How to get the best mobile deal

[Great In Grass]

I think a lot may undervalue how useful a modern phone now is .right down to the find the wife app when your lost in town. it really is now like having a 2cd brain . I rarely use a computer. how much would a good laptop cost me to replace the phone if I did not have a modern smart phone

Does the app find your wife or any available wife?

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

I think a lot may undervalue how useful a modern phone now is .right down to the find the wife app when your lost in town. it really is now like having a 2cd brain . I rarely use a computer. how much would a good laptop cost me to replace the phone if I did not have a modern smart phone

I get it. But there are cheaper forms of ownership if you don’t smash or lose three phones per year. £3,000 over 5 years is a fair wack for just having a phone.

 

[AWJ26]

ok let's look at this with open eyes .My contract cost around £600 year. for that I get unlimited everything and a phone that costs new in the shop £600 .now you on the other hand are buying a phone a bog standard phone for £400 to save what ?I also get insurance with that .I am on my 3rd £600 phone so far this year. Is life really worth the hassle of not saving a few bob

3 phones in 13 days? That's going some!

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

3 phones in 13 days? That's going some!

Hoping he meant 2017 or this financial year rather than the 2018 calendar year. I’d get sick of going to the phone shop that often, they are hateful places.

 

[neilo]

I thought I could be careless sometimes, but 3 phones in a year?

The economics of outright phone purchase & a SIM only deal change somewhat if you can manage to make a phone last 2-3 years and you don’t need unlimited calls, data, etc.

 

[Fraserb]

I thought I could be careless sometimes, but 3 phones in a year?

The economics of outright phone purchase & a SIM only deal change somewhat if you can manage to make a phone last 2-3 years and you don’t need unlimited calls, data, etc.

Or don't need the fanciest phone going, I currently have an alcatel pop 4 I think, it does everything the wifes samsung s7 does, it might be slightly slower and camera not as good but it does me fine, bought it on offer for £45, with the saving I made going sim only I can afford to buy a new one every 2 months.

 

[Bury the Trash]

life used 2b so simple

 

[neilo]

Or don't need the fanciest phone going, I currently have an alcatel pop 4 I think, it does everything the wifes samsung s7 does, it might be slightly slower and camera not as good but it does me fine, bought it on offer for £45, with the saving I made going sim only I can afford to buy a new one every 2 months.

I was going to add that, but expected a tirade from @Forage Trader as to why he needs the latest Android phone on his travels. It does sound like one on a bit of string fed up his sleeves, something like a small child’s mittens, would be more useful.

My 2 yr old iPhone SE was £250 outright, and is more than Wizzy enough for me.

 

[Steevo]

Be interesting to have a mobile price tracker on here.

Is anyone using a shared plan at all, with several handsets sharing a pool of mins/texts/data?

 

[Lincoln75]

Tesco £12.00 pm with a Lumia 650 4G phone , more data , calls and texts than I can use , phone is Windows 10 based so hooks up to my laptop /pc easily.

Edit , I cant understand what more you would want ? the cool phones dont actually do anything mine doesn't so vanity appears to come at a very high price.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Be interesting to have a mobile price tracker on here.

Is anyone using a shared plan at all, with several handsets sharing a pool of mins/texts/data?

Unfortunately it’s not as simple or price transparent as some inputs. Too many factors that don’t easily make it comparable or even the ability to get the same deal you see quoted here can vanish as soon as you get off the phone with them.

You can get broadly close, or a sense of where the prices are I think.

They want to keep their revenue steady - so there’s greater likelihood over time that you will on average be paying out about the same but getting more data, minutes etc for the same outlay. Data being the main lever now. Unlimited minutes and texts getting quite common on plans.

The fully shared minutes, data pool is more of a medium size corporate contract thing. In the tens of handsets rather than three or four. Vodafone had a data sharing plan a year or two ago but they seem to have dropped it. EE allow you to gift data between sims but it’s not the same as a pool concept.

 

[Steevo]

Unfortunately it’s not as simple or price transparent as some inputs. Too many factors that don’t easily make it comparable or even the ability to get the same deal you see quoted here can vanish as soon as you get off the phone with them.

You can get broadly close, or a sense of where the prices are I think.

They want to keep their revenue steady - so there’s greater likelihood over time that you will on average be paying out about the same but getting more data, minutes etc for the same outlay. Data being the main lever now. Unlimited minutes and texts getting quite common on plans.

The fully shared minutes, data pool is more of a medium size corporate contract thing. In the tens of handsets rather than three or four. Vodafone had a data sharing plan a year or two ago but they seem to have dropped it. EE allow you to gift data between sims but it’s not the same as a pool concept.

Wise words! Yes, I find they want to upsell you to a higher £/mth and if you accept that you'll struggle to get back down again to the same figure in future upgrades.

Makes sense. I still use Vodafone Family to get free mins between calls. EE appear to have stopped "shared plans" but I think O2 still offer the ability to share data.

 

[Wombat]

Some current promos from Vodafone; 12 month, SIM only deals. Speak to retentions team:

Unlimited calls/texts 8 GB data - £14.40 inc.
Unlimited calls/texts 20 GB data - £16.00 inc.

Comparable EE sim only deal “Max Plan” was 12 GB for £15.99 inc.

The issue with that is that Vodafone seems to suck in half of this country

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

The issue with that is that Vodafone seems to suck in half of this country

OP specifically wanted O2 or Voda though?

 

[Power Harrow Pilot]

I always start with the Martin Lewis web sites, you always get a better deal on line rather than at the shop, and they won’t price match. Quite a lot of the company’s all belong to CPW/ curry’s!!!!