The truth about cheap mobile contracts with free gifts
Written on 3/05/2010 04:52:00 PM by poison_ivy
So you're torn about buying a new mobile phone or a new laptop. You don't know which one to choose as you equally need both devices. Then you see ads about buying mobile contracts and getting free gifts such as a free laptop! What a coincidence! You can't believe your stroke of luck so you eagerly sign up for the deal. But are you really getting a cheap mobile contract with a free gift or would you have saved more if you just bought those two separately? Here are some things to consider to make the most of those free gifts deal.
- Before considering any mobile contracts with free gifts, first, figure out your needs. How many minutes are you going to use monthly? How many texts? Do you need unlimited data or just around 500MB?
- After considering your monthly usage, consider how much are you willing to spend on your monthly tariff? £20? £25? £30 or £35?
- Now consider what kind of mobile phone you want. Do you need a fancy touchscreen phone? Do you need a smartphone or do you just need a phone. Choosing your phone will affect your total cost for these mobile contracts with free gifts as some websites will require a cashout for some high-end mobile phones.
- Check the websites that offer cheap mobile contracts with free gifts such as mobiles.co.uk, e2save, dialaphone, and carphonewarehouse. These websites offer more mobile phone choices and more free gifts. Look for your chosen phone first, then look for your chosen free gift, and then look at the monthly plans. You'll probably get confused at this point because your projected monthly usage may be in between some tariff plans but be sure to choose the tariff that you'll be able to use. Don't choose the free 900 minutes if you know you're only consuming 300 minutes. You're wasting money.
- Once you've chosen everything, remember to compare. Some of the online retailers doesn't offer necessarily the same monthly tariff as the one on the carrier's website. For example, Vodafone's 1200 anytime minutes plan which costs £40 a month includes 500MB data on Vodafone's website but the one on other retailer's website doesn't have the 500MB free data.
So, what is the truth about cheap mobile contracts with free gifts? The truth is, if you're already paying the same monthly tariff you can actually get pretty decent deals. The best ones I've found so far is from mobiles.co.uk which offer an additional £10 off on some monthly tariffs so if you look closer, you're actually saving quite a lot. On the other hand, there are some pay monthly deals which, when compared with the monthly tariffs on the carrier's website, you'll see that those offering free gifts actually add more to their monthly tariffs so when you add that up if you're signing up for a 24 month contract, you're actually paying the cost of the "free gifts". So when you get down to it, you're actually getting the "free gift" when you choose a higher monthly tariff (maybe it's because the telcos are paying higher commissions) but if you're budget is just in the middle, say £15 to £20, you're better off getting a separate plan and then buying your "Free gift".
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cheap mobile contracts,
mobile contracts with free gifts
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My GF did this a couple of years back. She was going to renew her contract anyway at £30 a month but I told her to get the one with the free PS3. Sweet deal.
I agree. I even got more because I sold the free gift on eBay.
Yep, definitely worth it. And if you play your cards right, you can even get more minutes compared to the ones Orange and Vodafone offers.
I agree with you. I also have the plan to sell my free gift to get more.
I have compared almost 10 contracts and all of them are cheaper if I buy directly from the carrier's website. The gift is never free, do you calculations and compare the exact package on carrier's website and you will see that at the end of 24 month contract you have paid almost same if not more than the price of the gift item.