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
Russinating said:
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 :).
Click to expand...

No you didn't, you paid £64 to cancel a contract that could have gone in your pocket...;)

I think we've had this argument before but I personally add all the freebies etc into the cost of the original contract which means paying off an existing contract means I pay more for the new one. Either way you look at it you lose money in some way.

Best case scenario you would have paid an extra £5 a month for your initial contract, which for 12 months would have been £60... So you lost £4. Wost case scenario, you may have been able to get a better offer on a shorter contract, meaning you lost out on £64...

I'm curently on a simplicity contract (although I actually voted 18 month...) because I'm waiting for a decent phone to be released. It was my first 18 month contract and it was killing me (always been on 12) but then no decent phones have been released since the contract ran out in June so it hasn't been that bad. Unfortunately I'm going to have to go on another 18 month contract soon to get either a Desire HD or a WinPho7 phone. No way in hell am I going on a 2 year contract (which is what everyone is now being pused onto) as I after next september I could be anywhere and in a completely different situation. I don't know how people live on 2, even 3 year contracts because if something happened you'd have loads of bills to pay even if you couldn't use the service!:confused:
 
Spartacus said:
£15 Sim only rolling contract with 3, bought handset.

Lets break it down...

£360 for the HTC Desire, then say I keep it for 24 months by choice thats 24x £15 = £360

Total £720

Cheapest contract on 3 website is 24 months at £30 with free HTC Desire..

24x £30 = £720

Its a no brainer really, with the rolling contract and buying the handset outright I have the flexibility of being able to sell the desire and buy another handset easily anytime I want, cancel my contract with 1 months notice if I found myself out of work, and with the added bonus of a generic handset getting the updates first without having to root.

Ok so the £30 contract is 500 minutes and 5000 texts, and the sim only is 300 minutes and 3000 texts, but thats enough for me so makes no difference. Both have 1GB of data.

I just dont think some of the contract offers out there justify signing up for 24 months compared to buying the handset and getting a rolling contract.
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You got ripped off, you could get the Desire for £25 a month with 500mins and "unlimited" texts on an 18 month contract, think it was £20 on a 2 year contract.

So that's 25x18 = £450
or 20x24 = £440...
 
Nightmare trying to find decent 18 month contracts with free phones now :(

I want a blackberry torch ideally, but may have to settle for a Samsung S as its getting ridiculous trying to find something reasonable.
 
Amp34 said:
You got ripped off, you could get the Desire for £25 a month with 500mins and "unlimited" texts on an 18 month contract, think it was £20 on a 2 year contract.

So that's 25x18 = £450
or 20x24 = £440...
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Not directly from 3. Ive checked their website regularly.

Your either talking about loyalty discount which not everyone is offered or going through a 3rd party for the contract. I prefere to go directly through the networks over 3rd party, deal directly with the organ grinder so to speak rather than the monkey.
 
Amp34 said:
No you didn't, you paid £64 to cancel a contract that could have gone in your pocket...;)

I think we've had this argument before but I personally add all the freebies etc into the cost of the original contract which means paying off an existing contract means I pay more for the new one. Either way you look at it you lose money in some way.

Best case scenario you would have paid an extra £5 a month for your initial contract, which for 12 months would have been £60... So you lost £4. Wost case scenario, you may have been able to get a better offer on a shorter contract, meaning you lost out on £64...
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Eh? I think you've read my post wrong.

Either way, contracts are better, even ignoring the fact that you don't need a lump sum to start with. You're not tied down for 2 years, you can cancel whenever you want, and sometimes for cheaper than just buying the phone outright.

I had my HD2 on an 18 month contract for £40pm. Free phone. I cancelled 8 months early for a charge of £65.

10 months = £400
Cancellation charge = £65
Cost to buy the phone outright when I bought the contract = £499 (at least)

So how on earth can you say buying outright is best? I paid less overall than you would have for just the phone, let alone what you'd have paid for 900 mins, unlimited landline calls, unlimited texts and 1GB data (£20 a month or something at a guess, so an additional £200 plus 8 months left).
 
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I said nothing about buying outright. :p

I think it's you that misread my post...;)

I'm all for decent contracts (sim only and buying outright invariably costs more than a decent contract) however you still spent an extra £64 over the course of the two contracts because you cancelled your first contract, which is what I said. If you'd gone with a 12 month contract then you would not have had to spend some of the money you were given for your second contract buying out the first.
 
Amp34 said:
however you still spent an extra £64 over the course of the two contracts because you cancelled your first contract, which is what I said. If you'd gone with a 12 month contract then you would not have had to spend some of the money you were given for your second contract buying out the first.
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... but if he had taken a 12 month contract in the first place, he would have had to pay for the phone and have an increased monthly line rental from when he had the phone to the day he did this upgrade deal.
 
mame said:
... but if he had taken a 12 month contract in the first place, he would have had to pay for the phone and have an increased monthly line rental from when he had the phone to the day he did this upgrade deal.
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Depends, but even then it's normally only £5 extra. Very little difference at all.

TBH I'm more suggesting going from an 18 month contract to a 24 month contract isn't a good idea just because it's "easy" to cance. You still lose money that way in most situations.
 
Plenty of people saying "screw networks and their contracts", but nobody actually giving a reason why. And 'you're tied in for 2 years' isn't a valid argument because as discussed, you can cancel at any time usually for cheaper than buying the phone anyway.

So, why screw contracts? :confused:
 
Hey I have a 18 month contract £3.50 (originally £20 a month before cashback) a month for 100 minutes unlimited txt. It does what I want so no need for anything else. Also got a free phone Samsung Tocco Lite, which I sold and more than covered the cost of my contract. :D
 
Russinating said:
Plenty of people saying "screw networks and their contracts", but nobody actually giving a reason why. And 'you're tied in for 2 years' isn't a valid argument because as discussed, you can cancel at any time usually for cheaper than buying the phone anyway.

So, why screw contracts? :confused:
Click to expand...

Ok, so let's take the following scenario which I believe to be accurate regarding the deals around for the DesireHD at the moment.

Scenario One:
  • Outright buy the phone £440 roughly
  • SIM only £15 p/m rolling contract for ~500mins, unlimited texts and data
  • You have this combo for a year, so £15 x 12 + £440 = £620
  • You sell the phone and get £200 back after 12 months

Scenario Two:
  • You sign up to a £35 p/m contract for 24 months, free phone
  • You have this combo for a year, so £35 x 24 (due to 12m buy out) = £840
  • You sell the phone and get £200 back after 12 months
  • You might have to buy a radio unlock code
  • You might have branded software, leading to intrusive carrier applications
  • Updates ARE slower to roll out than generic firmware
  • Sometimes carrier specific firmware will disable certain features that they deem to be a potential way to abuse the network
 
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Other good trick is if you have a WIFI phone if you have bt broadband you use the BT FON/ OPENZONE for free, just enter your details and go. No 3G chargers or extra data charges
 
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