Have been looking at a few threads about (mobile) phones and contracts and came across this thread in which dooosuk (many thanks, it seems!) mentions mobiles.co.uk and they do what is my current deal for about a third of what I’m paying now:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/current-best-sub-200-android-phone

Current deal is with EE for 2GB data and unlimited texts and calls (neither of which I use…) and its been rolling monthly since March 2015 so I can just cancel that.

So if I place this order for a new SIM with the same 2GB data, minutes, etc., I just get a new SIM card and can just change SIM and swap numbers..? I save £150 by ‘cashback redemption’ over the course of the year.

Am I missing something… is it really that easy? Sorry but, yes, I am not the most hip when it comes to mobile phone contacts…

Need some reassurance!

Not clicked throught the link to find the link..

But my sim only is costing about £6/month for ‘lots of stuff’… This is after £100ish cashback.
I’m sure they rely on teh fact people don’t click the link or redeem their cashback.

So, it probably IS real.

DrP

Do you want to swap numbers? You should be able to port your number to the new provider if you want.

https://www.mobiles.co.uk/ee-pay-monthly-sim-card

Thanks, DrP!

Do you want to swap numbers? You should be able to port your number to the new provider if you want.

No, want to keep number but syating with same provider so shouldn’t be a problem.

I’m just incredulous that saving so much money could be so simple!

I’m confused. You’re staying with EE, only now via a different reseller?

I’m confused. You’re staying with EE, only now via a different reseller?

So it would seem. Got current contract at local EE shop a couple of years ago and just haven’t changed it, or thought of changing until now.

They rely on people not claiming back the cashback as it is so long winded.

Phone EE up and say you can get this price from a reseller and often they will match it and saves you the hassle of redemption.

Right.

When you change service provider, you get a new SIM from that provider which will be provisioned with your tariff details. If you want to keep your number then you need a code called a PAC from your existing provider which you then give to your new provider as authorisation to take your number when they provision it.

I’d never given any thought to what happens when you move between two different retailers who are backed by the same provider. Either you’ll have to keep your existing SIM and have the new tariff applied to it (so the new SIM is pointless), or use the new SIM and go through the PAC process. I’d be curious to hear which it is (I’d guess the latter).

I’m not an expert on this and you may want to speak to Mobiles.co.uk to check, but I suspect that deal is signing up for a new 12 month sim only deal, i.e. you will have a new number. I don’t believe you can transfer (port across using pac code) numbers with the same network provider either.

If you don’t mind changing your mobile number this may not be a big issue for you.

I’ve been looking into similar deals lately as I’m sim only and was looking to go back to a contract, as the phone is getting old now, and there are some cheap deals available but only if you take out a new contract, and are willing to change number.

Just so you know, if you want to swap sims but keep your own number on EE, it’s quite awkward.

EE wouldn’t let me swap my number when I started a new plan. They wanted me to get a pay and go sim from another company, get a PAC code to transfer it, then get another one from the other sim provider to transfer back!

Couldn’t be arsed with the hassle and just changed numbers.

I’d never given any thought to what happens when you move between two different retailers who are backed by the same provider. Either you’ll have to keep your existing SIM and have the new tariff applied to it (so the new SIM is pointless), or use the new SIM and go through the PAC process. I’d be curious to hear which it is (I’d guess the latter).

I don’t believe you can transfer (port across using pac code) numbers with the same network provider either.

Just so you know, if you want to swap sims but keep your own number on EE, it’s quite awkward.

Hit the nail on the head; just off the phone with them.

Indeed; I’d have to get a PAC code, port the number to another provider, then get a PAC code from them and port my number back again to EE.

Hmm…

Hit the nail on the head; just off the phone with them.

Indeed; I’d have to get a PAC code, port the number to another provider, then get a PAC code from them and port my number back again to EE.

Hmm…

So as i’m a bit thick on these as well…

You mean if you keep the same provider they won’t do it BUT if you change to anyone else (say PAYG) for as long as it takes to transfer the number then transfer back you get the deal ???

Much as that seems like hassle…. £150 is a new cassette and chain or lots of other nice useful stuff…

Indeed; I’d have to get a PAC code, port the number to another provider, then get a PAC code from them and port my number back again to EE.

