Please advise on best Contract Plan for Mobile

Hi everyone..

I will finally recieve my bank statement in the mail tomorrow..so i can finally drop my pay-as-you-go plan and stop getting highjacked by these fly-by-night pay-as-you-go deals ....wanted to ask you guys what the cheapest deals are for contract mobile phones ?

I think i will buy a mobile first before i approach the provider...so i dont get stuck with the cost of the phone if i dont end up living in the UK for one year as they usually stipulate in their fine prints...atleast i think its a safer approach but i could be wrong.

I do make calls to the States and Austria...but i'm hoping someone out there has some advise on how to navigate that overwhelming maze of signing up for a contract.

thanks heaps...again
Zufan

There are so many deal out there, you could spend months choosing one. I recommend going to places like Carphone Warehouse and the Link and picking up their catalogues and checking out all the deals. You can also get a lot of special online deals so it's worth checking out the various companies' websites.

I was with Orange for 3 years and had some veyr bad experiences which made me leave as soon as my last contract expired and I am now with T Mobile. The plan I have with them only costs £15 a month and for that you get 750 free off peak minutes and 50 texts. Anything outside that you pay for, I usually spend £10 or £20 on top of that.

If you are thinking you might leave the UK before the 12 month contract is up, make sure you check out any 'get out' clauses, you may have to pay off the rest of the 12 months anyway.

There may be some information of use in this thread:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=8077.0

Every monthly plan that I checked out does have a 12 month contract...you can't get out of it even if you provide your own phone.  And you most likely won't have to buy a phone if you get a monthly contract.  If you think you might leave in less than one year, I would stick with pay as you go...and just buy phone cards for your overseas calling...I never use my mobile for overseas...just my regular phone...but before I had a home phone I used calling cards instead...(mobile overseas calls are just way to expensive)

Yeah, they pretty much do all require 12 mos. even if you have your own phone. I think thelink.com has the best deals - that's where Jamie gets his (he does a new one every year 'cause he likes new gagets and fancy services. LOL.) But I have to agree with onetiger - I've got a vodaphone pay as you go and I have no problem with it at all. I pay the same as or less than I would with a contract and the rates really aren't that bad, and it's always been quite reliable.

I use www.onetel.co.uk or www.telco.com for making internataional calls from my mobile, they have a London based access number which is just chraged to my free minutes.

I am now on an Orange monthly contract, but that's mainly because I was able to get a lot of texts...but before that I had a pay as you go contract with Fresh and they had a great deal on the costs...I would check that out through Carphone Warehouse!

Thanks yoo guys..

Just wanted to clear one point..i wanted to buy my own phone so as to avoid the over-inflated price one would pay IF you reneg on the one year contract. I might be wrong in buying my own mobile FIRST but it seems the providers will charge an arm and a leg if you cancel the one year contract, on the other hand i can shop around for a good deal on a stand-alone mobile on UK ebay and such.

Is there a consumer reports type thing in the UK where they " vote " on the best rates etc ?

thanks heaps
Zufan

Even with your own phone if you reneg on a one year contract on a pay monthly, you'll still have a HUGE charge (or you just have to keep paying monthly until the end of the year)...buying your own phone means nothing other than you have your own phone (and as in a pay monthly you can get phones for free I would never buy a phone)...so I'm not sure where you are going with that.  I don't know of any plan that is under one year for a pay monthly.  I still stand by my thought that if you are going to be leaving any time before a year, that you need to stick with a pay as you go plan and just look at the best plans that are out there.

Thanks onetiger..

I guess your right...i thought i would save money if i just bought my own phone from UK ebay or something but it will in the end make no difference.
My immediate concern is i will be leaving hubby in London while i make a take a mini holiday to the states and wonderd what the cheapest method of staying in touch with him would be ?
We have Pay as you go with 3 (the company) . I have a mobile with AT&T in the states but calling london to a mobile phone will no doubt cost an arm and a leg.
Should i buy a phone card once in the states ? Not even sure if it would work with AT&T mobile but any advise in this immediate situation would be great.
Do you know much about tri-band phones...i understand you could use those in the states or UK but im sure roaming and other charges would probably rule that out.
Lost in Mobile land
Zufan

The cheapest way for me to call DH while I was in the US was with 10-10-987.  And it worked on my mobile, too!   

If you have a tri band phone it will work in the US  (most phones re dual band and don't owrk there) but you are right it would be pretty expensive. Most networks in addition to charging you a high rate of maybe 70p a minute or something to make calls back here, they also charge a similar rate to receive calls. That's how I ce ended up with a £1000 mobile bill!

thankyou both of you...

lolabola do you remember how much it cost per minute to call UK using the 10-10-987 # ?

thanx again
Z

 

It's a 39 cent connection fee and 3 cents a minute from there.  You need to make sure it'll work on your mobile though--it didn't work on my friend's or my grandmother's (not that Nanny would have the most up-to-date cell phone anyway!). 

Actually 10-10-987 has upped the connection fee to 46 cents with calls to landline UK costing 3 cents per minute but calls to a mobile number in the UK costing 10 cents per minute. I use it all the time to call from home but I've never tried it from my cell phone.