Hey guys,

hoping there might be someone out there with some experience of this...

I'm emigrating to new zealand pretty soon and need to find someone to transfer ownership of my remaining vodafone contract...

I've had a google and I can find very few sites that seem to cater for this or allow it. Those that do cater don't seem to get any traffic or don't work.

I tried putting an ad on gumtree but they removed it (I have sold the car and the lawnmower on there via FREE ads but not allowed to advertise the transfer of ownership of a mobile contract?! don't understand that logic at all)

There doesn't seem to be an appropriate category on ebay (not surprised really how would they make any money off it, it's not like I'm actually *selling* anything)

It's such a shame and a waste if i can't find someone... I got 50% off a £42pm contract as a retention deal from vodafone and at this rate I'll just end up footing the cost until the end of contract

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers

You can't do it within the terms of the contract as it's a credit account. If the person didn't pay they would be chasing you for the outstanding money. You have a legal obligation to fulfil the contract you agreed to, or to settle in full.

You can't transfer it to somebody else, that's probably why the sites removed the listing. You will have been the one credit checked and approved for it.

Hi Thine Wonk,

No, I've spoken to Vodafone and you can do a legal transfer of ownership of the contract whereby the person taking it on only has to fulfil the remaining 16 months of the contract and they still get the same deal I got from the retention dept too.

Obviously they have to pass a credit check like any other mobile contract but otherwise the name and address is changed over on the account and a new direct debit is set up and that's it.

From a practical point of view it's easier if both parties can be present together to speak to vodafone at the same time and I can then also give them my sim (hence me trying to use gumtree to find someone local). But otherwise it can be done at a distance too with a password and new sim. The new owner can also request a (free) new phone number if they want.

It shouldn't be so hard for me to find someone who wants a bargain contract!! :/

As mentioned, the contract is not transferable, my mate had a whole heap of problems when he split up with his partner and the contract was in his name and he was trying to get it transferred even though she was willing to take on the rest of the contract.

You try asking vodaphone if they would transfer the remainder of the contract to the NZ part of the company else you are going to have to pay the rest. How long have you got left on the contract ?

Hi c4rv,

Vodafone have said I can do it - I have spoken to them on two separate occasions - about 3 months apart and it can be done.

In fact the first time i spoke to them was to ask exactly what you suggested - could i transfer it to vodafone NZ - and unbelievably they don't do it, which seems financially very silly to me - why wouldn't they take on each others customers - especially when they work so hard to retend the customers in their own respective countries. - anyway i digress, point is the same customer service agent who told me this then said but you can transfer the ownership to someone else.

THe second time I phoned them was to double check that the new person would get the same 50% off deal that I was given.

It's got 16/17 months left at £21pm depending on exactly when we leave. I have one friend who says he'll have it in about 5 months if I can't find anyone else so that's better than nothing but ideally i'd like to get it all sorted before i go.

There's a site called cellswapper that specifically caters to such a need: http://uk.cellswapper.com/

Never used it myself though, so I can't vouch for it's reliability.

yeah i found that but the uk subdomain doesn't work/times out

Why would anybody want to do that though? with all the deals around and stuff why would you want to pick up somebody else's contract? presumably you're going to give them a used phone as well, rather than the new phone they would have got on the same amount per month.

I can't really see much benefit to the other party. What would the person get for this £21 contract in terms of calls, texts and data and what used handset would they get?

What, you give them the phone it came with?
That's the usual deal at this price level.

And I find it very hard to imagine Vodafone allow you to transfer debt responsibility.

However I do know that lawyers(debt recovery agents) often buy them up cheap.

Thine Wonk,
I'm keeping the phone, there's no such thing as free phone deals in nz.

It's of interest to anyone who's contract is ending who happens to be happy with the phone they've already got.

It's of interest to anyone who can't jump carrier to get the best deal because they're geographically limited (for example despite being only 3 miles outside of guildford only vodafone works here)

Plus, aside from vodafones new unlimited call deals you still can't get an equivalent value contract for less than £40pm on a 24 month contract - and mines £21 per month and only 16/17 months left!

Are you still struggling to see? :P

You can get sim only offers for about £15 if you want to renew your contract and don't want a phone

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-m...im-only-plans/

£20.50 sim only unlimited calls, unlimited texts, 1GB internet on Vodafone.

So you want to charge them more than that, no phone and they've got to go through all the hassle of transferring it with you, they also do a LOT cheaper £10.50 etc if you don't want the unlimited calls and texts.

No, I'm keeping the phone.

Well, I can see that everyone that's commented so far doesn't believe me, or perhaps more accurately doesn't believe what vodafone have advised me. Twice.

Besides, it's not an uncommon thing. People 'transfer ownership' of other types of contract all the time. Leases for property, business subscription services etc. etc.

