Mobile phone contract suspension whilst deployed 26 June 2008 at 7:54PM edited 20 March 2012 at 7:11PM in UK armed forces MoneySaving 24 replies 16.1K views

ocaflt

I called vodafone today asking whether they will 'suspend' my mobile contract whilst deployed on Ops - they will; all they require is a letter from your CO which you can email to them at their customer care website. Tell them the date you leave and they will suspend payments until you return. Once the phone is used again, they will restart your contract!




[threadbanner]box[/threadbanner]

GillzD_2

i would keep an eye on that though because in my experience what vodafone says and what they actually do are 2 very very different things.

pands78

Orange will also do this free of charge.

Mollymops_2

Orange will suspend your service for 6 months maximum, you do not require a letter, you can just do it on the phone!

brimau_2

Orange definitely suspend contracts for deployment. My boyfriend is currently away and they have done this for him without argument.

fruitbat_2

And if you get a sim4travel, or something similar, you can (depending on where you're deployed to) take your mobile with you and get cheaper calls while you're away than your normal provider.

baron_samedi

Thanks for the advice! I got deployed 3 days after I started my contract with '3'. I wrote and they refused to suspend my contract, siad they had no means to do it (as if....). Armed with this info on their competitors I willwrite again. Cheers.

NewbieMoneySaver**

This is great news. Do you know if they terminate it also. That would be even better. lol

oscardog

As an aside, if you do not suspend your contract, make sure you deactivate your answerphone / voicemail before you deploy. Especially if you fire up your phone in Qatar en route.

Otherwise you may end up with your voicemail trying to call you for a number of weeks / months on Ops at 50p a time (the international rate due to you turning on in Qatar) even though your phone will never be turned on.

Happened to me on Telic to the tune of £200 in one month and they only refunded it when I threatened to go to the press.

clawrie

My boyfriend just went to afghanistan. he had arranged with t-mobile to suspend his contract, then when he phoned before he left they told him he couldn't do it. i'm still trying to sort it out!

reddragons

Really annoyed with telephone companies, hubby spent 6 months in the Falklands almost immediately 7 month draft to the Gulf and now so we can spend time together as a family just received a draft to Holland, I have a phone with 3 who will not suspend the service I can pay the monthly line rental only until the contract runs out next August or a lump sum to cancel and my son who has a phone due to being disabled has a phone with T-mobile who again won't suspend the service I have to pay monthly or a lump sum, and the worse offender is BT for my broadband service, I have been a customer of theirs for 3 years in this house but recently (just before the flippin draft came in) renewed my broadband contract they are gonna charge me £200.00 to cancel the broadband or when (if we ever) sell the house pass the contract onto the new owners!!! Great huh not even got the disturbance allowance and already down £600.00