas in fact it usually costs them more overall.

ZhugeEX

NFH wrote: »

I totally agree. It's all part of the "buy now pay later" consumer debt culture that is so prevalent in the UK and US. Either that or the customer mistakenly believes they're getting the phone for free whereas in fact it usually costs them more overall.

I agree 100%.

I only ever go for a contract where it costs less over 24 months than it does to buy the phone outright. I've been SIM Only for a while now but have had a couple of 24m contracts in the past where the above has applied.