What plan, what provider and whats the catch???!!

Mr Fabulous

Hi-
I've had a phone provided for me by work for the last 5 years or so- I recently changed jobs and lost this perk. I am currently spending €50 a month on 02 prepaid with a 4 year old Nokia E51.

I went around town yesterday to meteor/O2/3 and Vodafone and cannot for the life of me make head nor tail of the the contracts- i.e whats the catch.

I am prepared to spend €30- €40 a month on a contract and would like to be able to surf/call and test ideally I would like a sexy android or I phone but don't know which is best.

I've hear for example that the IPhones break and meteors 24 month contract offers no warraty/exchange or cooling off period although you get an Iphone 4s for €40 a month.



My question is - what is better Iphone or android?

and based on that who has the best phone offer for a €40 amonth contract?

Please help me !!!!!!!!

Davy

It really depends what you need or want to use. Did you play with a working model of either?

Mr Fabulous

yep- and really liked both, honestly hard as it is to believe this is new territory for me.

What freaked me out with the I-Phone was that there was no cooling off period with the contract and no warranty from meteor- the sales assistant seemed to imply that the apps were better on android and that the androids are more of an all rounder.

I won't be doing anything out of the ordinary apart from browsing, calls and texting. I just want a sexy phone for once and all the functionality that the cool kids have!

any help you can provide Dave is appreciated - I'm practically a luddite!

ChopShop

Mr Fabulous wrote: »

yep- and really liked both, honestly hard as it is to believe this is new territory for me.

What freaked me out with the I-Phone was that there was no cooling off period with the contract and no warranty from meteor- the sales assistant seemed to imply that the apps were better on android and that the androids are more of an all rounder.

Not strictly true. A lot of the applications on Android are untested, or just plain useless.

More of all rounder... can't quantify that one.

This isn't coming from an iphone owner BTW, i've been on Android for the last 15 months or so.

JTMan

A few considerations:

• Data is increasingly the most important criteria. Ensure you are getting at least 1 GB per month.
• As a general rule, the challenger operators, offer the best value bill pay packages. Namely, Tesco Mobile, 3, Meteor and eMobile.
• More specifically, the 3 package that includes unlimited data is a hard to beat package.
• Remember you have the right to return your package inside 7 days if you are not happy with coverage etc.

Is Android or the iPhone a better option? The Samsung Galaxy S II won phone of the year, and swept the board in all categories, at the recent UK industry awards over the iPhone 4S. Personally, I would choose Samsung Galaxy S II or the Samsung Nexus over the iPhone 4S.

Do you have any specific needs? What is your typical phone usage currently?

wmpdd3

I'm not really sure what the person in Meteor meant when they said you dont have a warrenty.

You have 14 days to cancel you contract and return your phone under the Consumer Credit Act.

You have a right to a repair, replacement or refund of your purchase price of you phone if it is faulty. This is covered under the Sales of Goods and Services Act. With iphones the work is carried out by apple as apposed to through the shop, but the shop is still responsible.

As above, I would recommend you get plenty data as if you're not sure what your using online you could end up with a hefty bill if you go above your package.

At 30c per call to non o2 networks, you are using about 130 minutes for calls per month, presuming you send very little texts. Add say, 50 minutes for o2 calls that gives you 180 minutes per month.


So you are looking for 200 minutes and about 200 texts and 1 or 2 gig data.

Togglies

I have FINALLY got authorisation to cancel my contract with Three after 10 days of phone calls and emails to the customer "care" dept.
I brought the phone home to find that Id no coverage in my billing address and at my boyfriends address so the phone was technically useless!!
I took it back to the store only to be told id have to ring customer care to get them to authorise the cancellation. Obviously I told them about the 14 day cooling off period that I am entitled to - this didnt seem to matter to them. This has been a total nightmare for the past 10 days...........thank god this morning I got the authorisation after alot of arguing and hours on the phone.
So be careful about what contract you sign up for. Ask somebody with the network you want to try their phone in your house maybe. I knew vodafone worked before with me but I switched because the iPhone 4s was €79 with three - cheaper yes, but definitely not the network for me!!!!!

Mr Fabulous

Thank you one and all - really appreciate the advice/tips... top tip togglies re the coverage.


I'll let you know how it turns out

marketty

Get a free sim from whichever network you choose and put it in your old phone so you can check coverage at home work etc before signing contract!
3 hav the best deals on data

Kensington

And the worst deal on coverage

whiterebel

wmpdd3 wrote: »

I'm not really sure what the person in Meteor meant when they said you dont have a warrenty.

You have 14 days to cancel you contract and return your phone under the Consumer Credit Act.

You have a right to a repair, replacement or refund of your purchase price of you phone if it is faulty. This is covered under the Sales of Goods and Services Act. With iphones the work is carried out by apple as apposed to through the shop, but the shop is still responsible.

As above, I would recommend you get plenty data as if you're not sure what your using online you could end up with a hefty bill if you go above your package.

At 30c per call to non o2 networks, you are using about 130 minutes for calls per month, presuming you send very little texts. Add say, 50 minutes for o2 calls that gives you 180 minutes per month.


So you are looking for 200 minutes and about 200 texts and 1 or 2 gig data.

Consumer Credit Act says 10 days, not 14, see section 50.
TBH, I don't think that Act even applies to these agreements, as they are charging you for a service, not providing you with credit. Whats more, the Consumer Advice site does not mention any cooling off period with mobile contracts, but it specifically does with fixed lines.

TBi

whiterebel wrote: »

Consumer Credit Act says 10 days, not 14, see section 50.
TBH, I don't think that Act even applies to these agreements, as they are charging you for a service, not providing you with credit. Whats more, the Consumer Advice site does not mention any cooling off period with mobile contracts, but it specifically does with fixed lines.

Another good reason to buy your phone outright from Apple or an online store. More rights! You don't save much, if anything, by buying a phone with a network these days. You pay for it over the 12-24 month contract period anyway.

whiterebel

TBi wrote: »

Another good reason to buy your phone outright from Apple or an online store. More rights! You don't save much, if anything, by buying a phone with a network these days. You pay for it over the 12-24 month contract period anyway.

Online definitely, at least you have a cooling off with web purchases for 7 days. With Apple its 14

JTMan

TBi wrote: »

Another good reason to buy your phone outright from Apple or an online store. More rights! You don't save much, if anything, by buying a phone with a network these days. You pay for it over the 12-24 month contract period anyway.

With prepay, agreed, the network subsidy is low.

With bill pay, the subsidy is still huge for mobile phones. Nuts to buy direct with Apple when there is a huge subsidy.

TBi

Fungus wrote: »

With prepay, agreed, the network subsidy is low.

With bill pay, the subsidy is still huge for mobile phones. Nuts to buy direct with Apple when there is a huge subsidy.

What subsidy? iPhone on meteor has a 45 euro contract. My monthly PAYG bill is 20 euro. (Free txt to all network, a few phone calls and data at 69c per day)

25 euro (45-20) * 24 is 600 euro, which is the price of the 4S in the first place.

There is no subsidy, you just pay for the phone over the contract period. It's a false economy, especially considering you get less rights as you don't technically own the phone until the 24 month period is up. Plus a phone direct from Apple is unlocked so you can use it abroad with a local sim.