02 36 month contract

gwapoman

so the wife has a three year 02 contract that has just passed 24 months and the airtime portion has now been unlinked and she has £248 left on the device plan portion .

with the airtime portion now unlinked can she negotiate a better airtime deal( there is NONE advertised or is it a case of pay off the remaining handset cost or waiting until month 36 ??

can she just cancel the sim  and port to a new network  and continue paying for the handet?

not sure best course of action

simax

She can certainly port her number elsewhere and continue paying for the device….

flaneurs_lobster

Don't cancel anything (airtime contract, direct debit), you could lose your (wife's) mobile number. 

There's 32GB @ £8 / mth available as an O2 "upgrade" if that's of interest, no need to swap away from O2 if you're happy with their service/coverage.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6516926/o2-advice-needed

Otherwise, yes, the number can be ported to any new SIM deal.

Neil49

If you go onto the Uswitch website for sim only deals you can find an O2 offer if 32Gb for £8 per month for a 12 month contract (other offers are available).

Just follow the link which goes straight to the O2 website and select the option that you are an existing customer and you want to keep your number. 

I did this last year without any problems but it's a bit of a tedious process having to accept contractual terms and conditions etc so allow plenty of time.

I'm guessing the link in the post above covers a lot of this. 

gwapoman

simax said:

She can certainly port her number elsewhere and continue paying for the device….

so just phoned 02 and the customer service agent said cannot change the airtime plan until the 36 month device plan payment has been made ??

Stuart_W

gwapoman said:

simax said:

She can certainly port her number elsewhere and continue paying for the device….

so just phoned 02 and the customer service agent said cannot change the airtime plan until the 36 month device plan payment has been made ??

That's not true. Consumer airtime contracts cannot be longer than a 24 months minimum term. After that they become open ended and can be terminated or transferred with no penalty. Separate loan repayment agreement for a handset can be longer - hence why the airtime agreement having reached the 24 month point should now be available for renegotiation. It should be possible to cancel the airtime agreement completely or port away from o2 and still separately repay for the the handset. You should also qualify for any SIM-only deals or to sign up to a new 24 month airtime deal.

flaneurs_lobster

Stuart_W said:

gwapoman said:

simax said:

She can certainly port her number elsewhere and continue paying for the device….

so just phoned 02 and the customer service agent said cannot change the airtime plan until the 36 month device plan payment has been made ??

That's not true. Consumer airtime contracts cannot be longer than 24 months. A separate loan repayment agreement for a handset can be longer - hence why the airtime agreement having reached the 24 month point should now be available for renegotiation. It should be possible to cancel the airtime agreement completely or port away from o2 and still separately repay for the the handset. You should also qualify for any SIM-only deals or to sign up to a new 24 month airtime deal.

Airtime contracts are open-ended, that's why they continue after the minimum term has expired. 

I suppose that O2 could have a policy to not allow an in-place agreement to be amended until an associated handset deal has expired, although my guess is the CS agent has got it wrong. I'd ask for a second opinion and if the same story then ask for the PAC code.

What they can't do is stop the number being moved elsewhere/airtime contract terminated by submitting a PAC code to another supplier.

HaroldWhistler

Stuart_W said:

gwapoman said:

simax said:

She can certainly port her number elsewhere and continue paying for the device….

so just phoned 02 and the customer service agent said cannot change the airtime plan until the 36 month device plan payment has been made ??

That's not true. Consumer airtime contracts cannot be longer than a 24 months minimum term. After that they become open ended and can be terminated or transferred with no penalty. Separate loan repayment agreement for a handset can be longer - hence why the airtime agreement having reached the 24 month point should now be available for renegotiation. It should be possible to cancel the airtime agreement completely or port away from o2 and still separately repay for the the handset. You should also qualify for any SIM-only deals or to sign up to a new 24 month airtime deal.

This. 

You should be able to continue paying your Device plan monthly until it is settled and port your number over to another network away from O2. Or start a new Airtime contract with O2 if you really wanted to on that particular line. 

Stuart_W

An easy way to confirm that you can move your number to another airtime contract is:

Text INFO to 85075 to find out the information about your contract

This works for all UK networks.