Mobile Phones Prices

Saver52

Recently Martin did a TV show mentioning how you can save on mobile phones and who Piggy backed off which company.  I cant remember him mentioning ID Mobile which is sold by Carphone warehouse. I receive unlimited minutes of calls and messages and unlimited data for about £16 per month with Tesco which I am happy with.  However a friend is paying much more for much less with ID mobile. Are all phones locked to this company or can she use a different sim card ??

savergrant

Hi, new phones aren't locked so you can use any sim. However you may be locked into a contract and have to pay up for the 12 or 24 month term.  Most piggybackers don't actually sell phones, they are sim only deals.

jbrassy

ID Mobile use Three's network and are very good value if you want a brand new phone with contract. I got an iPhone 15 Pro on a 24 month contract with ID (unlimited mins and texts with 250GB data) and the total cost of the contract came to roughly £1050. Plus I got £55 cashback through Top Cashback. If I was to buy the phone on its own brand new it would cost me £1000, so it's a really good deal. 

ID is also good because they let you roam in Europe at no extra cost. 

All phones sold by Carphone Warehouse are unlocked and can be used on any network.

Jkn58

ID mobile are cheap but their customer service is appalling - the reason I moved elsewhere. I had a problem & despite raising a complaint (with great difficulty) nobody bothered to contact me to resolve this, claimed to have called but no voicemail or missed calls. I went elsewhere, small credit on bill so assumed this would go through to my account using DDR process but no - I actually have to request a refund!! I expect most people don’t bother so they are keeping all these small refunds due to customers. AVOID!!

FICHER

Visited Curry’s for upgrade of mobile, new contract. They said I could not get the deal I wanted as it is for new customers only. Thought this was outlawed or is it car insurance only? 

flaneurs_lobster

FICHER said:

Visited Curry’s for upgrade of mobile, new contract. They said I could not get the deal I wanted as it is for new customers only. Thought this was outlawed or is it car insurance only? 

Just car insurance. It's thought to be a significant factor in the recent major hikes in car insurance premiums.

The MSE site is a good place to start looking elsewhere for that upgrade.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/

jbrassy

FICHER said:

Visited Curry’s for upgrade of mobile, new contract. They said I could not get the deal I wanted as it is for new customers only. Thought this was outlawed or is it car insurance only? 

One way around this is to switch to PAYG once your contract ends. After a 24 month contract ends, I tend to switch to Smarty. Even if you're only on PAYG for a month, you can then get a new customer contract with anyone.