Just a thought - Mobile phone contracts

[ellielou]

Phone companies tie you into a 12 or 18 month contracts.
If you want to terminate this contract early you have to basically pay them a fee which equates to your current monthly payments x time number of months left on your contract - so you may as well keep the contract till it's end date.

My question is - can they do this?
I have a feeling this is all above board but just wondered, as there's so many good contract offers on the market but I'm tied in with Vodafone until March 2007 so can't take advantage of any of them.

Thanks

[buzby]

Yes. They discount the handset price in line with how long the minimum contract is for. No contract, and the phone costs £450. Take it on 12 months (if you can) and the price drops to £129. But if you take it on 18/24, you get the best price of £69 - the starting price depends on how long the phone has been available in the marketplace.

I refuse to provide the information most mobile phone contracts require (DoB, Inside leg, favourite colour etc), so I buy the phone I want from eBay (being v/careful) and then swap my SIM card over. It costs slightly more than the equivalent contract, but not that much - and I stay in control!

[JodiSte]

Originally Posted by okonski

Yes. They discount the handset price in line with how long the minimum contract is for. No contract, and the phone costs £450. Take it on 12 months (if you can) and the price drops to £129. But if you take it on 18/24, you get the best price of £69 - the starting price depends on how long the phone has been available in the marketplace.

I refuse to provide the information most mobile phone contracts require (DoB, Inside leg, favourite colour etc), so I buy the phone I want from eBay (being v/careful) and then swap my SIM card over. It costs slightly more than the equivalent contract, but not that much - and I stay in control!

I always buy my handsets all over the place in Europe for usually 30% of the price here in the UK and because they are free mobiles all cards works (all legal)
What I didn't know is that you can have a contract without a phone and timely ties, or did I get that wrong?

[buzby]

You can have a contract without a phone and all the networks support this, the way round this is to purchase a pre-pay SIM card (only) of your chosen network - and check which of them provides the best coverage at home before deciding. Once you use up any credit, call customer services and say you'd like to switch from Pre-Pay to a contract. This may mean they will want a DDM and other details, so it's up to you if you wish to go down this route, but often you can do this without signing any contract and there's no commitment as you're supplying your own phone. It's a neat way round the shackles of a mobile contract, yet still benefiting from the lower call charges.