Vodafone don't really have an awful lot of choice do they? Think about it - I'm moving 12 thousand miles away and if I decide to default on payment are they really going to pursue me that far for a few hundred quid of contract? No, they're not. So allowing me to transfer ownership protects them against the loss.

So to recap it's for somebody that's contract is coming to an end, they don't want a new phone, they aren't bothered about changing their number, they could get a retention deal themselves, but instead they transfer your £21 a month contract, get no handset, and pay more than they could get a sim only unlimited calls and texts + 1GB data on Vodafone.

Did I sum that up?

Haha, gosh Thine Wonk, you are getting your knickers in a twist about this aren't you? However you'll be pleased to know that you have *finally* made a point that's actually useful, the sim only deal that is equivalent to my contract is £20.50 so it's basically the same deal, which doesn't give the other person any particular incentive to take mine. I didn't think to look at those. My bad.

Shame you didn't make that point earlier it would have saved us some time.

Gotta give you points though for bashing the forum noob and for going ever-so-slightly off topic (seeing as I wasn't asking whether or not i *could* do it, just if anyone knew where I might be able to advertise - so to be a pedant your answer should have been 'no' if you were staying on topic). Also I guess it's hard work keeping up that post count, so every little helps. *sighs contentedly* there's nothing quite like fictional internet points for making people feel special is there? you must be proud, lol average of 5 posts a day every day for the last almost 4 years. Good grief, I bet you could do with getting out in the sunshine.

You know it wouldn't hurt you to hone your social skills a little, you could have said exactly the same things to me in a nicer, less confrontational way. But if belittling people on the internet makes you feel good then go for it! After all, you have to be good at something in life, don't you? :P

What like in post #8 http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...82&postcount=8


Apologies if I didn't explain it in full then. No Knickers twisting, just struggling to see why the other party would do it, especially if you get to keep the phone, as the phone contributed significantly to the cost of the contract. They wouldn't get the benefit of the subsidised handset or anything.

Apologies if I came across that way, I was just puzzled as to the idea behind this as it didn't made sense to me, and as I said in post #2 I didn't even know the networks allowed the transfer of a contract to somebody else, I'm surprised they do!

God, poor beggers in NZ don't know what they are getting......

You say you sold car etc on Gumtree? Presumably you got a rough idea of market value. Why didn't you do the same for the contract?
Depending on when you leave, you 'may' get a tenner a month on whats left. 'May'........

Considering the sim only deal is 12 months for £20.50 and the outstanding period on the OPs contract is 16 months, and you are looking for somebody in a very unique set of circumstances i'd say £10 is about right, if you were able to find somebody.

Still, better to lose £160 than £320 if you can find somebody. You might find someone who doesn't know about sim only / retention deals.

*feeds the troll*

Ummm, selling a car's nothing like a contract for a phone is it? But hop on board with the bashing if you like I knew I'd get some grief posting as a noob on various forums but gotta say you lot take the biscuit out of all the various forums i've posted on in the last week or so.

And maybe read the whole thread. I have a friend who'll take it in around 5 months, so that's ok. Plus, not forgetting I'll be in beautiful NZ, not stuck here in the-ever-getting-worse uk.

So, i'll lose maybe £80 - £100, well to be honest that's nothing in the grand scheme of things really.

Enjoy yourself there...always looked a lovely place to live...although no doubt there is a NZ version of Digital Spy with some of the same characters!

haha! no doubt

Frankly nobody but a fool will take on your contract even if you paid them well . Your contract includes a amount for the phone but you are keeping that ?

Why dont you ask Vf if you can transfer to Vf NZ ? that might be better all round .
http://www.vodafone.co.nz/

If you read the posts you would know that's already been asked.

What are the consequences of you just not paying it?

Are they likely (or legally able to) chase the debt to nz?

Only other thing I could suggest is paying it off, I think voda knock off the vat and then a small reduction. So 16 x 21 = 341. Less the vat is 280 ish.... Then sell your handset. Dependant on the handset you may only be 100 out of pocket.

Well like I said earlier I can't see them chasing me 12 thousand miles around the globe for a couple of hundred quid. but then I wouldn't feel happy doing that. I guess I would worry about the karma of somebody stiffing me on something in the future! haha!

Yeah, half the problem with this situation is that apart from the really high user tariffs there aren't really free handset deals in nz (they simple don't have the population to support that business model) so I really wanted to keep hold of mine - plus we'll need *something* for emails / internet access / sat nav pretty much as soon as we touch down!

I'll see my mate on Saturday and he should still be cool for taking it on in around 5 months so the best bet would be to give him the £80 - £100 to cover the interim and just transfer it asap once we have our flight date.

It's immoral and the OP will have a CCJ in the UK on file if they didn't pay it, which means if they return they won't be able to get credit for years. It also means if they apply for naturalisation in New Zealand it could be taken into account when their good character checks are done.