Obviously in today's rip off britain, the phone networks do us a favour by making us pay in advance on contract for bundles of minutes that you will never use.
So with the many hours of free calls I have left a month, how can I make them work harder? Genuinely looking for ideas.
Maybe a dirty phone call service? Maybe not. 0844/0845 etc. aren't included so I doubt I could set up an incoming number that would make me money by me calling it. Anyone managed to come up with anything? ta
Choose a contract with fewer minutes on it?
Stand outside phone boxes and offer the box user the use of your phone for a small fee instead.
A speaking clock serive? The difference being that you phone up complete strangers and tell them what the time is.
Or get a contract with fewer miutes on.
Become a telemarketer?
I could use it for you but the returns arent exactly great and there is a chance the sim would go off.
Choose a contract with fewer minutes on it?
if only it were that simple
Stand outside phone boxes and offer the box user the use of your phone for a small fee instead.
Very cool idea. Wouldn't really fit in with my work hours but I could hang around phone boxes of an evening. No change there. Might put the phone on a leash.
A speaking clock serive? The difference being that you phone up complete strangers and tell them what the time is.
Awesome. Here's hoping they just happened to be wondering what the time was - I guess the surprise might make them pay up a surprising amount.
Become a telemarketer?
I just want to make some extra cash, not sell my soul.
Obviously in today's rip off britain, the phone networks do us a favour by making us pay in advance on contract for bundles of minutes that you will never use.
How much does an iphone cost to buy from Apple?
How much does an iphone cost when you take out a contract with a network provider?
Does that lead you to why the tariffs cost so much for minutes you will never use?
Not that much of a rip off at all....I paid £99 for the iphone 4. O2 gave me £290 for it, in cash, when I upgraded 12 months later.
I then paid £149 for my iphone 4S and I'm sure I'll get another £290 (or thereabouts) when I upgrade again in 12 months.
So technically, that's over a £10 month off the actual cost of the tariff and I get a free iphone every 12 months. So not as bad a deal as it seems at the time.
Are you actually being serious about making money here or is this a wee joke?
Might put the phone on a leash.
Excellent idea Mastiles. My galaxy note is insured now and I'm sure that would cover such a scenario.
So technically, that's over a £10 month off the actual cost of the tariff and I get a free iphone every 12 months. So not as bad a deal as it seems at the time.Are you actually being serious about making money here or is this a wee joke?
Serious. I know how the contracts work - a friend at Virgin said they used to only start making money from the 11th month onwards and that was back when phones were cheaper and most people had 12 months contracts.
What realllly annoys me is: 24 month contracts - what other utility expects anything other 12 months?
& - the way they have got us hooked on 'bundles' - virtually everyone is paying for more than they use! Just charge me a basic mothly rate, then a fair p/minute for all the calls. How do you know who you are going to call in the next month????
why did you sign the 24 month contract?
there are plenty of SIM only and monthly rolling contracts available
long contracts are usually there so that they can subsidise the cost of the whoopy-dooo phone that hooks people into signing
Write some software to enable anyone like you who has unused texts to use up to be able to sell them for a fee. Sort of a bit like groupon.
You sell the texts wholesale to companies who buy them in bulk to use commercially, e.g. for text marketing, notifications, etc.
You then take your cut, and pay your subscribers with what's left.
There are already companies that (re)sell texts wholesale, and all have different pricing structures. You'd be competing against these. But you're different in that you're buying 'second hand' ones off Joe Public - ones he's not going to miss anyway, rather than straight from the networks, so you've got the chance to driver a much harder bargain.
I'd do it myself if I had time and knew the protocols, in fact I know a guy who does know a bit about the protocols so I might put it to him.
Phone random numbers telling people that you know what they've done and if they want you to keep schtum its going to cost.
In much the same manner as Arthur Conan Doyles' (and I think also Mark Twains) anonymous telegrams "We are discovered, flee immediately", but for cash rather than shits and giggles
Change your tariff to one with less minutes.
24 month contracts usually allow you to do this after 12 months.
They obviously don't advertise this fact, so check your small print.
Really though - everyone these days is on a tariff with more minutes than they need aren't they - its better value to do that than to go over your allowance even just once or twice a year, and unless you make very few calls indeed then they are better value than PAYG. If you've got loads more minutes than you'll ever use then thats your own mistake.
But because pretty much everyone has a surplus of minutes, your extra minutes are of little value to anyone else
I'd do it myself if I had time and knew the protocols, in fact I know a guy who does know a bit about the protocols so I might put it to him.
If he's cracked the encryption that would allow him to spoof the IMSI/TIMSI, so the text looks like it's coming from the original phone, then there are much better ways of making money.
Bulk SMS wholesalers have a direct connection into the networks and send their messages through that link. They can't decide to send a message that's in the bundle of someone else.
It's an interesting concept but you'd need the cooperation of the networks to charge the wholesaled SMSs to the bundles of the subscribers who didn't use them. And what's in it for the network, apart from canibalising revenue from their existing wholesale providers? If you can sort out a business model that benefits the network you could be onto something.
(Enough from me, this is just like being at work)
What realllly annoys me is: 24 month contracts - what other utility expects anything other 12 months?
