O2 Mobile Renewals

M4rtyman

OK - so a few years ago, we both got our sim-only airtime plans from O2 via Money Supermarket. Only £8 for 32GB. We are also Virgin customers, so having O2 mobile contracts, has enabled the VOLT bolt-on where we get double the data allowance (64GB) and our broadband speeds are also bumped up.

The initial contracts expired a couple of years ago, but it made no sense renewing, as the renewal offers direct from O2 are nowhere near as good as what we have.

With the latest changes to the rules for yearly price increases, my bill is now up to £12.49p/m. OK - it's still cheap enough to leave it just now, but I was thinking about what I will do in the future. It seems like there is no way to renew via Money Supermarket or similar sites, and would be forced to go Direct via O2, who are charging between £18-£24, depending on their own deals.

My worry is that, if I jump to another provider, it's going to screw up the VOLT bolt-on with Virgin, which will be another Pain the posterior.

Am I really going to have to suck it up, and face our mobile bills going up to £20p/m in a few years, or is there a workaround to renew via a deal on the discount sites?

Cisco001

sign in to the O2 online account and view your 'Tariff and payments' section to check if there are better tariff.

Request PAC code

Then switch to Lebara

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/lebara/

Other cheaper option if you have dual sim phone

Take one of those Lebara 9 months discount tariff for call and text. £1.29 for 9 months. Do a 'PAC dance' when offer finish.

Or if you don't call or text a lot, go to ebay and buy one of those O2 classic 3-2-1 PAYG

Then Sim 2 with scancom Three business data

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/three-500gb-preloaded-5g-data-sim-per-month-loaded-each-month-until-april-2028-effective-price-ps172pm-with-code-business-4887026

flaneurs_lobster

Until 2 Aprils ago it was possible to "upgrade" your PAYM O2 deal via one of the third party sellers (like USwitch) and get around 40GB for around £8/mth.

For the last couple of annual renewals there have been "workarounds" that do the same thing, often published elsewhere but alluded to here.

Bottom line is that I have had 40GB/£8 for the last five years, always bought from the actual O2 site.

Detail_Merchant

Sometimes the 3rd party websites (that then take you to the O2 site) do still allow existing customers to upgrade.
For example this deal posted over on HUKD a week or so ago

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/o2-40gb-80gb-wvolt-data-unlimited-min-text-eu-roaming-ps35-premium-topcashback-ps8pm-12m-4896903

From reading the comments it seems for the first few days (25th May +) it worked for upgrades, but by the 28th May it stopped working.

So I think O2 are making it harder, but by keeping an eye out for new deals it can still be possible (sometimes even without URL mangling tricks).

M4rtyman

Yeah - whenever I click on an offer from a third party site like uSwitch, I do get redirected to the O2 website, but I am met with the window below.

flaneurs_lobster

As explained, the upgrade route (get a new contract with the same SIM/number at a lesser cost) is generally not available from the "usual channels" for existing customers.

If you are minded to pursue this then set up an alert on Hot UK Deals (see @Detail_Merchant post above for link).

HHarry

Request your PAC code and wait for the call from Customer Services…….

I managed to upgrade via Uswitch last year - 32gb for £8/mth (the last month at £10.50 with Aprils rise)

£10.50 isn’t bad, but a 30% increase annoyed me, the decent deals are reserved now for new customers, and the best deal on my account was £20+/mth. I felt like O2 were taking the mickey.

Half an hour after requesting my PAC I get a call from CS. What deal am I swapping to? 50gb for £8/mth with Vodafone. We can match that for £7/mth. Actually we’ll do that for £6/mth.

Signed up for another 12 months. No need to switch / double switch.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82038903#Comment_82038903

Is that with a £2.50/mth increase next April? Even if so, good deal.

HHarry

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82038923#Comment_82038923

Yes, so with a 12mth contract I’ll be stuck paying £8.50 for 2 months. That’s going to be a 40% increase, which will offend me even more!

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82039176#Comment_82039176

Hopefully there may be "upgrade" deals around in April-ish next year - the nature of which you can see earlier in this thread - not entirely without, er, effort.

I've been on 40GB(ish) for £7(ish) for 4 years. Happy to pay the premium for O2 because of the "free" EU roaming (and occasional Priority perk).