Read this one earlier. That line from Vodafone was pretty great “if they don’t change we immediately give a 5 pound discount on their bill.”
How generous! How decent!
My contract is up in June, and am switching straight to a Giffgaff SIM. Battery is still good, nothing interesting going on with phones at the moment. Not getting stuck with these predatory gloms.
Can confirm this with EE. The last time I ‘finished’ paying off a handset they kept me on the same rate for a few months.
I was actually aware of it but didn’t want to sign up to a new contract with them straight away – that’s on me – but I’m thinking of all those who *don’t* notice and just keep on paying.
IIRC they did flag that I was eligible for an upgrade or new contract. But it wasn’t phrased “you’re paying us too much”.
Furthermore, of course the pricks don’t let you reduce your contract even if you’re not using the existing contract to its fullest potential (that is to say: If you have 20gb of data but only need 4, you can’t move “down” a contract).
In that sense they do F-all to help with difficult times. The last time I enquired they essentially told me to sod off.
I think from here on I’ll be buying handsets outright where practical and getting a SIM only contract (or) rolling monthly one.
The split should be the default with the phone part dropping off (as a loan would) after the repayment is complete.
>Virgin Media O2 has accused rival mobile operators of not doing enough to help customers move onto cheaper monthly tariffs.
That would be the same Virgin Media 02 that wanted to keep charging me £10.05 per month for a package that costs £5.95 for new customers.
[I understand they’re referring to a different issues however the lead paragraph stuck out.]
My mrs just helped an elderly man with his bills.
Vodafone was still charging him £86 a month for his phone two years after paying off the handset
He got a partial refund of £60 when they cancelled it!!!! Fuck them that’s ridiculous
Hasn’t it just been cheaper for the last 10 years to just get an unlocked phone on finance and a 30 day rolling sim with someone like giffgaff?
Vodafone want £2.25 per day just for the privilege of using my phone on their partner network in the EU. Fucking robbing bastards.
This is from O2 Virgin Media, who decided that my bill should now be £35 a month instead of £25…
Get stuffed
I finished paying off my phone and went onto sim only ages ago, that contract is now more expensive than it was when I was paying for the phone, went up by £5 at the end fo april
Phones dont get that much better anymore.
Get out of contract and go sim only.
Theres no reason to be paying more than £15 a month.
I’m leaving EE because they keep raising prices and all their aim only contracts are shit.
I’ll be a bit controversial here and say that I think the mobile Internet sector in the UK gets some unfair criticism for being uncompetitive, the truth is that it’s much better than most places in the western, world and there is still a lot of competition, which isn’t the case for other sectors, like broadband and Transport.
if you sign up for a contract, in which one of the explicit terms is that the price will go up each year, I don’t really see how you can turn around and complain that that’s exactly what’s happening, and there really is no need to do that these days as Sim only deals with companies like Smarty, Lyca mobile and lebara are not only much cheaper but they’re also 30 day rolling contract.
It’s worth considering whether the discount you get from renewing with one of the bigger firms won’t just get wiped out in the next price increase.
What Vodafone are doing with their split plans and advertising is borderline criminal and definitely false advertising.
Take for example the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Through Apple directly you can buy the phone outright for an RRP of £1199.
Now Vodafone advertise that you can take an **interest free ** loan out to spread the cost between 3-36 months. However when working out on a 24 month basis what the interest exact same cost would be it total £1273. A total of 6.17% higher than Apple.
So their whole speil about it being interest free is bullshit as you can get the exact same from from Apple, spread out over 24 months and pay a total of £74 less.
It’s a fucking scam.
Didn’t we have laws against this for a time then some big fuck up happened and they all started to be tossers again
The bigger issue in my eyes is the big phone companies increase your contract prices every April (So take extra note if you find a great phone deal in Q1…), some as high as RPI + 3.9% (which this year would’ve been something like 15-16%), and these prices apply to the cost of the phone because it’s not usually a separate finance arrangement. It’s absolutely ludicrous they’re allowed to do that. It’s not like you can negotiate the terms of the contract as an individual, it’s take it or go somewhere else (only a couple of providers offer contracts without the increases, but they clearly price it in anyway).
I am fortunately in a position where I was able to buy my handset outright, and I pay only a few quid a month for my sim with Lebara. Works out much cheaper overall.
They need to regulate out this ‘sign up for a 3 year contract, free handset’ malarky, or at least cap or eliminate in-contract price increases.
