Buying Your First Contract. We are here to help.Line Rental All contract phones attract a monthly line rental. This is a fixed minimum amount that you pay directly to your network each month. If you are late in paying your line rental then you may be cut off. The good news is that you always get something in return for paying line rental. You can get free minutes every month, maybe free texts or access to the mobile internet. Mobile phones are also heavily discounted by perhaps £200. If you use your phone daily, then you are likely to be better off on a contract rather than a pay-as-you-go deal. Contract Length You must pay line rental for the entire length of your contract. So if your contract is 12 months long, then you must pay line rental for the entire duration. You contract will NOT automatically end. You must tell your network that you want to cancel your contract when it comes to an end. Otherwise, it will roll over (usually on a month to month basis) until such point that you terminate. Your Options At The End Of Your Contract You have several options when your contract comes to an end. [1] Do nothing and keep paying the line rental. SOme networks such as Virgin offer you a reduction in your line rental if you choose to do this. [2] Upgrade your deal, whereby you will be given a replacement mobile and perhaps a different or better tariff. [3] Cancel your contract and start again with perhaps a different network, with another new phone. You can port (move) your mobile phone number to your new network, so you do not have to tell everyone that your phone number has changed. Extra Charges Be aware of extra charges. If your tariff comes with 200 free text messages each month, but you use 248, then you will pay for the extra 48 messages. There are charges for calling people, messages, picture messages, accessing the internet and various other things. Read your contract details carefully. You can usually find out how many minutes or text messages you have used each month by calling an automated service. This will help you to keep within your limits. If you are always more minutes and texts than allowed on your contract, then you can usually change your tariff and this might make things cheaper. Attitude to Students Some networks love students, others do not. It is therefore important to complete the application form correctly. For instance, the networks will carry out a credit check on you, so if you bank statements, credit card bills etc are all registered at your parents house, then you might struggle to get a phone is you only use your temporary student accommodation address on the form. Most retailers will not deliver to a halls of residence, so you might be better to get the phone delivered to your parents house and to pick it up in the holidays (or ask the old folks to forward it to you!). |
