Poll: Contract lengths? Poll Request...

How long is your phone contract period?

  • 12 months

    Votes: 19 10.1%

  • 18 months

    Votes: 77 41.0%

  • 24 months

    Votes: 62 33.0%

  • 24+ months

    Votes: 2 1.1%

  • Pancake.

    Votes: 12 6.4%

  • 1 month rolling

    Votes: 16 8.5%
  • Total voters
    188

Malt_Vinegar

Malt_Vinegar

Malt_Vinegar

Don
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
17,273
Location
In a house
Don's Could this be made into a poll?

I was mulling this over the other day, as I accidentally upgraded to an 18 month contract last year. I assumed that as my previous contract was 12 months, and always had been, it never even entered my head to check, listen to the bloke in the shop! I was too busy eyeing up and playing with the shiney new phone.

ANYWAY, it seems the norm now to push everyone to an 18 month contract by default, with some people even going to 24 months?!

How many people are on 12/18/24/24+ month contracts.

Would also be interested to know the reasons why people are happy to commit to 18 month+ deals?

Obviously, not interested in payg :)
 
24months here on £20pm, wish I hadn't bothered as I ended up buying another phone 6 months into it. It wasn't a terrible deal but For my usage levels I could probably get by on one of those PAYG deals where they throw in Data when you top up £10.

11months to go now :/

My mum was totally screwed over though, 24month £20pm contract with a LG GT540, but they messed up somewhere and didn't put on the data allowance she was meant to have. When she called up they said they couldn't fix it and the best they would do was give her £60 to pay for a few months worth of Data bolt-on, but for the remaining contract time she's going to have to either pay for it herself or go without data on a smartphone. Overall it's going to work out around the same as a £25pm contract and if she was interested in that price range to begin with she'd have gotten way more minutes and something like a Desire or Galaxy S.
 
12 months was OK when phones were evolving so quickly.

I'm happy with an 18 month contract for a latest smart phone, the only beef I'd have would be the warranties should be back to back with the contract.
 
I used to only want 18 month contracts (much cheaper and widespread than 12 months) until I realised how easy it is to cancel a contract early. Had an 18 month contract with an HD2, had 8 months left and cancelled it early for only £65 - easily covered by the sale of the phone, if not the cashback from getting a new contract. I've now taken a 24 month contract on a Desire HD.

You certainly don't have to be tied down if you don't want to be :).
 
It's all well and good saying 12 months is preferable to 18 or 24 but if you get half the minutes/texts/data and it costs more per month and you have to pay £200 for a phone that would otherwise be free, it's rather pointless in most situations.
 
Yes 12 months was good. And still prefer it... but 18 months is about right now. With all these new phones/smartphones etc... It's worth going for a 18month contraxt

24m is too long for a contract... Sod that...
 
Poll added. I try and not get anything longer than 18 months. Phones have moved on so much in that period, it's practically obsolete.
 
Im on my 4th or 5th year of having a contract and they have all been 12 months up unitl this upgrade, which i made them give me for 18 months as i refuse to take out a 24 month one.
 
What's pancake?
I chose pancake because I'm on the O2 simplicity 1 month contract.. :p

12 month contracts are still available but only for certain phones. I tried to help my dad upgrade to the iphone 4 a few months ago and they only had minimum 18 months. When I asked about the SE Xperia X10, a 12 month contract was available.
 
Russinating said:
I used to only want 18 month contracts (much cheaper and widespread than 12 months) until I realised how easy it is to cancel a contract early. Had an 18 month contract with an HD2, had 8 months left and cancelled it early for only £65 - easily covered by the sale of the phone, if not the cashback from getting a new contract. I've now taken a 24 month contract on a Desire HD.

You certainly don't have to be tied down if you don't want to be :).
Click to expand...

explain more? i thought these were pretty tough and you need evidence of failed services and so on?
 
maccapacca said:
I'm happy with an 18 month contract for a latest smart phone, the only beef I'd have would be the warranties should be back to back with the contract.
Click to expand...

I agree with that 100%. Some manufacturers offer a two year warranty as standard (i.e. Nokia) but with others it's only a year.

I'm worried about my iPhone. It broke 2 days before the warranty ran out and I've now got another 4-5 months outside of the warranty period until my contract is up. If it breaks again, I won't be happy.
 
mame said:
It's all well and good saying 12 months is preferable to 18 or 24 but if you get half the minutes/texts/data and it costs more per month and you have to pay £200 for a phone that would otherwise be free, it's rather pointless in most situations.
Click to expand...

Is that true? Surely you just pay a bit extra a month?

I would be very suprised if I had to pay at next upgrade, even on a 12 month. Don't think I have ever paid on any contract length!

Oh, with warrenty, surely you can take out the optional insurance? I pay my extra a month for orange care, and had my tg01 replaced 3 times now. Also arrives the next day in my desired delivery window. Worth it for that.
 
_Jimlad_ said:
explain more? i thought these were pretty tough and you need evidence of failed services and so on?
Click to expand...

Nope. I just went into the Vodafone shop and told the assistant I wanted to cancel my contract because I wanted the Desire HD on T-Mobile (I didn't beat around the bush or try and lie one bit). She said that was cool and lowered my monthly charge from £40 to £8.50 so the balance to pay off was only £64 (£8 * 8). She even told me to come back in the next day and add internet on for £5 so that I would have data for the remaining month without that increasing my early cancellation charge by £40.

Then I cancelled my contract in writing online that afternoon, got a bill for £64 as she said and my PAC code within 24 hours.

Effectively I cancelled my contract for £64, will sell my HD2 for ~£250 and got £30 cashback through MPD (but could have got £90 going back to Vodafone).

To summarise, I got paid ~£200 to upgrade to the Desire HD 8 months early :).
 
SIM only TMobile with IP4. Was £5 a month cheaper if I went for that over a rolling monthly tariff.

Only just moved over from o2 on Sat and I'm very happy indeed.
 
On an 18 month one at present with a smartphone, it’s really not that long. I really don’t care if something more fancy comes along as there will be an even better one at the end of the contract.
 
I'm on an 18 month contract and got a phone I don't like... have to wait until next August before I can move off, unless I buy a second hand phone
 
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