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Free phone + free line rental? Is there a catch?
prl100
19-03-2007
Hi, a friend told me about a website where you can get a free handset and free line rental.

He got a handset connected to Virgin Mobile with 50 mins and 100 texts a month. It should usually cost £20/month (so £240 for the full year).

The only catch that I can see is that the line rental is claimed back by a cheque back scheme. I presume they are hoping you will forget to make the claim.

Has anybody had an experience with these offers? It seems a bit unlikely.
I found a link here
stud u like
19-03-2007
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Delvious
20-03-2007
You hit the nail on the head there, they rely on the premise that a fair percentage of people will forget to claim the cheque back, that and the fact that they hope you'll use more than your monthly allowance (Which a lot of people do) and the tariff for calls outside of contracted minutes is normally pretty steep.

Look at the 3g offer for 500 xnet mins / 500 txts at £15 / month for life.
Last edited by Delvious : 20-03-2007 at 03:05
Stunty
20-03-2007
Contrary to that theory though..... if you do remember to claim your cheque back (normally you have a 60 day window at the 4, 8 and 12 month period to do so), you stay within your allowance of minutes and you remember to cancel your contract with a months notice at the end of the 12 months, there is no catch.

The phone companies do rely on the customer to slip and then charges apply, but if you are canny and disciplined the deal is real.

The 'no such thing as a free lunch', which is a term I use and firmly believe, in this instance is availalble but you will not get a bang up to date phone or if you use your phone incessantly you are liable to exceed you allowance of minutes. These deals don't come up that often, a total free contract, and are not really highlighted as totally free but they can be if you want to make it so.
Last edited by Stunty : 20-03-2007 at 06:48
lincsat
20-03-2007
I got a similar deal from Mobileshop about 18 Months ago, the cashback comes in instalments about 45 days (which has increased to 60 days) after the claim date - still waiting for my last payment to arrive and it's overdue.

They seem a good deal, but you must keep to the same airtime priceplan and submit claims at the correct time.
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