Phone Contracts

FatCat

FatCat

Well-known member
As with anything these days new customers are treated fantastically compared to existing customers.

My two year contract is up and I can get an upgrade. However the phone would be more expensive and the monthly payment higher and that is with tasing in my old phone.

What is stopping me from saying ok my contract is up and move to take a new contract elsewhere or even take a new contract with my existing provider.

Haven’t changed phones for a while so any advice would be appreciated.
 
O
FatCat said:
As with anything these days new customers are treated fantastically compared to existing customers.

My two year contract is up and I can get an upgrade. However the phone would be more expensive and the monthly payment higher and that is with tasing in my old phone.

What is stopping me from saying ok my contract is up and move to take a new contract elsewhere or even take a new contract with my existing provider.

Haven’t changed phones for a while so any advice would be appreciated.
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I've just upgraded to the Google Pixel 4a on EE, 100GB data and a 43" 4K LG TV for £30 a month after a bit of bartering with the lass on the live chat.
 
FatCat said:
That sounds like a decent deal!
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£41 per month as standard. Told them I've been with EE since the days they were Orange, probably 10+ years now.
Paid an early upgrade fee of £100 (wasn't due till March 2021) and the TV should be here right in time for Xmas.
Used the deal as a present to myself really after a really **** year.
 
I left o2 last year after many years with them to ... youve guessed it rejoin o2 via carphone warehouse as a 'new customer'. O2 direct couldnt even match carphone or get anywhere near plus they wanted me on a 36 month contract where as carphone gave me a better deal on a 18 month contract.

Not sure what bargaining power i'll now have when mine is up for renewal in a few months as o2 have fell out with carphone
 
RandySavage said:
£41 per month as standard. Told them I've been with EE since the days they were Orange, probably 10+ years now.
Paid an early upgrade fee of £100 (wasn't due till March 2021) and the TV should be here right in time for Xmas.
Used the deal as a present to myself really after a really **** year.
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Why not!
 
I was with o2 for years... They wanted to Rob me on upgrade and I tried and tried with the online chat but they would have none of it.

I went to carphone and just selected the best deal and that happened to be with vodafone and it save me over £20 a month.
 
Davey_C said:
I left o2 last year after many years with them to ... youve guessed it rejoin o2 via carphone warehouse as a 'new customer'. O2 direct couldnt even match carphone or get anywhere near plus they wanted me on a 36 month contract where as carphone gave me a better deal on a 18 month contract.

Not sure what bargaining power i'll now have when mine is up for renewal in a few months as o2 have fell out with carphone
Click to expand...
Ahh so you can leave and join the same provider in essence.
 
RandySavage said:
O

I've just upgraded to the Google Pixel 4a on EE, 100GB data and a 43" 4K LG TV for £30 a month after a bit of bartering with the lass on the live chat.
Click to expand...

Jeez that's a good deal. My iPhone contract runs out in June, if they're chucking free tv's around I might have to look into it. Our 4 year old 40" Panasonic is starting to be come painfully slow on all the smart tv elements. Was it advertised with that?
 
Jostler said:
Jeez that's a good deal. My iPhone contract runs out in June, if they're chucking free tv's around I might have to look into it. Our 4 year old 40" Panasonic is starting to be come painfully slow on all the smart tv elements. Was it advertised with that?
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Yes.
Our current TV is nearly 10 years old and I'm obviously after either an Xbox series X or ps5 next year so been wanting to upgrade to 4K for a while but never really been able to afford it outright.
 
Davey_C said:
I left o2 last year after many years with them to ... youve guessed it rejoin o2 via carphone warehouse as a 'new customer'. O2 direct couldnt even match carphone or get anywhere near plus they wanted me on a 36 month contract where as carphone gave me a better deal on a 18 month contract.

Not sure what bargaining power i'll now have when mine is up for renewal in a few months as o2 have fell out with carphone
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Network Operators have fixed prices for end users and expect 3rd party companies, the likes of CPW to adhere to them....its a bit like an RRP
Carphone Warehouse work off percentages! and in the cutthroat world of sales they don't always adhere to the rules put in place.

For example O2 charge £40/month for a contract, from that sale Carphone Warehouse get 25%, so £10/month. Over the course of 24 months that's £240 get from your sale.

What CPW will actually do to make it look like your getting a better deal is to subsidise your contract by sacrificing some of their profit, after all its better for them to make something over the 24 month period than it is to make nothing!
So, what they do is give you the same Minutes, SMS & Data that O2 were offering you at £40/month, for £35/month, and contribute £5/month of the potential £10 that they were going to make.
Essentially O2 are not bothered because they are still getting their £40/month and are happy bunnies.
As an end user you're only interested in that final figure that comes out of your account, which is £5 less than O2 were going to charge, which means you can have an extra pint down the pub before the match!

Everybody is happy;)!
 
I'm coming to the end of my contract with Virgin I currently have a Samsung s8 which is 3 years old and when comparing new phones I cant justify the extra expense for a new phone which on paper aren't that much different will be happy to keep the phone and pay a £6 sim only deal
 
FatCat said:
Ahh so you can leave and join the same provider in essence.
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You can, but it's harder to port your number across. You might have to port your number to a PAYG on a different network, and then port it back on to your new O2 deal. Bit of a ballache, but doable.
 
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chrisytomo81 said:
I'm coming to the end of my contract with Virgin I currently have a Samsung s8 which is 3 years old and when comparing new phones I cant justify the extra expense for a new phone which on paper aren't that much different will be happy to keep the phone and pay a £6 sim only deal
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I'm only paying £6 a month also (sky SIM only). Obviously everyone has different requirements but the idea of paying £40 a month or something seems extortionate to me. But then I only use it to read the news and check football scores
 
FatCat said:
As with anything these days new customers are treated fantastically compared to existing customers.

My two year contract is up and I can get an upgrade. However the phone would be more expensive and the monthly payment higher and that is with tasing in my old phone.

What is stopping me from saying ok my contract is up and move to take a new contract elsewhere or even take a new contract with my existing provider.

Haven’t changed phones for a while so any advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Nothing is stopping you from doing anything once your contract is up. Find out what the best deal you can get anywhere is, and talk to the retentions team on your network. Their opening gambit is usually rubbish (as you've already discovered) but they will budge. They can't always match what you can get elsewhere, but can usually get close. That way you don't need to port number etc... but it's very easy to do so. (Just get your PAC code).

As others have mentioned, the cheapest way is often to be Sim only and to buy the phone outright. It doesn't seem cheaper, as you have a big outlay for the phone, but over the course of a 24 month contract the payments for the phone add up.

That said on Carphone Warehouse I think the handset only price for the Samung Galaxy S20 5G is £899 (ie £37 per month over 24 months).... but there are some contract deals with 20GB of data for closer to £30 per month - depending on your up front cost.
 
I don’t bother with mobile phone contracts as WiFi is everywhere so I just get a pay as you go sim and get unlimited calls, texts and data through WiFi. Not spent any money to use phone in 6 years.
 
chrisytomo81 said:
I'm coming to the end of my contract with Virgin I currently have a Samsung s8 which is 3 years old and when comparing new phones I cant justify the extra expense for a new phone which on paper aren't that much different will be happy to keep the phone and pay a £6 sim only deal
Click to expand...
I had a Samsung coming to the end of contract. Virgin gave me a sim with unlimited data calls and texts for nothing as part of me staying with them on the Oomph deal .
 
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