To good to be true?

newfoundglory

I am in need of a contract phone.

Now i qualify for the student deals, but to be honest these really dont seem to be too great (i don't need 1000's of txts a month!)

So I was browsing, and decided to have a look at the e2save site which has been mentioned on here. They have the Nokia 6230i on O2. On O2 200, the phone is free, and by claiming the cashback every 4 months line rental works out to be only £15 a month (down from £30.99) for the full 12 months... you get 200 anytime xnet mins and 100 txts a month, you get double that for the first 3 months, and unused mins roll over for 3 months. And if you buy it through rpoints you get £15 back too.

So "overall" it would be £165 for the phone, and all the included mins and txts. Is this a good deal... or have i missed something? Why does this seem just a bit too good to be true?

woohooman

Thats actually not such a good deal, It is possible to get a £30.00 contract & phone for £0.00 a month and £0.00 for the phone if you wait long enough and keep your eyes peeled.

They do seem to good to be true, but they arent.

LB1985

I've just ordered a new mobile on the same o2 tariff (200 xnet mins, 100 text messages) from mobileshop.com. I opted for a Samsung E720, half price for 12 months, so equating to £15 a month. They also had other handsets available half price for 12 months, namely the Motorola V3 Razr and Samsung D500. So far, I've had cashback deals such as these from both Scancom and Dial-a-Phone and haven't ever had any problems.

newfoundglory

Actually, you are right, its not a good deal at all!

Nokia 6630 on three, works out at £7.50 a month with 500 mins/100 texts! (only £90 for 12 months!) This is crazy!!

I think i'm going to have to spend longer searching.

thehandsomeone

woohooman wrote:

Thats actually not such a good deal, It is possible to get a £30.00 contract & phone for £0.00 a month and £0.00 for the phone if you wait long enough and keep your eyes peeled.

They do seem to good to be true, but they arent.

how exactly is that supposed to be better? not only you pay twice as much for your line rental, but also you seem to loose out on things like 'rolling over' minutes etc...

newfoundglory

Hey, thanks for all these posts! I guess its kinda proved a point about all this, however I have to say I wasn't really looking for a motorola phone!

But if you can get the phone, line rental etc all free... for the length of the actual contract... they aren't going to make any money are they (in fact aren't they likely to be LOSING it)? So why do they do it? Are they relying on the fact you wont cancel after 12 months and will pay full-price... but you could just cancel and keep the phone?

This is all crazy!

Thenotsowyzewun

newfoundglory wrote:

Hey, thanks for all these posts! I guess its kinda proved a point about all this, however I have to say I wasn't really looking for a motorola phone!

But if you can get the phone, line rental etc all free... for the length of the actual contract... they aren't going to make any money are they (in fact aren't they likely to be LOSING it)? So why do they do it? Are they relying on the fact you wont cancel after 12 months and will pay full-price... but you could just cancel and keep the phone?

This is all crazy!

They do it for a few reasons.
Firstly, people who sign up to the 12 month free offer often go around telling everyone how great it is and some more people who aren't quite of the mentality us MSEr's are sign up (i.e. at the end of the year they just get the upgrade and start paying full line rental!).
Secondly, even us MSEr's can be forgetful at times (I know I can) and maybe we'll forget to send in a cashback form.
Thirdly, some of those friends we tell about the great deal'll end up signing upto a different more costly deal because they free phone isn't flashy enough for them to be seen with!
Yet another reason why is because if they meet huge huge sales targets "3" pay them huge bonuses, so if they're anywhere near to these sales targets they put out these amazingly good deals in order to sell sell sell - the bonus'll more than cover the cost of doing so!
There's probably other reasons I haven't thought of too.