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02 UK iPhone - Getting the real picture

H

Hustle

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 29, 2007
791
104
USA
The iPhone release date is getting closer, and i have some questions.

When you purchase a contract phone in the UK, if its £20 a month, the bill always comes in at £25-£30. It seems they add charges that you have no clue what they are. Two of them is VAT, automised billing.. etc ...

So if you get a £35 month contract with 02 for the iPhone, is it going to come in at £40-£45?.

Also, when you buy the iPhone and connect it to iTunes to set up the contract, does it ask for your credit card details or does it just charge you through your Apple Store account?.

Thanks.
 
No one knows for sure if o2 will add VAT or extra charges and sadly you cannot pay through your Apple iTunes account.
 
Hustle said:
The iPhone release date is getting closer, and i have some questions.

When you purchase a contract phone in the UK, if its £20 a month, the bill always comes in at £25-£30. It seems they add charges that you have no clue what they are. Two of them is VAT, automised billing.. etc ...

So if you get a £35 month contract with 02 for the iPhone, is it going to come in at £40-£45?.

Also, when you buy the iPhone and connect it to iTunes to set up the contract, does it ask for your credit card details or does it just charge you through your Apple Store account?.

Thanks.
Click to expand...



it better not be over £35. obviously if you go over the tarrif you will be charged for extra calls, texts etc.
after you activate you will be billed by 02 direct debit
 
The tariffs include VAT as they are required to under UK law. Additional charges are dependent on usage - I'm with O2 at the moment and all that I pay extra on my bill is for the text messages that I send outside my allowance. My bill is thoroughly itemised online and this is done free of charge. I believe that a 35 pound tariff will be just that.

Personally I'm looking forward to getting one.
 
jimN said:
The tariffs include VAT as they are required to under UK law.
Click to expand...
I looked into this (for a completely unrelated purpose) a while ago and that's my understanding of it too. Only if the advert is directed at business users can the price without VAT be quoted on its own (without the VAT-inclusive price), and even then, IIRC, it must be made clear that the price shown is without VAT.
 
VAT and stuff

Hope the prices they quote really are VAT inclusive.

Does anyone know if we will be able to switch between the different levels during the 18 month contract period?

e.g. start on £45 then drop it to £35 is usage means its not worth being on the higher tariff?
 
Changing iPhone tariff

I called and spoke to O2 the other day. You CAN change tariff after signing up with the iPhone, but only up (ie. from the £35 to the £45/£55 at any time). You cannot change down until the 09th Month of the contract though. I believe this is standard (with them at least). Easy to change up a tariff, but you'll be waiting if you want to change down.

I plan to go with the £35 to start with and see how the usage goes initially.
 
I'm going to plum for the £35 a month tarrif as its what i'm currently paying on O2.

Does anyone know if the iPhone O2 tarrifs allow you to carry over unused txt's and minutes?

I'm just praying the initial info that providing your current O2 contract was started before 18/09/2007 you can simply upgrade to the iphone without any penalty. I still have 6 months left on my contract.
 
ne0star said:
I'm going to plum for the £35 a month tarrif as its what i'm currently paying on O2.

Does anyone know if the iPhone O2 tarrifs allow you to carry over unused txt's and minutes?

I'm just praying the initial info that providing your current O2 contract was started before 18/09/2007 you can simply upgrade to the iphone without any penalty. I still have 6 months left on my contract.
Click to expand...

this question has been answered before. no penalty, they'll switch yr existing contract to a new 18 month one.
 
knowing that you guys pay £35 including i guess what we call TAX thats not to bad... we pay $60 plus TAX! ends up being an easy $70 whats the exchange rate on that? £35 to $70?

who has the better deal? and also i know its 200 minutes and 200 messages on your guys end (o2) we have 450 minutes and 200 text for the plan... but you guys recieve free incoming calls correct? and mobile to mobile?
 
ejrizo said:
knowing that you guys pay £35 including i guess what we call TAX thats not to bad... we pay $60 plus TAX! ends up being an easy $70 whats the exchange rate on that? £35 to $70?

who has the better deal? and also i know its 200 minutes and 200 messages on your guys end (o2) we have 450 minutes and 200 text for the plan... but you guys recieve free incoming calls correct? and mobile to mobile?
Click to expand...

Yes, usuall inclusive in plans here.

Looks like the deal is equivalent at least.

