Three Upgrades - Can I Go on a 3rd Party Site to Upgrade?

papper00

My contract with Three is up in April.

For the last ten years or so I've always used a 3rd party site such as mobiles.co.uk or affordablemobiles.co.uk to get a new contract or upgrade as they offer better deals than the service provider almost always.

This is the first time I'm upgrading on Three but I can't find any sites that will do Three upgrades. All other networks are featured on these sites in one form or another for upgrades, but Three only seem to be on them for new customers/contracts.

Does anyone know of any sites I can use to get an upgrade on Three, besides Three themselves?

Cheers.

Frozen_up_north

The better deal by a long way is to forget “upgrades”. Keep the phone and go SIM only, if the phone needs replacement buy one separately. There is no advantage in packages, except if you work in a phone shop and get commission on sales :rotfl:

grumbler

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

There is no advantage in packages, except if you work in a phone shop and get commission on sales :rotfl:

Depends. Sometimes there is.
E.g. Nokia 1 sim-free is £80 at CPW.

The same phone is just £29 if bought with £12.50 cancelable 1-month contract
And it's not locked.
That said, they sell very few phones with 1-month contracts.

flashg67

You might have to get a PAC, port the number out, then port back to your new contract - a pain but only takes a day or so each way nowadays. Three might offer a decent deal when you call for the PAC anyway - they did with me. Have some idea of the deals that are around before you call.

techquest

Have you tried going through uSwitch?

As flashg67 says go armed with detail of other offers when you approach Three and they might just want to keep your business. Whoever you end up with, they're not in it for you, they just wan't your hard earned cash.

papper00

Thanks for the replies all.

Unfortunately after all these years of doing great and looking after my phones, my Galaxy S8 hit the bathroom floor in December... quickly followed by the top of a stepladder about two days after. It's usable, but only because I've covered the screen in sellotape to prevent glass from entering my fingers.

So this means, cry as I might, I'll need to upgrade (early April) or wait it out til May and leave Three for the better deals.

I have tried Uswitch and they don't have Three upgrades either, which annoyed me somewhat as their Google SERP claims 'Compare Three Mobile & SIM only deals, upgrades ... - uSwitch.com' - which is misleading. I've tried all the usual suspects and Three, it would appear, only do upgrades directly.

If anyone knows differently though, please do let me know.

mobilejunkie

Why don't you do the obvious and get a better deal as a new customer via an intermediary site and transfer the number via PACs to and from a PAYG sim, assuming there is a better deal on 3 elsewhere. If not, there may be cheaper networks/deals on dealer websites. I know of at least one using cashback on a different network where it ends up at £4.50 with unlimited minutes and 1GB, as an example, though that one's with only a basic cheap phone.

dealer_wins

I would change to the cheapest SIM only contract that meets your call and data requirements, and buy a new phone to suit your budget. Much cheaper overall!!!

grumbler

Guys, ATM the OP is looking for an early upgrade only as his contract is until May.

The only reasonable alternative for the time being is some old or cheap temporary phone.

papper00

dealer_wins wrote: »

I would change to the cheapest SIM only contract that meets your call and data requirements, and buy a new phone to suit your budget. Much cheaper overall!!!

Thanks again to yourself and all for the follow-up advice. This one's not viable as I love a good smartphone, but don't have the cash upfront to buy it outright and go SIM-only.

I also don't really need to move to a cheap alternative until May as my smashed up S8 still works - it just needs a new screen. I'm waiting on a price drop for that so I can fix it up and keep it to one side for when the kids are old enough.

My options are to cancel in May, move my number over and go with a stonking 3rd party deal with whoever the new network ends up being, or, to get the upgrade with Three. The latter is likely to be the most expensive of the two options by some margin, unless I can find a 3rd party site that does Three upgrades in the same way as Uswitch finds those upgrade deals for EE, Vodafone, etc.

I'm tempted to see out the contract and move off Three, purely because the upgrade options will always be limited - unless someone does indeed know of any 3rd party sites that will do Three upgrades. I haven't found one yet and it's a bit odd that they seem to be the only network that you absolutely have to go direct with for an upgrade.

But again, thanks all for the input.

alfie1950

Why not just get a new deal with 3 now then use your old sim in the new phone until May.
Then request to go pay as you go on your old sim and then once it switches to pay as you go request to swop your number over to the new SIM.
This is not without cost but would only mean three overlap payments which if your short of cash is probably better than buying a cheap phone you don't really want and you could buy through a third party retailer if necessary taking advantage of any cashback offers available. I