Now, I feel like I'm being a complete moron here, but how exactly does this work? Is it as simple as they send you a cheque for the cashback amount, which you are then free to spend/use however you want, with no strings attached? Surely that's too good to be true?
I'd be a little careful - often you have to provide (by posting) evidence in the form of bills from certain dates, and often. It can be hard to keep up with it, and if the bill arrives at their HQ late, they charge you ridiculous extras on your contract.
Cashback deals often reply on making the claimant jump through hoops to get it. Promoters, bank on a proportion giving up or just not bothering in the first place. Also you've got to make sure that the sale company will be about when it comes to payday because it's often separate to the network. I've very much of the opinion, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Do your homework on the forums and see who's moaning. I switched to GiffGaff a year or so ago now and I'm more than happy with their offering. £12 a month 250 UK minutes Unlimited texts Unlimited Internet Free to giffgaff Free 0800 numbers etc. They piggyback on the 02 network, their costs are cut as their support is run from forums. Shortly to offer 4G as well although not on an unlimited package
Cheers for the info, lads. What I'm looking at is the £100 "Auto Cashback" on a Samsung Galaxy S5 or HTC One M8 on Carphone Warehouse. It's very much made out to be no strings attached, automatically receive your cheque within 30 days if purchased online, or straight back onto your credit/debit card in store, but I can't help but be dubious.
It'll be fine. There's nothing to be particularly dubious about so long as the promoter is known. Carphone Whorehouse get big commissions for selling new contracts to people from the networks. In order to compete they and others have started giving a proportion to this back to the customer. FWIW I buy a lot if things online through Quidco and have got cashback on everything from holidays to utility switching, new mobile contracts and clothing purchases. In four years I've had £997 back as cashback. Well worth doing.
Cheers UEA. So in your opinion it wouldn't be a stupid idea (in terms of risk associated to the cashback offer) to get the new phone/contract on the £100 cashback deal, and use that £100 to pay up the remaining couple of months on my current contract, as I will definitely receive that £100?
That's what I did a while back with my contract.... got £180 from Carphone Warehouse, bought out my Vodafone contract, then joined o2.
I think it's as good an idea as any. As meister says the cashback which you have to apply for - I've done that as well back in the day and it's a bit of a mare of sending off vouchers within a specific time period and then getting a cheque back - can sometimes require attention to detail but the automatic one shouldn't. Just check the T&Cs to check there's no obvious get out for them. ie. You might have to pay them back if you don't keep the contract for a certain amount of time. Finally, do a bit of googling and look on the moneysavingexpert forums just to see if there are currently any complaints or issues with Carphone Whorehouse's auto cashback scheme. If all looks good then go ahead. You might want to look at Quidco or Topcashback first though. My wife's last new phone contract got us £125 cashback from Vodafone direct.
Just in case anyone was in any doubt. Three are still as **** as talk talk are at t'internet O2 seem to be slipping and EE seem to be the way to go
What's up with O2? That's who I was looking to go with, seem to have the best 4G coverage in my area, good prices and I like the fact that what you pay for the phone and what you pay for the airtime is separated.
Can I suggest against EE. Colleague in the office has had over £400 worth of calls on her pohne charge that she hasn;t made and custoemr service is a nightmare trying to get it sorted. 3 hour calls at 3 in the morning which they've billed for. Virgin were very good, I only moved from them as they couldn't offer unlimited data.
While on mobiles can I suggest not Vodafone? Awful customer service, extremely unhelpful and will waste your time if you go into their shop. Leaving them as soon as I can.
