How does this type of thing work ? ive been offered a sony 32" LCD TV with my upgrade, and a new phone & im only paying £30 per month with free minutes, texts, internet on phone etc.

How do they make any money ? or are there hidden clauses that i should know about before signing up ?

Its the same deal/tariff as i took out 18 months ago for the same price, it siuts my usage, but im now being offered a TV or Playstation 3 aswell ? dont really need either one but if its going free im tempted !

they firstly get you locked in for 18-24 months.

average commision to a company is around £500-£600 for getting someone on a 2 year contract.
then they have to buy the phone to sell to you.

iphone 4 would be around £400 to them so they still make 100-200

if they give you a crap phone they make a bundle.

i use www.buymobilephones.net every 18 months and i get a £30 per month phone contract with a ps3 or xbox 360 and sell it along with the phone that gives me about £300 normally.

so pays 10 months subs and i use my current iphone i got off ebay :O)

good money in phone sales. my brother worked for a small company selling them commision only and got £200 per 2 year contract he sold with ok/good phones.

DJ

I'm typing this on the free laptop which I got two years ago.

To get it, I had to sign up for 24 months broadband with aol.

Cost was the same as with everybody else, it was also pretty much what buying the laptop would have cost.

As above, it's the lock in to the monthly contract.

In my case, I was always going to paying somebody for broadband so no difference.

I signed a 12 month contract (£45 a month), and got a PS3 (my son and I love it!!), that was 2 years ago, last year i got my iPhone free, on a 12 month contract.

I've not spotted any catches yet...

Ive always declinde free tv'sa nd laptops as i just dont need or want them but the last phone came with £200 upfront redemtion. Cheque which went stright into the bank account.

That was a Nokia6300 in £30 month contract with Carphone. Only catch was a 18month minimum contact lenght which i was fine with.


Daniel

You can look at it the other way, its just like an interest free loan/finance to buy a item you may not really want!

I pay £20 a month for my O2 simplicity tarrif on a 30day contract, but no free phone (using the ignito/touch diamond I had from a previous contract), meaning im free to change when I like. I'm saving £15 a month on the same tarrif If i had taken a 18month contract with a free phone/and or gift, and £10 if id taken a 24 month contract. Meaning over the 18 month I save £270 and over £240 over the 24 month. Pretty much the cost of a Smart phone, or a basic phone with a 'free' ps3 or laptop.

[Edited on 13/10/10 by loggyboy]

When you can get 800mins, unlimited texts and unlimited internet for a tenner a month on a rolling one month contract. you can work out where they get their money for the "free" shiny stuff

Also, you don't need to sign your life away to get a decent new phone,my new android phone cost me £80, check out the Orange San Fransisco, or any other deal/offer over on ukhotdeals

[Edited on 13/10/10 by UncleFista]

quote:

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Originally posted by loggyboy
You can look at it the other way, its just like an interest free loan/finance to buy a item you may not really want!

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I'm sure I saw something somewhere that said they own the free gift till you've payed of the contract and thus to cancel you have to refund it on top of normal charges.

I don't know if thats true. I hate phones and prefer PAYG to contracts because I just don't need or use it (I've had no Credit since the 5th of september.)