welshys90 Posted October 22, 2006 Posted October 22, 2006 i know this is totally off topic and totally random but i was wantin to know about contract phones because ive always used pay as you go but as im startin to top my fone up 5 or 6 times a month (£50-£60) i want to change to contract but ive wondered about a couple of things 1. how does a contract work2. what happens if you dont pay the bill one month3. how long do you have to keep them for if anyone can help out it would be appreciated, welshys90 Quote
lab44 Posted October 22, 2006 Posted October 22, 2006 A contract means basically you pay a fixed fee each month - usually around £30. For this you usually get a pre-determined number of free minutes and texts and a free phone. If you go over your "free allowance" you will charged the standard network rate. Not sure exactly what happens if you dont pay your bill one month but I should think they will probably stop your phone working and if you dont pay it on a regular basis you are likely to get a bad credit rating so not a good idea. A contract is usually either 12 months or more commonly at the moment 18 months (check carefully before you sign up). This is the one major disadvantage of contract phones in that you are usually tied in for a certain period of time. On the plus side you will get a free phone worth several hundred pounds and plenty of free minutes and texts so will work out cheaper than using a pay as you go mobile. If you do decide to go on contract take a look at the offers online. There are quite a few deals around and often you can get at least 12 months half price line rental on a phone (usually redeemed via cashback). Check out The Links website or Carphone Warehouse for some good online offers. Hope that helps Marc Quote
Mike5483 Posted October 22, 2006 Posted October 22, 2006 i know this is totally off topic and totally random but i was wantin to know about contract phones because ive always used pay as you go but as im startin to top my fone up 5 or 6 times a month (£50-£60) i want to change to contract but ive wondered about a couple of things 1. how does a contract work2. what happens if you dont pay the bill one month3. how long do you have to keep them for if anyone can help out it would be appreciated, welshys90 You pay a set amount a month and in return you get so many free minutes and so many free texts, plus some contracts give free data downloads etc. My own contract is an O2 Antime 200 or something, and for that i get 500 texts and 120mins a moth free. Its called an Anytime 200 because you can have a talker option which is 200mins, but only a hundred texts. I pay £30 per month, which includes £5 insurance. You generally pay by Direct Debit. If you default on a payment, I'm not sure, I suppose they just cut you off. You generally keep them for a year or 18months. After the contract you can take out a new one and an upgraded phone, or stop the contract. If you keep it 18months, you generally get lower monthly payments. Dont ever pay for the handset, tell them you can get it free on another network. Also go into somewhere and haggle them hard, you'll get a much better deal. Hope that helps Quote
wozza Posted October 22, 2006 Posted October 22, 2006 This is what the "general" forum is for Contracts is paid monthly by direct debit. Can get them online etc from O2 so dont need to go into a shop and can get some great offers on them which will probably reduce what you spend anyway. I use to spend similar amounts on my phone every month. I now rarely go above £40 a month and thats if im using it all day / night. Contracts range from 12 - 18 months. Phones are free. and if you dont pay the bill they cut it off until you do pay it. However you can put limit on the account to stop you going over a certain point when you get to that point it wont let you make any more calls etc if your worried about going mad. My first bill i went mad with when i got it came back at over £300 for a month. Changed contract found a better more suiting one lol. And its rather cheap now. My last months bill was £24 including my insurance at £5 a month. And thats for 1500 free minutes 150free texts. and 200 cross network minutes. I dont really use cross network though as nearly all my mates are on O2 so all the calls are free also free to all landlines i have been with O2 now for 5 years and every so often i get credited money to my account and free phone upgrades. Couple months ago they just credited my account with £100 as a good will thing for staying so long i now also get loyalty rewards etc which results in money off my bill every month. Quote
C4VTS Posted October 22, 2006 Posted October 22, 2006 My mobile contract is so cheap it does not even register on my bank account :D Maybe it's because I work for one of the networks :P Quote
ifigureditout Posted October 22, 2006 Posted October 22, 2006 orange have a good contract on rite now. i just started on it a couple of months ago. 500 anytime xnet minsunlimited textsmagic number (free calls to this number)free orange wireless broadband (worth £18 a month) and a choice of phones obviously. all for £35 a month Quote
kfk Posted October 22, 2006 Posted October 22, 2006 In general i find 02 to be good value, 2p a minute off peak to landline and other 02 phones is worth having.....i bought from an 02 shop if you look at carphone warehouse there tarifs are for 600 minutes anytime but considerably more to call landlines when your free minutes run out. Quote
Rich_Eason Posted October 23, 2006 Posted October 23, 2006 Welsh Remember if you default on a payment it will be all held against you in the furture for any means of credit not just mobile phones. Besides which you will also be charged a fee on top of the direct debit not going out. I recently changed mortgages and they started to pull out the history from when I was 17! Told them to stick it. Wozza how the bloody hell did you get your 100 quid?! :P :D I've been with O2 since before they were O2 and prior to them being called BT Cellnet (Yes remember them?) as a customer when it was called BT Genie?! The most I ever got out of O2 was 20quid for a complaint I made! Quote
wozza Posted October 23, 2006 Posted October 23, 2006 Not sure get loads of things like that been given around 8 phone upgrades now. Few times money credited to my account. I did used to use the phone a hell of a lot though my average bills at one point were £100+ a month. But i had a BT cellnet phone, BT genie was a different thing still had cellnet around then as well as yes i remember it then had an old motorola on the analogue network. Had a mobile a long time lol. But this contract i got on my 18th birthday so 5 years old now. And they just keep giving me free stuff every so often. If they dont give you what your afterjust threaten to take your business elsewhere it usually helps get you something be it a new expensive phone or cheaper contract. Quote
philstott1983 Posted October 23, 2006 Posted October 23, 2006 Shop around, the market is so competitive you'll get a great deal. Its open to opinion (obviously) but id say best value is the 3 network but the general vibe is the reception is poor. A lot of contracts now are based on 18 month deals. The internet will offer a lot better deals than the high street stores, because the middle man gets cut out. Look for 3G on the phone you get, and if i was to recomend a network provider, Vodafone would be the one. Id say they dont offer the best deal out there to new customers (existing ones get great deals) but the service they provide, and the after service from the staff is great, very very helpful Plus, the joys of Vodafone live...................! Quote
Z3M Roadster Posted October 23, 2006 Posted October 23, 2006 I have a "Three" personal phone and have been with them for 4 years. The choice of phones is good along with the tariff. I pay £25 and get 500 mins to any network 500 texts, 25 MMS/Video Messages, 30mb internet usage and £5 of downloads, pretty good eh. Best of all coverage is as good and I get a free upgrade every 11months, I currently have an Ericsson K800i. Reception is better than my company 02 mobile. Quote
wozza Posted October 23, 2006 Posted October 23, 2006 Think reception is based on where you live and the phone your using. Here vodaphone is a pain in the arse to get a decent signal. Quote
xavtia Posted October 25, 2006 Posted October 25, 2006 I've just changed to Orange from 3 cause of signal problems and the free broadband offer get 500 mins any network any time 200 landline mins200 texts free broadband with free evening and weekend calls buy one get on free cinema tickets on weds got 15 months half price on 18 month contract £17.50 a month for 15 months there are some really good 12 month free deals about if you arent fussed about having the best phone Quote
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