Phone Contracts

[Morpheus]

Just been on USwitch (thanks Stevo) and these are some of the best deals available for the HTC One and S4 if anyone is interested.

 

HTC ONE=02=£99.99 up front. 600 minutes, unlimited texts, 750mb data=£22.00 a month.

 

Galaxy S4= T Mobile= £94.99 up front=500 minutes, unlimited texts, 750mb data=£26.00 a month.

Galaxy S4= O2=£19.99 up front, 600 minutes, unlimited texts, 750mb data=£32.00 a month.

Galaxy S4= Orange=£89.99 up front=200 minutes, unlimited texts, 750mb data=£26.00 a month.

[CVByrne]

They are shocking bad deals. 750mb data. Data is the most important thing now. As all voice calls and texts can be done via data connection.

You need unlimited or at least 2gb

[CVByrne]

To be worth your while getting a 24 month lock in the total cost of the contract, ie upfront cost + 24 x monthly rate. Needs to be less than £900 for S4 or less than £850 for the One and give 600 mins and unlimited data.

Otherwise it is financially and all round better to buy the phone outright and get a sim only deal from 3.

How long would it take you to pay off £500?

[Stevo985]

I've got 750mb data and never even got close to it.

 

Ask your current provider how much data you use. If it's not more than 750mb then you'll be ok with those deals.

[limpid]

You can take your current usage and know that it won't increase for 24 months? I can't

[Morpheus]

To be worth your while getting a 24 month lock in the total cost of the contract, ie upfront cost + 24 x monthly rate. Needs to be less than £900 for S4 or less than £850 for the One and give 600 mins and unlimited data.

Otherwise it is financially and all round better to buy the phone outright and get a sim only deal from 3.

How long would it take you to pay off £500?

Thanks again for your replies. I went into my local 02 shop today and auctioned both the HTC One and the Galaxy S4. Loved both but the sales guy was pushing me more onto the S4 which he only had in white. He then offered me no upfront money on the S4, 600 minutes, unlimited texts, 750mb and £33.00 per month while the deal on the HTC One was £49.99 upfront with unlimited calls, texts and data and £33.00 per month. I mentioned some of the internet deals with other providers and the sales guy told me to come back to him when i was ready to purchase to see if he could do anything better?

 

As far as paying the £500 off it depends on how i'd want to do it. Our local Credit Union as long as you have the savings to cover the loan will let you pay £10.00 per week as a minimum payment plus £3.00 in interest per week or you can pay more per week if you like.

 

Seemingly there are deals out there with unlimited data on the S4 but i really don't want to be paying much more than £30.00 per month. 

Edited May 2, 2013 by Morpheus

[Morpheus]

I've got 750mb data and never even got close to it.

 

Ask your current provider how much data you use. If it's not more than 750mb then you'll be ok with those deals.

Stevo do you use the internet much on your phone?

[leviramsey]

My data usage history (I have a 3GB cap)

Mar '12: 2GB

Apr '12: 1GB

May '12: 1.8GB

Jun '12: 0.9GB

Jul '12: 1.1GB

Aug '12: 0.9GB

Sep '12: 0.9GB

Oct '12: 1.1GB

Nov '12: 0.8GB

Dec '12: 0.6GB

Jan '13: 0.7GB

Feb '13: 0.7GB

Mar '13: 0.6GB

Apr '13: 0.9GB

There isn't much evidence that I should go for a bigger than 3GB cap; this is also with reasonably heavy online radio listening when out and about.

[CVByrne]

Remember when LTE goes live speeds will increase dramatically and as such so will your data consumption. Less time waiting and easy streaming of video / music.

 

A HTC One or Galaxy S4 could do you for more than 24 months, but when your contract is up you'll still be on that higher monthly rate.

 

 

The best thing I and many on here will suggest is separate the phone from the contract. Think of them as totally separate things, which they are. Like your laptop and your home broadband.

 

 

Go finance your own phone purchase, credit Union would be a good idea, try pay off the phone as quickly as you can maybe over 8-10 months. 

 

Then go get a sim only deal for £12-£15 a month. Three do great deals

 

http://store.three.co.uk/SIM_Only/Voice_Pay_Monthly

 

But if you prefer O2's network then maybe checkout giffgaff.

 

 

Then you own your own phone and are not locked into a contract. You can then sell your phone whenever you want and use that big chunk of money to fund an upgrade whenever you feel like you want to. Exactly like a laptop or PC or Car or any other thing you buy in this world. 

[The_Rev]

 

 

The last month for me. I've got unlimited data (as in genuinely unlimited, not the "we will throttle the shit out of your download speeds once you hit 3gb" unlimited which is out there) and I'd say this is fairly typical use.  I hit 5gb once when my home internet was down. 

[Morpheus]

Remember when LTE goes live speeds will increase dramatically and as such so will your data consumption. Less time waiting and easy streaming of video / music.

 

A HTC One or Galaxy S4 could do you for more than 24 months, but when your contract is up you'll still be on that higher monthly rate.

 

 

The best thing I and many on here will suggest is separate the phone from the contract. Think of them as totally separate things, which they are. Like your laptop and your home broadband.

 

 

Go finance your own phone purchase, credit Union would be a good idea, try pay off the phone as quickly as you can maybe over 8-10 months. 

 

Then go get a sim only deal for £12-£15 a month. Three do great deals

 

http://store.three.co.uk/SIM_Only/Voice_Pay_Monthly

 

But if you prefer O2's network then maybe checkout giffgaff.

 

 

Then you own your own phone and are not locked into a contract. You can then sell your phone whenever you want and use that big chunk of money to fund an upgrade whenever you feel like you want to. Exactly like a laptop or PC or Car or any other thing you buy in this world. 

