Mobile Phone contract.

elliejake

I was self-employed and for to health reasons Dr told me to stop working, Ive been on the sick for about 8 weeks and don't think things will be changing any time soon.

Me and the wife have two mobile phones, business plan under one contract its about £100 per month. The way things are I just no longer can afford.

My question is once I stop repaying they will suspend our phones, If the wife got a much cheaper sim only deal would I be able to put the new sim cards in our contract phone if sims were by the same contract supplier?

Thanks in advanse for any help/info.

iarniee

elliejake wrote: »

I was self-employed and for to health reasons Dr told me to stop working, Ive been on the sick for about 8 weeks and don't think things will be changing any time soon.

Me and the wife have two mobile phones, business plan under one contract its about £100 per month. The way things are I just no longer can afford.

My question is once I stop repaying they will suspend our phones, If the wife got a much cheaper sim only deal would I be able to put the new sim cards in our contract phone if sims were by the same contract supplier?

Thanks in advanse for any help/info.

Hello, hope you are well.

I have been in your situation, I was getting charged £60 a month for my contract for going over on data etc. I owed £121 overall for two months and my phone was suspended (answers your first question, they will suspend your phone about a month or so after the nonpayment and will pass on your debt to collection agencies)

Contracted phones are usually locked to a number but can be unlocked, I wouldn't recommend this as you will still have to pay your £100 a month and then pay an extra amount for the new contract.


Suggestion/What I did:

I contacted them, cleared the payment and then asked if there was any discount on my phone bill (less data, calls, texts etc)
I am now on a cheaper price plan and pay £34.99 a month and I have a direct debit which takes £3.50 off the bill.

Hope this helped

Source: From Experience

Cyberman60

My advice to all is to get a cheap unlocked phone (will take any sim home or abroad) and go PAYG with giffgaff. I was on 15-20 quid a month contract with O2 but after changing to giffgaff, who ironically are a subsidiary of O2, I've spent less than 6 quid on calls in 4 months, mainly because I've been out of the country a lot. On a contract I would still have to have paid at least 60 quid even though abroad.

I bought an unlocked Cubot P9 5 inch screen smartphone on Ebay for just over 60 quid and have never looked back as it gives me ability for free wifi G3/G4 access in UK and abroad when in participating locations (such as JDWs in the UK).

elliejake

Contracted phones are usually locked to a number but can be unlocked, I wouldn't recommend this as you will still have to pay your £100 a month and then pay an extra amount for the new contract.


[/QUOTE]I thought they would only need unlocking if you wanted to use a sim from another supplier.

iarniee

elliejake wrote: »

Contracted phones are usually locked to a number but can be unlocked, I wouldn't recommend this as you will still have to pay your £100 a month and then pay an extra amount for the new contract.

I thought they would only need unlocking if you wanted to use a sim from another supplier.[/QUOTE]


I may be wrong, it could just be locked to a sim provider! However I would't advise not paying as they will add extra fee's and will be more expensive, if you call your provider and explain your situation i'm sure they will offer you something.

d123

iarniee wrote: »

I may be wrong, it could just be locked to a sim provider! However I would't advise not paying as they will add extra fee's and will be more expensive, if you call your provider and explain your situation i'm sure they will offer you something.

You are, the sim lock is not to the number, just to the network. Some networks dont lock their phones at all (for example Three).

A PAYG sim from the same network will work in a network locked phone.

mobilejunkie

elliejake wrote: »

I was self-employed and for to health reasons Dr told me to stop working, Ive been on the sick for about 8 weeks and don't think things will be changing any time soon.

Me and the wife have two mobile phones, business plan under one contract its about £100 per month. The way things are I just no longer can afford.

My question is once I stop repaying they will suspend our phones, If the wife got a much cheaper sim only deal would I be able to put the new sim cards in our contract phone if sims were by the same contract supplier?

Thanks in advanse for any help/info.

If you stop paying you will be in default; your debt will almost certainly be passed to debt collectors and will escalate but (usually worse) your external credit files would be wrecked for the next 6 years.

A sim from the same network (if the same size) will work in a locked phone. Not all contract phones are locked -when contracts are taken out with a dealer they usually aren't. You could call the network and discuss this. There's always a small chance they may help. Whilst unlikely, it's probably your best option. They can't do anything adverse just for discussing it with them.

Another possibility is paying up the rest of the business contract in full. It won't save anything and you may not be able to afford that (and would then still be paying for the remainder of the contract without getting any benefit). However, it is deductable from tax (although you wouldn't get that benefit for some time) and if you can claim the VAT back that might help.

grumbler

d123 wrote: »

iarniee wrote: »

I may be wrong, it could just be locked to a sim provider!...

You are, the sim lock is not to the number, just to the network.

Are you saying that 'network' and 'sim provider' are not the same?

macman

Unfortunately for you, neither ill health nor unemployment allow you to void your contract without penalty. If you stop paying then you remain liable for the remaining value left on the contract to the end of the minimum term. The unlocking is not really the problem, what matters is the damage that a default will do to your credit record, as detailed above.
You appear to have an incredibly expensive couple of handsets if they are each costing you £50 per month, with airtime? I'd start by selling the handsets and putting that towards paying off the contract. How long do you have left to run?

d123

grumbler wrote: »

Are you saying that 'network' and 'sim provider' are not the same?

It should have been his other post quoted.

iarniee wrote: »

Contracted phones are usually locked to a number but can be unlocked, I wouldn't recommend this as you will still have to pay your £100 a month and then pay an extra amount for the new contract

Having said that, network and sim provider actually aren't the same thing, there are only 4 networks (EE, Three, O2, Vodafone) and many more sim providers (Lyca, Giffgaff, Virgin, Asda, Delight, Tesco etc).

A phone could well be locked to a sim provider like Tesco and not accept a sim from its parent network (O2).

grumbler

On a pedantic note, according to Wikipedia, O2 is Mobile Network Operator, Tesco Mobile is Mobile Virtual Network Operator