Online offers -'free' gifts

Something_Cool

My contract with Orange is due to end on Jan 6th, so I'm currently looking at my options. I'm considering going through one of the online sites as I fancied myself an Xbox one as a Christmas present, but less the £400 price tag. And you can get them a 'free' gifts with a very cheap contract with a 'brick' phone.

I'm very happy with the handset I have at the moment (Good old Nokia Lumia WP) so would just use the Sim from the new contract which is £12 a month cheaper than my current.

My only concern is having not really had any experience of these sites, or know anyone else who has used these sites, what are the catches, because when an offer seems too good to be true, it usually is.

My current deal with Orange is £38 pcm over 24 months (£912 over 24 months)

The new one is with Vodafone (I can unlock my phone for £35), I have to pay £31 for the new handset, and then £26.50 for 24 months (Total cost: £702) Then less the £400 I would have to pay for the console.

Am I behind the times, or is there something I am missing?

source: mobilephonesdirect . co . uk (Can't post the link)

MikeWhite

Something_Cool wrote: »

Am I behind the times, or is there something I am missing?

It's difficult to judge without knowing what minutes/texts/data you are getting. Also, Xbox One is 329 on Amazon?

Mike

JJ_Egan

£35 + £31 + £636 = £702
Less X Box cost £329.
Balance £373 for the phone and the 24 months contract at unknown specifications .

chanz4

£26.50 Inc. VAT per month / 24 months

• Unlimited Data
• for 3 months then 100MB
• 100 Minutes
• Unlimited Texts
• 4 GB BT Openzone WiFi Hotspot Access

Includes: Free Microsoft Xbox ONE & Kinect worth £391.99

gjchester

Something_Cool wrote: »

Am I behind the times, or is there something I am missing?

As others have said without knowing the phone and deal specifically its hard to find the deal to look at , but assuming Chanz4 is reasonably right then the lowest SIM only deal on that site that covers the same usage is £9.50 a month. (There's a cheaper £8 a month one but it involves cashback that could fail to be paid so I'm sticking to "normal deals")


That's £228 over the same 24 months as the contract life, however the sim only deal has more minutes and data, so its not a direct comparison.


The long and short is your paying a lot more over 24 months than buying a sim only deal and an Xbox separately. You may be able to sell the phone to get some of the different back, but its an expensive way to buy a Xbox.

Something_Cool

Chanz was right, that was the deal I was looking at. I'm currently paying £38 per month for 2000 mins, unlimited texts and 2 gig data (Which I am now nowhere near needing). The phone itself is a Nokia Asha, which is a simple handset I can probaly get £10 back for on eBay or something.

I did find a better deal which was:

Handset cost - free
Rental - £24.50 per month over 24 months
Contract - 300 minutes
Unlimited Texts
Unlimited data (For 3 months, then 250 MB)
Free gift - Xbox one + Kinect with Titanfall

Total - £588 over 24 months, less £395 for Xbox = £193

Thanks for the advice then, so it may be cheaper looking at a sim only deal and buying my Xbox seperately.