Having just seen the Touch I'm looking forward to the iPhone's release. The Touch is so limited.
 
ejrizo said:
knowing that you guys pay £35 including i guess what we call TAX thats not to bad... we pay $60 plus TAX! ends up being an easy $70 whats the exchange rate on that? £35 to $70?

who has the better deal? and also i know its 200 minutes and 200 messages on your guys end (o2) we have 450 minutes and 200 text for the plan... but you guys recieve free incoming calls correct? and mobile to mobile?
Click to expand...

you get 5000 off peak mins in addition to your 450 mins. we get 200 total.

we don't pay for incoming calls but we pay a much higher rate to call mobiles (whereas you pay same rate to call a mobile as you do to call a landline).

our unlimited data is 200MB per month.
 
sananda said:
you get 5000 off peak mins in addition to your 450 mins. we get 200 total.

we don't pay for incoming calls but we pay a much higher rate to call mobiles (whereas you pay same rate to call a mobile as you do to call a landline).

our unlimited data is 200MB per month.
Click to expand...

can you clarify a little more? i dont quite understand how your plans work?...

no unlimited nights and weekends? thats a big blow right there... that sucks...

free incoming calls... now thats great! lol...

do you guys get free mobile to mobile calling? (free same carrier/provider to carrier/provider calls)

and you mention something about it costing more to call a mobile than to call a land line? how does that work? do you have to use more minutes when calling a mobile or something?
 
ejrizo said:
can you clarify a little more? i dont quite understand how your plans work?...

no unlimited nights and weekends? thats a big blow right there... that sucks...

free incoming calls... now thats great! lol...

do you guys get free mobile to mobile calling? (free same carrier/provider to carrier/provider calls)

and you mention something about it costing more to call a mobile than to call a land line? how does that work? do you have to use more minutes when calling a mobile or something?
Click to expand...

that's right, no unlimited nights and weekends. 200 minutes of calls in total for the whole month.

i don't see anything about any free mobile to mobile calling on the iphone tariff page of the 02 website (http://www.o2.co.uk/iPhone-Tariffs.html).

the way it works in the uk is that calls to landlines are a certain price and calls to mobiles are much much more. however, this does not apply to the included minutes. but if someone calls your iphone from their home or work desk phone, it's going to cost them a lot more than calling another landline (and i believe this is not the case in the US).
 
wow so i guess you guys are getting the short end of the stick...

benefits for you guys...

- free incoming calls
- free wifi over cloud

BOTH of those are pretty good

benefits for us...

- free nights (9pm - 6am) and weekends (Friday @ 9pm til Monday @ 6am)
- Rollover minuts (minutes that are not used on your plan get rolled over for a year so you can use them next month... for example if i use 250 this month ... next month i can use 650 because the 200 leftover minutes rollover to the next month.)
- free mobile to mobile calling

if it werent for free nights and weekends and mobile to mobile calling the 450 wouldnt be enough for me..
 
ejrizo said:
wow so i guess you guys are getting the short end of the stick...

benefits for you guys...

- free incoming calls
- free wifi over cloud

BOTH of those are pretty good

benefits for us...

- free nights (9pm - 6am) and weekends (Friday @ 9pm til Monday @ 6am)
- Rollover minuts (minutes that are not used on your plan get rolled over for a year so you can use them next month... for example if i use 250 this month ... next month i can use 650 because the 200 leftover minutes rollover to the next month.)
- free mobile to mobile calling

if it werent for free nights and weekends and mobile to mobile calling the 450 wouldnt be enough for me..
Click to expand...

i really do think it's the short end of the stick... i mean a total of 200 mins !!. and i think that the wifi isn't such a great deal. i suspect it's there to make up for the 30% EDGE coverage. and anyway, the same wifi deal is available direct from the cloud for the ipod touch for £3.99 a month... so it's not a huge advantage in monetary terms.

i also think the 200MB fair use policy on date is going to catch a few people out.
 
sananda said:
i really do think it's the short end of the stick... i mean a total of 200 mins !!. and i think that the wifi isn't such a great deal. i suspect it's there to make up for the 30% EDGE coverage. and anyway, the same wifi deal is available direct from the cloud for the ipod touch for £3.99 a month... so it's not a huge advantage in monetary terms.

i also think the 200MB fair use policy on date is going to catch a few people out.
Click to expand...


for alot of people the £35 price plan will no where near be enough!!! (but good enough for me)
but for an extra £10 you get a far better deal!!!!!!!!!!
i'm still hopeful for free 02 to 02 calls.
 
redgaz26 said:
for alot of people the £35 price plan will no where near be enough!!! (but good enough for me)
but for an extra £10 you get a far better deal!!!!!!!!!!
i'm still hopeful for free 02 to 02 calls.
Click to expand...

yes i think you're right. the £45 and £55 deals have respectable amounts of minutes. but they are £45 and £55!!
 
sananda said:
yes i think you're right. the £45 and £55 deals have respectable amounts of minutes. but they are £45 and £55!!
Click to expand...

yeh maybe i didn't put that right.
for those like me that will be enough, but others may try that deal and end up paying more than £45 when they get their bill in and have used far more minutes than they should have.
don't get me wrong the tarrifs are shocking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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