Can you do it the other way then? Give them the existing SIM’s IMEI number and tell them to provision the service on that? (I’ve no idea whether this is possible, but logically it should just be a tariff / billing change.)

You mean if you keep the same provider they won’t do it BUT if you change to anyone else (say PAYG) for as long as it takes to transfer the number then transfer back you get the deal ???

Indeed.

Indeed; I’d have to get a PAC code, port the number to another provider, then get a PAC code from them and port my number back again to EE.

Hmm…
Hmm…indeed! What a load of completely pointless fannying around, for what seems to be no point whatsoever, other than to make life as difficult as possible.
I went from contract to SIM-only last year, which meant I was no longer paying out the £35 for the phone, and the airtime went down a bit to £25, with 4Gb of data and unlimited texts/calls.
A week or so ago O2 phoned me with a new offer, giving me the unlimited calls/texts, 10Gb of data, for £19/month, which I snapped up!
Going to buy my next phone outright, it’s difficult to see how much better an offer I could get, but if at some point O2 offer 15 or 20Gb of data for £15, I’ll snap their hand off!
Better, I’d have thought, for the OP to try to wrangle an equivalent deal without all the piddling around with swapping SIMs back and forth.

Wow, that illustrates what a rip off it is…
Presumably it’s 17.99 or something but they can pay a fee or something to mobiles.co.uk and then still charge a bit less than 1/3rd and they have double the admin costs… and must still presumably be making a profit???

Better, I’d have thought, for the OP to try to wrangle an equivalent deal without all the piddling around with swapping SIMs back and forth.

Yeah, sorry – forgot to mention that I tried that!

They (EE) make a policy of refusing to match deals, even for what is essentially their own product, offered by a third party. The only thing I was offered was 4GB data and unlimited everything else, including Europe, for the same £15.99 I’m currently paying.

We live in a rural location and there’s no 4G coverage, I don’t travel in Europe. never get anywhere near my current 2GB limit so the lad I was speaking to EE acknowledged himself that it didn’t make any sense as all I’m interested in is saving money.

Have just realised that my Honor 5C phone is dual SIM which would make porting out and than back slightly less of a faff…

Wow, that illustrates what a rip off it is…
Presumably it’s 17.99 or something but they can pay a fee or something to mobiles.co.uk and then still charge a bit less than 1/3rd and they have double the admin costs… and must still presumably be making a profit???

Yup!!!

EE will be making a profit, but mobile.co.uk probably won’t be if you remember to claim the cashback – I suspect their business model is based on whatever percentage of people forget to. Together with whatever percentage of people forget to cancel next year and get a new deal (when it’ll go up to full price and there won’t be any cashback to claim).

mobile.co.uk are car phone warehouse – check the ts and cs for the deal as they may be different to those you’d get if you went to EE directly. e.g. if EE gives you free data abroad, you may not get it if you’ve purchased through a retailer.

(note i’ve not checked to see if this is the case, i just work in the industry so am aware of these things)

EE will be making a profit, but mobile.co.uk probably won’t be if you remember to claim the cashback – I suspect their business model is based on whatever percentage of people forget to. Together with whatever percentage of people forget to cancel next year and get a new deal (when it’ll go up to full price and there won’t be any cashback to claim).

mobile.co.uk are car phone warehouse – check the ts and cs for the deal as they may be different to those you’d get if you went to EE directly. e.g. if EE gives you free data abroad, you may not get it if you’ve purchased through a retailer.

(note i’ve not checked to see if this is the case, i just work in the industry so am aware of these things)

Thanks, Ewan.

I’d noticed that the website is CW straight away. Wonder if you have to send them your bill each and every month in order to get the redemption… haven’t made a decision yet!

Hello…

I’ve been using Mobiles.co.uk for about the last 5 years, prior to that I used to use dialaphone.co.uk which offered similar cashback by redemption.

I save £150 by ‘cashback redemption’ over the course of the year.

Am I missing something… is it really that easy?

It really is that easy. All you have to do is upload a pdf copy of your bill when asked. When you take out the contract, set reminders in your calendar and then just spend 5 mins uploading every 3 mths (or whenever you have to claim). It’s just the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th bill i.e. 4 bills, not one every month.