Thanks again CV. It would have to be O2s network as i've done a quick search and found that 3s coverage in N'Ireland is worse than poor.

 

Will go back to the O2 sales guy tomorrow and see if i can wrangle a better deal out of him and if not will then just get the £500 and buy the phone outright. 

[CVByrne]

Giffgaff use O2's network and are £10 a month. Check out their site. I and a good few other on here are on giffgaff at the moment. 

 

www.giffgaff.com check them out. 

[Tegis]

VT giffgaff sponsor link

[Morpheus]

Thanks Tegis have ordered.

[mykeyb]

Connor have you tried Three yet.

Just cancelled my O2 contract at thirty quid a month plus VAT. Detentions offered my a 12 month contract unlimited minutes and texts but only 500mb of data for £12.90 a month but with 7 months free which I declined on a bit of a gamble that a. Google are going to announce an LTE Nexus 4 and thast Three are true to their word of offering unlimited 4G at no extra cost to their users so I am looking to sign up for there £11.90 one month contract with unlimited data.

[CVByrne]

I use 3's network with my data only Samba mobile sim. It's better than my O2 giffgaff and it's frustrating random loss of 3G. 

 

I'll be switching to rolling monthly 3 sim next month after I move apartment. I'll be getting the same £12 a month one with unlimited data

[Morpheus]

This post is more of an extension to what i have written in the mobile android thread and to make new mobile contract owners aware of what you might face before a provider like O2 will put you on contract.

 

I had considered purchasing either the Galaxy S4 or the HTC One without entering into a 2 year contract but decided against it as i did not want to pay the initial outlay of £500.00 plus for either phone and financially it was more comfortable for me to go on contract.

 

I had already decided on O2 as my provider as they have the best coverage in my particular area and so with the help of fellow VTers such as Stevo and CVByrne, i did a search through 'Uswitch' and took note of the best available deal for the HTC One through 02 and then decided to approach the High Street to see if they could better the deal on the internet?

 

None of the O2 shops on the High Street could get anywhere near the internet deal and neither could the guys in Carphone Warehouse who advised me to snap it up.

 

So through Mobiles.co.uk i applied for the HTC One with £99.00 upfront, 750mb data, 600 minutes, unlimited texts and £22.00 per month.

 

The next day i received an email from Mobiles.co.uk to contact them which i did. They told me O2 had asked for an extra deposit of £150.00 on top of the £99.00 upfront to finalised my contract because i had never had a mobile contract before and O2 were looking for extra security until i could show that i could make my payments before then reimbursing the £150.00 back into my bank account after a period of three months.

 

Don't know whether this is standard procedure but i was pretty shocked at having to stump up an extra £150.00 just to get a contract as my credit rating has always been excellent. I was very close to telling the sales lady from Mobiles.co.uk to go and do one but in the end i decided to proceed and will receive my phone either on Thursday or Friday. I just hope the phone has been worth it?

 

Has anyone else come across this when getting a mobile contract?   

Edited May 8, 2013 by Morpheus

[Stevo985]

 

I've got 750mb data and never even got close to it.

 

Ask your current provider how much data you use. If it's not more than 750mb then you'll be ok with those deals.

Stevo do you use the internet much on your phone?

 

A fair bit, but not more than about 500mb a month. Most of the time I use it I'm in wifi areas anyway

 

 

 

This post is more of an extension to what i have written in the mobile android thread and to make new mobile contract owners aware of what you might face before a provider like O2 will put you on contract.

 

I had considered purchasing either the Galaxy S4 or the HTC One without entering into a 2 year contract but decided against it as i did not want to pay the initial outlay of £500.00 plus for either phone and financially it was more comfortable for me to go on contract.

 

I had already decided on O2 as my provider as they have the best coverage in my particular area and so with the help of fellow VTers such as Stevo and CVByrne, i did a search through 'Uswitch' and took note of the best available deal for the HTC One through 02 and then decided to approach the High Street to see if they could better the internet deal?

 

None of the O2 shops on the High Street could get anywhere near the internet deal and neither could the guys in Carphone Warehouse who advised me to snap up the internet deal.

 

So through Mobiles.co.uk i applied for the HTC One with £99.00 upfront, 750mb data, 600 minutes, unlimited texts and £22.00 per month.

 

The next day i received an email from Mobiles.co.uk to contact them which i did. They told me O2 had asked for an extra deposit of £150.00 on top of the £99.00 upfront to finalised my contract because i had never had a mobile contract before and O2 were looking for extra security until i could show that i could make my payments before then reimbursing the £150.00 back into my bank account after a period of three months.

 

Don't know whether this is standard procedure but i was pretty shocked at having to stump up an extra £150.00 just to get a contract as my credit rating has always been excellent. I was very close to telling the sales lady from Mobiles.co.uk to go and do one but in the end i decided to proceed and will receive my phone either on Thursday or Friday. I just hope the phone has been worth it?

 

Has anyone else come across this when getting a mobile contract?   

I've never come across this.

To be honest I probably would have told them to do one.

 

If you don't get that money back when they say they'll give it back to you I'd definitely kick up a fuss.

 

Sorry if this is a result of my USwitch recommendation

[Morpheus]

Yeah probably should have told them to do one as this as you say isn't normal.

 

I will, when activating my phone, be telling O2 to make sure that £150 deposit is returned to my bank account again as soon as i pay the third bill.

 

Don't worry about the 'USwitch recommendation' as no one on the High Street could better the deal and hopefully i will be reimbursed after the three month period.

[darrenm]

I'd run a mile. Doesn't sound right at all.

 

I can recommend EE for network coverage and 3G speeds.

 

But they recently FUP'd me for going over the 4GB FUP due to tethering while on holiday.

 

My original contract had no FUP, but I think at some upgrade point I lost it.