Best Contract Phones

Lipsticklady

Hello,
I have always been a PAYG customer and i have decided to take the leap and become a contract customer!! :eek:

I dont want anything too expensive (£15-£20 per month). I will need a new phone (preferably not a brick) and i need it soon as i have been a victim of crime and had my old phone stolen! :mad:

I mainly use my phone on PEAK times and rarely text.
Can anybody help me, chose the right phone for me???

Darren21

There really are so many options you need to do a little searching around here yourself first. It depends on so many things:
1) do you want an expensive or cheap fone
2) do you mind claiming cashback
3) do you mind using the 'three' network
4) would you consider e2save, onestopphoneshop, dialaphone etc

MoneyMachine_2

Hi, I am on Three as I mainly use mine at peak times and rarely bother texting.
I am on the 750 mins a month package for £35 a month but get half of all this back via cashback from onestopphoneshop.

This is my second year with Three and generally its ok but when the service does cut out it is very very annoying and I have thought about switching to Orange as they have some good contracts but the pricing Three have at the moment combined with the cashback makes it very tempting to stay.

if you are thinking about a Three phone - find out how good reception is in your area. The only way to really do this is find someone who lives nearby who uses Three.
Its generally fine in city centres and large towns and not so good the more rural you are.
It also seems fine on motorways and major roads.

I'm living in a village now and currently have to go upstairs to get the best reception - which is why I'm thinking of changing to Orange.
There should be plenty of folk who can give you more advice though.

UKJubilee_2

I tried 3 and gave up, E2Save have some great contracts though and if you don't mind cashback the other networks can be just as competitive... (I took out a new contract with Orange today that works out at £2.50 a month after cashback for 200 anytime cross network minutes....and I got cashback through Rpoints making it about £1.46 a month)

poisondwarf_2

Hi, I was in the same position as you until a couple of hours ago (i.e. long-standing PAYG customer) and have been keeping my eye out for an irresistible deal for ages.

I got a little Excel spreadsheet going because it's such a pain to work out the true cost as the deal structures differ so widely. If anyone wants me to send them the spreadsheet (which calculates the total cost over the minimum contract period, as well as what the monthly bill averages out at) then PM me and I'll e-mail it to you.

Anyway, I stopped after about 10 phones because I didn't think I'd find a better deal than this:


http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/offerdetails.aspx?offercode=600TT91Z&ID=1#

I've actually taken the plunge, and am expecting delivery tomorrow so I can't vouch for the service or anything, but for a grand total of £25.88 for a whole year I think I can afford to take the risk!

The deal is this:

- Motorola C975, not a particularly fancy or dinky phone but has camera & video, and is actually shaped like a mobile phone!

- 500 inclusive minutes and 100 texts per month (anytime, any network)

- Network is (yes, you guessed it) 3. Boyfriend has been using them since Christmas - very minor and very occasional network problems so far (and none recently) - I doubt if it would have much of an impact unless you're a very heavy user. Would definitely recommend them for the price.

- £2.99 per month for 12 months (then £30), & minimum contract of 12 months. £10 cashback when ordered online

As I say, I've been keeping my eye out for ages and this deal seems almost too good to be true - which of course is where the claiming cashback comes in. You have to claim your cashback in no less than 5 stages. However, I'm hoping that if I can manage to keep on top of it it should be worth the extra hassle.

Darren21

remember to use:

https://www.dialaphone.co.uk/theworks

or

https://www.dialaphone.co.uk/ltsbstudent

and/or

a referral

Lipsticklady

Thanks for all the tips. Feel a bit reluctant to use 'three'...heard that the reception is very poor from quite a few people :think: .
Plus, the reception in my home is terrible at the best of times !!!

I am not after a really expensive phone....just one i am not embarrssed to answer! :doh:

I have never used 'Cashback'...not really sure what it entails and yes,
i would consider e2save, onestopphoneshop, dialaphone.

kai666

At work the only network to get any reception is '3':- Full signal. all the other networks nothing at all. I also think it depends on the phone. I tried an NEC and had terrible problems. Nokia though was much better. Though admittedly did drop more calls than vodafone. But not enough to be really annoying

poisondwarf_2

Cashback basically means that you pay the full price by direct debit (in the example I gave above that would mean £30 a month by direct debit rather than the £2.99 discount rate), then you have to send your bills in at say months 3, 6 and 9 (or whatever the terms state) to be refunded the difference.

Effectively you are lending the companies money by doing this, and they are also in part obviously relying on people not getting round to sending their bills back by the cutoff date (in which case you forfeit the refund).

As for using 3 - reception is perfect where I live (but then I am in Central London). About the only problem my boyfriend has had was driving along the motorway (basically when no 3G signal is available it switches to a 2G signal, and the call sometimes gets dropped in the process).

It's worth noting that with the deal I mentioned above you have a 14-day period in which you can cancel with no questions asked, so it may be worth trying it for yourself.

LittleJo

Hi.
I have just followed the link provided by Darren21 to Dialphone the works. Now if my sums are right, I pay £2.99 a month for 12 months (allowing for the cashback), I get £10 discount for ordering online and the hosting site gives me £40.

Cost £2.99 X 12 = £35.88 - £10 discount - £40 casback.

If I am not missing anything I am £4.12 better off.

Jo

Darren21

LittleJo wrote:

Hi.
I have just followed the link provided by Darren21 to Dialphone the works. Now if my sums are right, I pay £2.99 a month for 12 months (allowing for the cashback), I get £10 discount for ordering online and the hosting site gives me £40.

Cost £2.99 X 12 = £35.88 - £10 discount - £40 casback.

If I am not missing anything I am £4.12 better off.

Jo

Yes that's correct. If you get a referral aswell then you could possibly get another £20! You may have to fight for this though as dialaphone don't seem to ever register a referral when you put it in online, only when you phone up.
Please also note that the £40 theworks link is not 100% guaranteed - some people have got it and some are still waiting. I've used the lloyds one 3 times with 100% success, plus got £40 not £20 as advertised on their site (if you go to lloyds website it says should be £40).