Monthly contract or sim only

rainbow93

What's better? Monthly contract or buying a phone upfront and sim only in people' s experience. Thanks

mobilejunkie

How long is a piece of string. I make a profit on all my contracts so they cost nothing (with one or two very minor exceptions). But I don't need a fancy, state of the art phone and only use cashback deals (apart from one contact which costs me 30p per month now but made a profit for the first two+ years).

joeluken

rainbow93 wrote: »

What's better? Monthly contract or buying a phone upfront and sim only in people' s experience. Thanks

That depends on the deal being offered by long contract and with what network. Generally having freedom to move and not be locked in is best IMO.

An alternative to buying a phone upfront is using a loan such as those offered by Giffgaff (owned by O2 UK - Telefonica UK). This means you can pay monthly using a Ratesetter loan over 24 months of less for an unlocked phone but you don't need to buy mobile service from giffgaff (apart from an initial £5 PAYG bundle called a goodybag). So you're locked in to paying in full for the phone but free to use any mobile service from day 1.

You can then shop around for the best mobile service provider for how and where you use the phone. Many providers offer 30 day sim only deals that offer good value but some like giffgaff an O2 MVNO may seem to offer a lot of things like data but its speed is often very poor during the daytime so be wary.

Good sim only deal can be found with providers like Life Mobile (£9.45 = 1000 mins, 5000 text and 2GB 3G data), TPO (£6.99 = 600 mins, unlt text and 2GB 4G data) or Three (£20 = AYCE 4G data plus) others.

grumbler

rainbow93 wrote: »

What's better? Monthly contract or buying a phone upfront and sim only in people' s experience.

What you need is a basic calculator to compare, not people' s experience.

Your personal preferences matter too as 1-month's sim-only contracts (or PAYG with bundles) are much more flexible.

rainbow93

mobilejunkie wrote: »

How long is a piece of string. I make a profit on all my contracts so they cost nothing (with one or two very minor exceptions). But I don't need a fancy, state of the art phone and only use cashback deals (apart from one contact which costs me 30p per month now but made a profit for the first two+ years).

How do you make a profit on them? Lol Thought it was the company that made the profit.

d123

rainbow93 wrote: »

What's better? Monthly contract or buying a phone upfront and sim only

Just so you know, what is referred to as sim only is also a monthly contract, being either a 30 day or 12 month contract.

mobilejunkie

rainbow93 wrote: »

How do you make a profit on them? Lol Thought it was the company that made the profit.

You've obviously never heard of cashback contracts.

rainbow93

I do have cash back accounts. People have said many times you don't get the money back but still didn't realise you could make any profit,just a cheap deal. Will have a look at quidco,tcb.

Ian011

Make sure the inclusive allowance covers what you will use. If you exceed the allowance, the charges become extortionate.

How many of the calls made on your mobile are made while you are sat at home? Landline providers (except BT!) now offer inclusive calls to mobile numbers in their anytime unlimited call plans.

grumbler

rainbow93 wrote: »

I do have cash back accounts. People have said many times you don't get the money back but still didn't realise you could make any profit,just a cheap deal. Will have a look at quidco,tcb.

He meant redemption contracts (that can be combined with Quidco/TCB).
E.g. http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/contract-mobile-phones/nokia-215

Nowadays some of them, can be profitable if you sell the handset.

mobilejunkie

Actually nowadays it's much harder to make a profit - but still perfectly possible with or without selling the handset. That's assuming you get the cashback, of course!