15 comments
Read this one earlier. That line from Vodafone was pretty great “if they don’t change we immediately give a 5 pound discount on their bill.”
How generous! How decent!
My contract is up in June, and am switching straight to a Giffgaff SIM. Battery is still good, nothing interesting going on with phones at the moment. Not getting stuck with these predatory gloms.
Can confirm this with EE. The last time I ‘finished’ paying off a handset they kept me on the same rate for a few months.
I was actually aware of it but didn’t want to sign up to a new contract with them straight away – that’s on me – but I’m thinking of all those who *don’t* notice and just keep on paying.
IIRC they did flag that I was eligible for an upgrade or new contract. But it wasn’t phrased “you’re paying us too much”.
Furthermore, of course the pricks don’t let you reduce your contract even if you’re not using the existing contract to its fullest potential (that is to say: If you have 20gb of data but only need 4, you can’t move “down” a contract).
In that sense they do F-all to help with difficult times. The last time I enquired they essentially told me to sod off.
I think from here on I’ll be buying handsets outright where practical and getting a SIM only contract (or) rolling monthly one.
The split should be the default with the phone part dropping off (as a loan would) after the repayment is complete.
>Virgin Media O2 has accused rival mobile operators of not doing enough to help customers move onto cheaper monthly tariffs.
That would be the same Virgin Media 02 that wanted to keep charging me £10.05 per month for a package that costs £5.95 for new customers.
[I understand they’re referring to a different issues however the lead paragraph stuck out.]
My mrs just helped an elderly man with his bills.
Vodafone was still charging him £86 a month for his phone two years after paying off the handset
He got a partial refund of £60 when they cancelled it!!!! Fuck them that’s ridiculous
Hasn’t it just been cheaper for the last 10 years to just get an unlocked phone on finance and a 30 day rolling sim with someone like giffgaff?
Vodafone want £2.25 per day just for the privilege of using my phone on their partner network in the EU. Fucking robbing bastards.
This is from O2 Virgin Media, who decided that my bill should now be £35 a month instead of £25…
Get stuffed
I finished paying off my phone and went onto sim only ages ago, that contract is now more expensive than it was when I was paying for the phone, went up by £5 at the end fo april
Phones dont get that much better anymore.
Get out of contract and go sim only.
Theres no reason to be paying more than £15 a month.
I’m leaving EE because they keep raising prices and all their aim only contracts are shit.
I’ll be a bit controversial here and say that I think the mobile Internet sector in the UK gets some unfair criticism for being uncompetitive, the truth is that it’s much better than most places in the western, world and there is still a lot of competition, which isn’t the case for other sectors, like broadband and Transport.
if you sign up for a contract, in which one of the explicit terms is that the price will go up each year, I don’t really see how you can turn around and complain that that’s exactly what’s happening, and there really is no need to do that these days as Sim only deals with companies like Smarty, Lyca mobile and lebara are not only much cheaper but they’re also 30 day rolling contract.
It’s worth considering whether the discount you get from renewing with one of the bigger firms won’t just get wiped out in the next price increase.
What Vodafone are doing with their split plans and advertising is borderline criminal and definitely false advertising.
Take for example the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Through Apple directly you can buy the phone outright for an RRP of £1199.
Now Vodafone advertise that you can take an **interest free ** loan out to spread the cost between 3-36 months. However when working out on a 24 month basis what the interest exact same cost would be it total £1273. A total of 6.17% higher than Apple.
So their whole speil about it being interest free is bullshit as you can get the exact same from from Apple, spread out over 24 months and pay a total of £74 less.
It’s a fucking scam.
Didn’t we have laws against this for a time then some big fuck up happened and they all started to be tossers again
The bigger issue in my eyes is the big phone companies increase your contract prices every April (So take extra note if you find a great phone deal in Q1…), some as high as RPI + 3.9% (which this year would’ve been something like 15-16%), and these prices apply to the cost of the phone because it’s not usually a separate finance arrangement. It’s absolutely ludicrous they’re allowed to do that. It’s not like you can negotiate the terms of the contract as an individual, it’s take it or go somewhere else (only a couple of providers offer contracts without the increases, but they clearly price it in anyway).
I am fortunately in a position where I was able to buy my handset outright, and I pay only a few quid a month for my sim with Lebara. Works out much cheaper overall.
They need to regulate out this ‘sign up for a 3 year contract, free handset’ malarky, or at least cap or eliminate in-contract price increases.