Seeking pre-approved mobile contracts

mikeyhinde

So I tried to buy a new mobile for the first time in a few years, having had a work phone for the last few years. Thought I'd found a winner with Carphone Warehouse / EE but after going AWOL for a few days it turned out I'd failed credit checks with EE.

I haven't had any credit issues directly, but someone tried to open a HSBC current account in my name at the start of the year which appears to have ruined any of my own efforts to do all the things needed to build my credit rating up.  Hadn't really thought much of it at the time as HSBC spotted it and shut it down before any money was moved in or out, but clearly it has now snookered me (fingers crossed it has less of an impact by February next year when I need to move to a new FR mortgage).

Given that, I wondered if there were ways to review deals you would be pre-approved for, similar to the world of credit cards/loans, to get a feel for whether there is any value to be had (I'm guessing any cashback / boosted data deals etc will be the ones unavailable so may not be worth doing)?  I don't really want to fill my credit report with even more failed hard checks by testing other deals / other telecom providers.

If not, I guess it'll be back to the world PAYG - not like there is much to be earned from savings these days so throwing a few hundred quid at a handset isn't likely to be as painful as it might have been a decade or more ago!

PHK

It may be that there is a protective CIFAS registration because of the fraud attempt earlier this year. This means that automatic ID checks are likely to fail. However, I guess you would know about this and the need to provide extra ID. 

If it is a credit issue then I would go for a SIM only contract, once you’ve had that for some months and have established a payment history then the network is likely to allow an upgrade to a contract with handset.