O2 New Retention Tariff Discount 500 / Discount 750

magpiejay

I've just called o2 for my pac code, blatantly telling them that im going to a 'free line rental' cashback deal and unless they could offer free line rental, i wasnt interested.

Essentially I was offered 100 mins and 300 texts for £20 for a year (12 month contract). It works out as £100 credited to my account, with £10 a month charged for any month i go over my inclusives. Any month i stay within my inclusives, i dont get charged line rental (first 10 months only).

instead of the £100 credit, i could get a free K750i and pay just £10 a month. Or pay £49.99 plus £10 a month for the W800i.

I'm off to do my sums now....

Firsttimebuyer_4

Hi,

This option is only good for people who hardly use their phones to ring out, like me.

Here's how I got my £0 per month contract with O2. My contract with O2 was up for renewal and I’ve been realizing that I’ve been paying for something I don’t use. I hardly use my mobile phone to ring out as I mostly use it to receive calls and for connecting to my TOMTOM for traffic updates. I use my work mobile for the odd calls I do.

I’ve been on a year contract for £14 per month with 75 anytime/any network minutes and 275 free texts per month. This plan is usually £19 but I got £5 off when I negotiated last year. This is still more than I use so I wanted to cut this down even further.

The first I tried was to upgrade to get a nice new phone which I could sell to get some money back. The only one they could offer was a 6230i for free if I continued on the same plan. This phone only sells for about £50 on ebay that was a no go option. I tried to haggle on the price but they wouldn’t budge. I knew I had another month left of my contract so I told them I’d shop around a bit.

I did some thinking and figured I didn’t need a new phone really as I’m happy with the one I have (V3 razr). The option? Pay as you. It costs nothing unless I use it.

So I phoned up O2 to “downgrade” from contract to PAY & GO. The women on the line asked me why and I said “because I don’t use it all and it would be cheaper for me to do a PAY & GO”.

She then offered me the O25 (25 minutes and 25 texts per month) for £6.00 per month. I asked if i would get a free phone. She said "no". I declined that, because thaI would still be paying for more than I use. She then offered me the following:

£6 per month for the O25 contract. BUT she’d put a £75 credit on my account for not taking a new phone. Even though she first said i couldnt have a free phone on the £6 per month deal anyway. So in effect I’m up 3 squids!

This was a very good deal I thought. I get 25min & 25 texts per month for nothing…..if I was to go over that on the very odd occasion i will pay for only what I use. So this is a PAY & GO but on a contract with free minutes.

I was well pleased.

jnm21

Good for you - very interesting - I'd give it a thanks, but the button didn't appear!

EdCov

I phoned up to cancel my o2 contract (wife's phone).

I want to cancel, not interested in any deals, I've got another good deal (actually with O2).

Well do you want to keep your line open for a year in case anything goes wrong with my new phone (which is reconditioned and actually does appear to have gone wrong but within 28 days so I'll get it sorted out).

What does that mean I asked?

Well we'll give you 25 minutes and 25 texts for free a month for twelve months, we'll send you a bill, but it will be free.

The man was quite abrupt, but I thought go on then it saves me writing in to cancel.

Later in the day an email comes through about a £75 credit for not taking another phone. So whether this is in additional to the free line rental or to pay for it I don't know....

Firsttimebuyer_4

Thats the same deal i got.

I reckon your deal is as follows:

You pay £6 per month for line rental £6 x 12 = £72
You get £75 credited to your account for not taking a new "free" phone

So every month you still get charged £6 for line rental but it is taken out of the £75 credit they gave you.

Same deal as me. I reckon this guy just "cut the crap" and told you the end result without informing you that you are still technically paying line rental but the £75 credit makes up for it. You still won't pay anything at the end of the month as long as you don't go over the 25 free min/texts.

It makes sense really. I MIGHT happen that you use the phone more than 25 minutes a month or phone 0845/0870/0800 numbers so they might make some money from you. Doesnt really cost them anything to have you use the net for "free".

It is all about customer retention nowadays and while you might not use them this year, you might want to next year and then you still have your contract with them and the odds are higher for you to then "upgrade" with 02 rather than another mobile provider.

Destiny33

No thanks button but i got this deal offered immediately so i'm well chuffed. I really was going to PAYG but this works out even better

EdCov

I immediately signed up again for an o2 treat and so actually I'll have 45 minutes and 20 texts.

Destiny33

Can you still get your "treats" on this tarrif even at £6 p/m (effectively free?)?

Firsttimebuyer_4

The plan is "normally" £16 per month but I think that is for people who don't questions prices etc. and just go for whatever the sales person say. We, the moneysavers, know that this is only the basis for negotiation.

I don't think you get treats on this plan (O25). I remember seing a pdf file i found on o2.co.uk somewhere (cant remember where, it was well hidden as with most things you want to know). I think that it said treats was for O50 and above. But don't quote me on that.

If treats are still available then this is indeed a very very very good deal as long as you don't want a new handset. Which I don't.

Happy_Shrimper

Just to add my story ...
Contract ends within the month, so looked around the web for some ammo not expecting to find anything too tempting.
Found T-Mobiles tflex and web'n'walk which did really sound interesting and tempting for my usage profile.
Spoke with T-mobile and sounded really good.
At this point, I was thinking I would leave O2 rather than just try to negotiate a new deal.

Phoned O2, explained I wanted my pac to go to T-Mobile and was offered my 100 mins tariff for £15 pm. Said I would think on it. However, no offer of a new phone, and was less minutes than T-mobile flext for £15 (with current 25% discount deal - ends May 1st).
Phoned back today for PAC code again, spoke with different agent who offered the following after about 20 minutes:
200 mins
100 Text
4Mb data on iMode
£100 credit if no phone taken (phones that were offered they wanted £150 then came down to £100)

After a bit of reseach on iMode, decided T-mobiles deal was still better for me.

Phoned again for PAC. No more offers and t-mobile web'n'walk 25 tariff with T-Mobile SDA II with Co-Pilot for free ordered this evening.

It was a better deal than I expected from O2, but t-mobile pipped it with the web'n'walk bit.
Thanks for all the useful posts!