Another good topic -excessive cost's for Mobile Phones

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I wanted to buy, a new mobile phone for my wife, and l could not believe the difference in price for the same phone, on the various network, there was approx about £40 - £50 difference, and l could not believe it, if you cannot get a contract phone, which are a rip off anyway, you try getting a phone on pay as you go, l found the cheapest to be Asda, but l spoke to a saleman, who tried to flog me one, and l walked out the shop, it was totally disgusting, l do know that the watchdog, has told mobile phone companies, to reduce there chargesm, but l doubt if they will, what do you think.:)

[Hugh]

Arthur, self praise is no praise at all.

You should let others decide if the topic is "good" - surely it is their judgement that makes that statement valid, not your own (imho).

On your actual post, I don't have a particular problem with the mobile phone tariffs - I have a mobile phone for work (paid for by work), and a personal mobile, which I use, strangely enough, for personal calls. I am on Pay As You Go O2, top up £10 pounds a month which gives me 300 free minutes O2 to O2 and O2 to landline numbers per month from my postcode, and includes £10 worth of texts and calls to other numbers from anywhere else. I am lucky if I use more than £5 a month on calls/texts.

You need to work out your calling/text patterns, and take the PAYG or monthly package that is best for you, not for the Mobile company.

[Stuart]

I wanted to buy, a new mobile phone for my wife, and l could not believe the difference in price for the same phone, on the various network, there was approx about £40 - £50 difference, and l could not believe it, if you cannot get a contract phone, which are a rip off anyway, you try getting a phone on pay as you go, l found the cheapest to be Asda, but l spoke to a saleman, who tried to flog me one, and l walked out the shop, it was totally disgusting, l do know that the watchdog, has told mobile phone companies, to reduce there chargesm, but l doubt if they will, what do you think.:)

Contracts are not always a rip off, depending on how much you intend to use the phone.

If you want to make a lot of calls, get the latest phones or do a lot of data transfer, contracts are a *lot* cheaper.

As for the wide range of prices, that's the advantage of capitalism. Choice and competition. Take advantage of it. Remember, the phone's retail cost is a *lot* higher than what you pay (especially on some contracts).

[Cerberus]

Handsets are usually free on Pay Monthly with most mobile networks, because you are paying for the handset with the price of your monthly line rental. This has and always will be the case.

This is why mobile handsets in general will always be expensive on PAYG as oppose to Pay Monthly tariffs. It's not a rip off, it's good business sense.

Why give away a £200 - 300 handset for £50 - 70 on PAYG. If that was the case, then Pay Monthly wouldn't exist. People would just go out and buy PAYG handsets and top up when they feel like it.

I do also know that if you have been an O2 PAYG customer for quite a bit, then you will be entitled to a good discount on a new mobile handset, dependent on your average monthly top up.

[SMHarman]

Contracts in the US, apart from being 2 year contracts, grrr are usually very good value.

The second handset on my contract is a $10 a month add on. Shares the minutes with me. We have a shared unlimited text plan for $30 and being as we get through about 2000 texts a month between us, again good value and I then have a $20 unlimited data plan.

The US also has no international roaming for PAYG customers (well Mexico only) so another tie to the good ol contract. That said I use my Virgin SIM when I am in the UK and being as that is PAYG on DD and PostPay (how that is PAYG I am not sure) it does not need use / activation as often.

Biggest problem here is that the two GSM providers are very slow to market with new handsets. I would like to get a K850i but ATT have not released it yet. It was planned for March but has slipped into the summer so my other options are to get an unlocked one from the UK on ebay or buy a new one at retail price $500! Either way I will not be able to then use the ATT handset insurance as it only covers their handsets.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I fully appreciate, the comments made, on mobiles, what my main point was, is that say for example you go to a shop and want to buy a phone, say a Nokia 1234 (for example), and go to Woolworths, this phone would probabely cost about £90.00, yet you go to Carphone Warehouse, the SAME phone, you could buy for between £60.00 and £70.00 for a range of networks, ie 02, TMobile, or Vodaphone, l know that you could get the phone free, if you had a contract, l just can never understand, why, different companies have the SAME phone, but charge differently, this was the point l was trying to make - told you it would be a good topic.

---------- Post added at 17:31 ---------- Previous post was at 17:30 ----------

I fully appreciate, the comments made, on mobiles, what my main point was, is that say for example you go to a shop and want to buy a phone, say a Nokia 1234 (for example), and go to Woolworths, this phone would probabely cost about £90.00, yet you go to Carphone Warehouse, the SAME phone, you could buy for between £60.00 and £70.00 for a range of networks, ie 02, TMobile, or Vodaphone, l know that you could get the phone free, if you had a contract, l just can never understand, why, different companies have the SAME phone, but charge differently, this was the point l was trying to make - told you it would be a good topic.

[SMHarman]

Economies of scale. CPW buy more phones and operate out of smaller premises than Woolies.

[KaySquirrel]

As for the wide range of prices, that's the advantage of capitalism. Choice and competition. Take advantage of it.

In Soviet Russia, phone takes contract out on YOU. :erm: