mobile phone deals?

[madasahatstand]

I lost my phone in a taxi on friday. It was a sony ericsson with a high quality camera:(  It was a pay and go and I spent about £20 per month on it.

 So the question is, am I better getting a monthly contract and get a free phone or buy another phone for a few hundred and stay on the pay and go?

one more question, of those of you on contracts, how many of you stay within your call package quota and dont go over the monthly price?

thanks in advance

mad

[Ironside]

i rarely go over my package i would be cheaper pay as you go but i prefer the peace of mind of not haviing to find somewhere to top up and the fact if my car breaks down i dont need to worry about credit on my phone

[Claw75]

I use nowhere near my monthly call and text allowance (although I did get stung with internet browsing, which I posted about a while back).  I got my handset for free, which would have cost a couple of hundred on pay as you go, plus call credit.  The other advantage with a contract is that you can get a free upgrade on your handset when the contract is renewed, whereas with pay as you go you'd have to fork out for a new handset if you wanted to upgrade.

There are so many deals out there on contracts I'm sure you'll be able to find one that works out cheaper for you than pay as you go.

[GlasgowBandit]

Contract is far better.

Orange do some cracking deals the only issue is their customer service is a shambles if you need to speak to them.

[The Sweeney]

I'm on 3 and get 500mins/100texts for £13 a month.

[Graham C]

e2save and onestopphoneshop are doing some great cashback deals at the moment with 12months free rental on a 12month contract. 

[madasahatstand]

thanks for replies. ill look into the suggestions

[KingPoker]

Contract is great because when upgrade time comes i just ring up the cancellations department and sazy i want twice the minutes and texts as last time or i will switch to O2 obviously in a poltie but firm manner- and i get the phone i want free aswell, always helps to do your own background info on phones and how many mins you want before you ring up and just say i want this phone and x minutes! Dont ever budge.
I was on pay as you go for around 2 years but since i went pay monthly i have never looked back.
NEVER EVER GO TO A PHONE SHOP (eg phones 4 you, carphone warehouse etc!). Deal diectly with a service providers customer support and tell them what you want and they will do great offers to hook new pay monthly customers. But dont take any crap, they told me last upgrade the max they could do for 30 quid was 400 mins 200 txts but i said i wanted at least a 1000 minutes and 400 texts and thats what i got.
Happy shopping!

[kinboshi]

Got my deal through carphone warehouse.

T-Mobile Flext package, which gives you up to 1800 texts or 900 minutes of calls (or combination of).  Never use anywhere near the allowance, but it's good to have and I don't have to worry about how long I'm on the phone for.

Should have been £35 a month, but got a deal and it works out at £17.50 a month.  Oh, and the phones were free.  Me and missus on the same package, so it's saving us quite a bit over the 18 months of the contract. 

[RichEO]

www.hotukdeals.com usually list the best offers for new customers. Do a search for mobile in the search box in the top left.

I got a contract (after being a habitual £10 a month pay and go user, because I used th o2 300 texts a month when you top up) from an offer posted on that site. It was with carphonewarehouse, £30 month contract with 500 minutes and 100 tests per month, not so great, but it has 11 months cash back!!! So after the year it costs me only £30 (+ a little for itemised billing). Also got a phone with it, was a LG P7200, not great but worth more than the £30 the 12 month contract will cost me. Actually making a profit off the whole thing.

[ifm]

If you go orange i can sort you out, well not me personally but a girl i know gets the best orange deals there is.
I'm on dolphin 650 minutes any network anytime etc. unlimited texts, £35 per month.

[RichEO]

It was a pay and go and I spent about £20 per month on it.

I assume you want a smallish contract where you get more for a little less money (or preferable a lot less!). Thats what I was after when I changed as a light pay and go user.

This is the kind of thing I was on about: You can get a 12 month contract with Samsung U600 and 12 months chequeback. http://www.hotukdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67085&highlight=mobile All you need to do is make sure you read the info on how to get your money back and don't forget! From reading through the posts on this link, the phone is worth about £200 on ebay, you can get £30 from ordering it via quick and claim all your line rental back, which means a profit of £230! The only downside is you can't port your number with vodafone apparently. Good luck.

[kinboshi]

www.hotukdeals.com usually list the best offers for new customers. Do a search for mobile in the search box in the top left.

I got a contract (after being a habitual £10 a month pay and go user, because I used th o2 300 texts a month when you top up) from an offer posted on that site. It was with carphonewarehouse, £30 month contract with 500 minutes and 100 tests per month, not so great, but it has 11 months cash back!!! So after the year it costs me only £30 (+ a little for itemised billing). Also got a phone with it, was a LG P7200, not great but worth more than the £30 the 12 month contract will cost me. Actually making a profit off the whole thing.

Cracking deal.  I thought my previous deal with 3 (got through the carphone warehouse again) was good at £5 a month after the cashbacks.

I think they make their money from these from people not claiming their cashback cheques.  They don't make it simple or easy, and I guess that's their plan.

Will have a look at that www.hotukdeals.com site. 

[Graham C]

Same deal as I got Rich with the K800i back in January

[RichEO]

This one is a bit better than the deal I got, but I wanted to keep the same number (and this wasn't around 3 months ago!).

If everyone claimed the chequeback on time and correctly, then they could not offer these deals, I'm not gettin caught out though