They always pay out, never had one refused in all my years doing it.

My current deal is 7GB data, unlimited texts and calls for £4.50/mth (offer finished at end of March though so not currently available). EE sell this deal for £27/mth but had it discounted to £17/mth. mobiles.co.uk then offered the other £12.50/mth discount by redemption.

I really don’t understand why anyone pays £30/mth for a contract when deals like this are so easy.

Thanks dooosuk!

Glad to hear that it has worked reliably! I take it then that you aren’t bothered about having to change numbers every time you change contract assuming, that is, that you’ve stayed with EE for all the different contracts you’ve had? Or have you found a way around that..?

If they (EE) want to offer you a loyalty discount they may match or better a deal offered by another network (not a re-seller though). Then you keep your number no hassle. And your contract is direct with EE, not the reseller.

But I doubt it will be as good a deal as those cash back ones.

This stuff about a Pac code is weird, I let my son go from payg to a contract in Feb with EE and it was really straightforward to transfer his number. Phoned up and it took two mins, the lady who did it put me on hold at one point as she confirmed with a supervisor how to do it, so maybe a new work around?

Presumably it’s 17.99 or something …

Its a few months since I sourced a deal for my son. At that time ID mobile (Carphone Warehouse own brand) were close to being the cheapest without any cash back nonsense. They were significantly less than £18/month for the sort of data/usage you described. You might want to consider deals that cost say £6/month directly without having to jump through cashback hoops depending how much you value your time!

It’s like double glazing. The price you can get it knocked down to with discounts and cash backs is the actual realistic price/value, and still delivers a profit to the operator, else they wouldn’t offer it. The advertised prices you see at the start are way over inflated and no one should be paying that, but many suckers do.

It’s also why if you threaten to leave, you go through retentions and they come up with all kinds of deals that aren’t advertised.

And then you have subsidised phones, or what people think are “free” phones. They are the former. You are paying for the phone ultimately. Possibly at a more realistic price, rather than the over inflated RRP, but also noting operators get them for a fraction of the retail prices on a deal with the manufacturers together with a lock onto their network and agreement they can bundle potentially money making apps they can profit from, and hence also give you a seemingly lower price on the deal because they’ll get the money off you later (see also, roaming charges and other bundles which may be higher on one network but they offer good phone deals, etc).

duckman – Member 
This stuff about a Pac code is weird, I let my son go from payg to a contract in Feb with EE and it was really straightforward to transfer his number

Same network doesn’t need a PAC code, and you don’t need retentions to pester you. It would be considered an upgrade going PAYG to contract anyway. You could probably do that online without talking to anyone.

Getting off a network is much harder. UK system is Losing Provider Led which makes switching quite hard (Ofcom are battling to switch it to Gaining Provider Led like other countries, but the Gov backs the operators as I discovered on a response I got from my MP about it).

Update… Wednesday May 24th 2017:

So…

Didn’t go for the mobiles.co.uk offer as I couldn’t be bothered with moving from EE or the ball-ache of changing provider even for a short period in order to keep number.

A week ago got an email from BT (who I’m with for phone and broadband anyway) offering some great SIM only deals so I went for one that offered 6GB of data and unlimited everything else for £12/month. BT own EE anyways so I reckoned that coverage would be similar. That SIM card arrived today so I rang up an hour ago to get a PAC code from EE and was instantly offered a new contract at £8.99/month for 4GB data and unlimited everything else – and it covers Europe and other countries I’ll never visit. I thought I’d check that I could cancel BT contract…

Rang BT back up to cancel the contract and SIM card I’d received today – done, no charges.

Rang EE back to go onto the £8.99/month contract and ended up chewing the fat with a very chatty lady from Tyneside for half an hour; talked about phones, dogs, shirts (she used to work for TM Lewin) and relationships – her ex-husband comes from just down the road.

So, have now virtually halved my monthly phone charges and got a better deal with the provider that I’ve always preferred. Moral of the story… shop around and if you don’t ask you don’t get.

Just shows how competitive and fluid the mobile phone market is, perhaps.