Received a new phone as a gift, But im Tied to a contract :(!

Willsb

Hello Moneysavers,

I was given a great present for xmas, its an iphone and I love it! The problem is that my 3 U-SIM card does not work in it, because its a 2g phone and my sim is 3g. I took out a contract in august for 18 months at £20 a month for 1000 texts and 100 minutes with Three so I could use it to contact home from university and also obviously to contact my friends.

My service has been pretty good, and I cant really complain (apart from being rang up by foreign people from 3 offering me this that and the other when Im really NOT interested!) but it's looking like i'll need a new contract, with a 2g sim, so I can use my new phone.

Of course i'm now tied to my current contact. A friend suggested seeing how much my old phone would go for on ebay (Its not really that old a model, it cam out when i got the contract in August (Sony Ericsson W660i Black). From ebay it looks like If I was lucky id guess I coudl get about £70-80, as there are supposedly £199 new. But of course this would no where near cover the remaining 12 odd months I have left on my contract (and would this be frowned upon by 3 anyway?)

Another thing i came accross when researching was that people had managed to ditch 3 due to a loophole in the contract, as they increased their 3 to 3 call charges, but this was in 2005, way before I got my contract, so thats a no go.

None of my family or friends need a new contract/phone, so im stumped as to what to do.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Regards,
Wills.

diamonds

pity you didnt go on mix n match - got my dad out contract after 6 weeks due to a T&C change, lovely 6120 for my hard work of making the call to cancel, id hack the i-phone & sell it and your SE and pay off your contract with 3 and get a decent phone on a good plan - but thats just me, after 18 months your still stuck with o2 ?

Willsb

Hello, thanks for the reply.
Hum there's no way I'm getting rid of my iPhone, im too much of a gadget freak!!!!
I'll keep trying,
thanks
Wills
(Posted from my iPhone:p)

matthewn.green

Do 3 offer 2g simcards on any phone? If so you could ask to 'downgrade' your sim. If not, your a little bit screwed!

gaming_guy

matthewn.green wrote: »

Do 3 offer 2g simcards on any phone? If so you could ask to 'downgrade' your sim. If not, your a little bit screwed!

nope.

my mate nearly got kicked off 3's network when he turned 3g off as 3 dont have their own 2g network (i think they use orange for 2g coverage)

DonnyDave

matthewn.green wrote: »

Do 3 offer 2g simcards on any phone? If so you could ask to 'downgrade' your sim. If not, your a little bit screwed!

Ditto gaming_guys comment.

Where 3's 3G network doesn't cover, service is on the Orange 2.5G network. Hence, 3 have to pay Orange for calls which go via its network which explains why you must have a 3G phone which must have 3G activated at all times.

Quentin

Willsb wrote: »

A friend suggested seeing how much my old phone would go for on ebay (Its not really that old a model, it cam out when i got the contract in August (Sony Ericsson W660i Black). From ebay it looks like If I was lucky id guess I coudl get about £70-80, as there are supposedly £199 new. But of course this would no where near cover the remaining 12 odd months I have left on my contract (and would this be frowned upon by 3 anyway?)

3 won't care (or know) if you sell your se.