Hey guys

I have been with Orange for 17 months on the Dolphin 30 plan, 400 mins, unlimited texts and got the deal through phones4u at a little over £20 a month (just a little over due to VAT changes). This was a constant £10 a month discount.

Anyhoo, here we at upgrade time, and just gave the guys (at Orange) a call, here is the offer:

Same plan (18 months)so:

400 mins, unlimted texts, 500mb data (which I do want) and a free HTC Desire HD for a tad over £30 a month.

I am one of those who is never quite sure if I am getting a good/bad/ok deal in anything, be it phones, sky, virgin etc contracts, but I was pleasantly surprised by this offer.

Any comments are welcome, and does anyone think Phones4u/ Carphone can trump it (though I do realise a phone call will answer that for me!).

Thanks!

I take it this will work out at £30 month now then (without the £10 discount?)

This isn't bad, but you might be able to get at least another fiver off if you state an intention to leave. The Desire is almost a year old now, so they can discount it a bit more than they could when it was new. Try asking for your PAC code!

They will reserve their best deals for people that they think will definitely leave otherwise, so it depends how much you want to 'play the game' as it were. It is much harder to get deals these days everyone is going for retentions deals thanks to people like Martin Lewis, so you need to be really convincing.

It can also be luck (the offers on at the time, when in the week you call, how the agent is doing in terms of retention targets etc etc), so calling a few times can also help.

General rule for upgrades is never accept the first offer!

Do you not by default get 10% off as a 'loyality discount'?

Im on 300minutes, 500mb, unlimited texts with a free Samsung Galaxy S. 18th month contract £20.50 a month x

There you go.

So don't settle unless they knock a tenner off the starting price!

Otherwise consider porting to a new network which offer at least as good a deal and getting Quidco cashback

Thanks for the replies!

A couple of points, the phone offered was the Desire HD, which I thought was only released a few months ago?

On the 10% line rental, I tried checking that out online but it didn't offer me a large range of phones, and the customer service guy did not mentio0 it, possible because of the free phone?

Regardless, I will shop around and evaulate.

Sorry I didn't read the 'HD' bit. lol.

I would still push for at least £25 per month though, you should definitely be able to get it unless Orange are being plain mean - there are certainly deals out there that beat the £30 a month offer you can quote to get them to match/beat.