& - the way they have got us hooked on 'bundles' - virtually everyone is paying for more than they use! Just charge me a basic mothly rate, then a fair p/minute for all the calls. How do you know who you are going to call in the next month????
Im a bit lost......
If you dont like 24 Month contracts, dont get one ????
Just buy whatever phone you want with cash upfront, and get a pay as you go sim.
its not hard to figure out really.
on the other hand, if you want a £500/£600/£700 smartphone for Nowt ..........
I didn't - I got an 18 month contract and paid extra cash for the phone. Even that bugs me, I'd rather have 12 month but they take the piss.
Then I'm at that point where if I go for lower minutes, I will often go over and they charge outrageously. So I have to go for the next one up with a glut of extra minutes that I'll never use. Why can't I choose my own bundle?
They used to rollover the minutes but got away with binning that years ago. I think some of you are so used to this now you don't even spot the rip off. If we have minutes left at the end of the month, why don't they refund us????!!!!
Love some of the SMS ideas, I think I have unlimited texts so there must be something there
Like I said.
Don't get a contract at all.
Buy a phone and get a pay as you go sim card for it ?
No contract
No bundle
No unused minutes
No "rip off"
Just an expensive full retail price phone, as your not spreading the cost over the period of a contract.
Well you've got me there. £600 for the unlocked phone just wasn't going to happen.
I shall continue to doff my cap at O2 and pay whatever deal they come up with.
O2 definately allow you to drop your contract down after 12 months. You can go onto the O2 website and see your useage to figure out the best plan to move onto or call them up and ask them what they would recommend on an average of your last 3 or 6 months of useage.
If you dont like 24 Month contracts, dont get one ????
Just buy whatever phone you want with cash upfront, and get a pay as you go sim
cheapest way to buy it i found out when you break it down - unless you NEED all those minutes ...
iphone 4s costs £899 retail in the electrical store I was in on Jersey today.
yowzer.
That is eye-wateringly expensive!
I'll take the long contract and subsidised phone purchase price thanks.
@beej: no, it's not spoofing or anything, all he's done is totally legal, all I mean is he's got a way of plugging SIMs into a 'gateway' and programatically sending texts from them.
My idea would rely on doing it without the network's consent or even knowledge. In other words you would have to give/lease your subscribers some sort of mini-gateway (some sort of SIM-reader with a USB connection on - the hardware-specific bit's the only part I don't have a clue about) that they have to plug in to their computer and connect to a web service you deploy in order to earn the money from their minutes.
Obviously the more subscribers you had the more uptime you would have, as people can't keep their phone next to their computer all the time.
It would also help to have subscribers in multiple countries if you wanted to use it for notification-based services as well as just marketing, but it would be fine for marketing as it probably doesn't matter when it goes out as long as it does within about 24 hours.
I got a 24 month contract, with a free phone. I pay £20/month for 100 minutes which I nearly use most months (calls to my missus are free), unlimited texts and few gb of porn. (Orange Panther20)
I claim cashback every now and then
it works out at about £1/month or thereabouts. Why would you do anything else?
subsidised phone ?
when i did my sums i was 200 quid better off buying the phone outright for my usage over 24 months - my iphone spends more time as a email , media player and internet access as i have a company phone - but i do not use that at weekends or on personal trips as i do not want to be contactable unless i am on call so i have a personal phone for friends to get me on.
if you are a heavy user like my dad who runs his building and renovations business from it then the sums are in favour of contract paying the phone
O2 definately allow you to drop your contract down after 12 months.
Yup.
And if you do this then you may well find it works out cheaper than buying the phone outright. But they rely on the fact that most people don't as the 24 month contracts really make them money in the last 12 months.
"And if you do this then you may well find it works out cheaper than buying the phone outright."
unless your already on their lowest tarriff and have no inclination to need more and just want the phone
i can see why it benifits folk who need the cashflow and access to the capital in their account but for me i like to be paid up.
they make their money out of my work anyway as anything over my tarrif is generally their fault so it gets billed back !
Bonj/Beej....what do you guys do? I'm a Telco guy and have equipment to do such.lol.
I will probably try to buy my next phone outright, it's just so much cash. I did get gadget fever with this galaxy note and wanted to get it quick. No regrets though as it is an awesome bit of kit, so bloody useful, and I would love to get 2-3-4 years out of it. That's the best way to save money.
I still don't see why they can't refund us a little for unused bundle minutes.
Phone my Mum and wish her happy birthday from me and i'll send you 3p, thats 3p you've made, and 3p i've saved, everyones a winner 
Get a dubiously natured girlfriend - have her give all your best off mates dirty phone calls and bill them for the pleasure, minutes used, cold hard cash and she might even take a shine to you from time to time?
Once you get rumbled by the wife blackmail the previously mentioned well off mates with recordings and threats of exposure to their own wives.
Everyone is a winner!
Except me - I give this sort of gold away for free.
I like your approach 
6 months ago that might have been feasible 
Bonj/Beej....what do you guys do? I'm a Telco guy and have equipment to do such.lol.
I'm just a jobbing software programmer, but my boss has got loads of hare-braned schemes to conquer the world with texts
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