UK - Contract or PAYG? - If contract, which one, why?

[razorianfly]

Lets try and get a rough overview of the amount of people that, in light of the new news of the PAYG option of the iPhone 3G, possibly being delayed until late in the year,
would consider signing a contract on July 11th.

- Are you going all 'contract on me' or will you wait for PAYG?

- Also, if your choosing contract, which one best suits you?

- Maybe, in light of this recent news, you've lost faith in o2 altogether?

I'll be going contract, at £35/month, on July 11th.

What will you do?

R-Fly

 

[thefunkymunky]

Well, I've never had a PAYG, hate the things, much prefer contracted phones. I send around 400-450 text messages a month so the £35pcm option is for me.

 

[sananda]

- Are you going all 'contract on me' or will you wait for PAYG?


What will you do?

R-Fly

i'm not going all contract on you. i can be abroad for months at a time so a contract isn't my thing.

perhaps i'll look out for a refurb first gen iphone.

 

[Igantius]

£35/month - suits my usage best and a price point I can justify.

One of my mobile phone shop manager friends says after nine months, you can amend the contract to another monthly cost – e.g. go from £45 per month to £35 – I’m assuming this is up or down one price level.

 

[TonyHoyle]

I think you can go up any time. Going down is limited because of the different subsidy at different levels.

eg. Some are doing the £45 for 9 months then £35 rather than 18 months as £35 because it saves £10 on the overall cost and has a lower (or zero) upfront cost.

 

[Igantius]

I think you can go up any time. Going down is limited because of the different subsidy at different levels.

eg. Some are doing the £45 for 9 months then £35 rather than 18 months as £35 because it saves £10 on the overall cost and has a lower (or zero) upfront cost.

Didn’t know about going up – makes sense though!

My friend mentioned it to me as it was a way to save money – however, when it’s a small sum like £9, he recommended that if I had enough ready cash to buy an iPhone (which I do), to do that and take the £35 contract to stop messing around.

 

[neiltc13]

I was going to go for the £35 per month option because it was much 'better value' but then I realised that even if I did exceed the 125 text limit then I'd still have a bunch more to send before I spent the extra £5.

 

[Grasbak]

Going for the £30..... i normally spend about £10 a month on my payg phone and cloud wifi with my ipod. Would go for the PAYG but prefer to stump up less on the outset. Keep wondering if i should go for the £35 as you get so many more texts/mins but I dont use them now and dont really intend to change my habits (other than using data etc)

I expect I will revert to PAYG at the end of the 18months....

 

[TonyHoyle]

Loads of minutes is a great upsell but if you don't use them it's just throwing money at the telco.

Get enough to cover your average needs and no more... that's about the sweet spot for most people.

 

[Petoz]

£45/month for me, as then I do not have to pay anything up front for the 8GB, or only £59 for the 16GB. And, apparently you can drop a contract after 9 months, so i could lower it to £35/month later in the contract. Now all i need to decide is whether or not I want 8GB or 16GB. Any suggestions/opinions?

 

[Igantius]

£45/month for me, as then I do not have to pay anything up front for the 8GB, or only £59 for the 16GB. And, apparently you can drop a contract after 9 months, so i could lower it to £35/month later in the contract. Now all i need to decide is whether or not I want 8GB or 16GB. Any suggestions/opinions?

With regards to the 8GB or 16GB, I think a lot of people are going with the latter to be on the ‘safe side’ and the need the extra storage – personally, I’ll be doing this although the 8GB would probably do me, although I will be using it as my main portable music player.

If you did drop down, you’d effectively be paying £90 for the 8GB and £149 for the 16GB – when I was discussing this with a friend (see above), he advised getting it outright if you’ve got the cash as it just makes life easier and I’ll be doing this.

However, he did say for people who were going to use their flexible friend to pay for it, going on the £45 contract and dropping down is the best way in his opinion. Of course you need to make sure you switch to the cheaper tariff as soon as you can – I think in my friend’s experience, a good proportion of people who were planning to do this kind of thing (or take advantage of a cashback offer) invariably miss the boat and end up spending more than they were hoping to save.

 

[dog299]

16 gig on £45 monthly. Not sure what colour thinking White??

I really only want the £35 month contract; but the reason i am going for the £45 is that money is somewhat tight this month so rather pay the reduced cost and maybe downgrade after the 9months etc.

 

[Petoz]

If you did drop down, you’d effectively be paying £90 for the 8GB and £149 for the 16GB – when I was discussing this with a friend (see above), he advised getting it outright if you’ve got the cash as it just makes life easier and I’ll be doing this.

Thanks for the suggestion/opinion. I am thinking about staying on the 'safe side' too, but just don't know if I need it, and therefore, saving £59.

Why would i effectively be paying £90 or £149 for the 8GB or 16GB, respectively, if I were to drop down to £35/month after 9 months?