Moving to SIM only

OnlyPariah wrote: »

I have what I hope is a simple question. My OHs phone has two more payments to be made at £16 a month. If we pay this off early does that mean we can move over to a SIM only deal now or do we still have to wait to the end of the initial contract which is January? I'm just hoping I can save an additional £8 a month by moving across now.

Thank you in advance.

I would just call them now and offer to pay and switch early, they may give you some sort of offer, tell them you are looking at other providors too so they give you a deal.

I'm with EE and get unlimited calls and texts as well as 25gb data for £20 per month

You need to speak to them in case you got an offer originally.
We were with EE on a sim only deal when we changed phones and Virgin were cheaper so we went with them, called up to cancel EE and were told we were on a priced matched offer and if we wanted to cancel and pay it off we would have to pay the full price not the offer price.
So we could pay £20 per month (for 2 phones - joint contract) for 8 more months (£160 total) or just over £400 to pay it off early
guess which we chose - does not make any sense but there you go

Have a look at Plusnet and GiffGaff for some good SIM only deals to use for bargaining power - yes, I know you don't want to switch network, but they offer some cracking deals. Then ring up O2 and tell them - or rather get your OH to do so - that you have seen this great deal from *insert name of prominent competition" and that much as you don't want to leave them, financially you have no option. Then hold firm on your position about what can be afforded while they come up with a competitive option. Expect to pay a small percentage more than your comparison deal of choice, but not much. The trick is to choose a different network, rather than just a different provider, for the most bargaining power... they want to retain customers so will almost always forfeit the final few months of a contract as the perception is that it's a small price to pay for retaining a customer who they have a good chance of enticing back on to a contract further down the line.

*Edit* plusnet are currently offering 9gb of data plus unlimited calls & texts for £11 a month - that's pretty decent.

most contracts you can get an early release and go sim only

If the phone contract and now the SIM deal is your OH's, I'm questioning why O2 have let you negotiate it in any event?

Had you called up, you almost certainly would have found they would match the deal you can get with GiffGaff, and you would not have had to pay off the remaining time on the contract.

One of the hardest lessons to learn when debt busting or even just learning to budget is not to rush into things - often you're better to take a step back, do your research, and then take your time a little more to sort out a better deal.