Page 1 of SIM only BTMobile 150 deal: minimum term cost of NIL (after cashback)

Since Forward Cellular (RIP) stopped selling SIM only in favour of handset + contract packages sometime last year there`s been a relative drought of heavily discounted SIM only deals.

Well, Mobileshop has just come up trumps with a SIM only deal on BT Mobile 150 with enough cashback to reduce the minimum term cost to NIL. Yup...this deal is absolutely free after the cashback is taken into account.

To be honest, I don`t know whether this is a genuine (network sanctioned) SIM only deal or the result of pack splitting*. If the former, it could be an indicator of things to come.

This deal is structured as follows: The first 3 months will be billed at £9.99 per month by BT Mobile. BT Mobile will then bill you at £27.00 per month for the remainder of your contract. The remainder of the discount is claimable as cashback from Mobileshop in two equal parts: £136.49 after 6 months & £136.49 after 12 months.

WEALTH WARNING: This deal is dependent on claiming cashback from the retailer. For those unfamiliar with the machinations of cashback contract deals, please read my article on this subject:

http://www.reestit-mutton.co.uk/MOBILES/CONTRACT/index.html

HtH
RM

* pack splitting is the practice of taking a handset and contract package, which is designed to be sold as a single unit, and selling the contract and handset separately. This is often done so that the handset subsidy can be used to increase the amount of cashback offered to the purchaser of the contract SIM, thus reducing the minimum term cost of the contract SIM to somewhere near zero. All of Forward Cellular`s deals were allegedly the result of pack splitting.

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Retailer: Mobileshop
Handset: SIM only deal (no handset)
Tariff: BT Mobile 150
Minimum Term: 12 months
Monthly Free minutes: 150
Free Minute Validity: cross-network, anytime
Monthly Free Texts: 50
Monthly Line Rental: £27

Network Offers:
(1) 3 months reduced line rental at £9.99 per month
(2) Up to 1000 minutes of free short calls (of less than 2 minutes each) to a nominated fixed landline number beginning with 01 or 02

Retailer Cashback: £272.98
Cashback Schedule: £136.49 after 6 months, £136.49 after 12 months

MINIMUM TERM COST: £272.97 (before cashback), NIL (after cashback)
MONTHLY EQUIVALENT: £22.75 (before cashback), NIL (after cashback)

non-affiliate link:
http://www.mobileshop.com/mobile-phones/bt-mobile/pay-monthly/btmobile-sim-only.php

Or, if you`re happy to use it,
I also have an affiliate link for this deal on my website:
http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~lauriem/latest_additions.html#2105200503

Do you work for this phone company by any chance, there was a company based in Leicester called Forward Cellular who would give you cash back after a while, but they went bankrupt right before paying up to loads of people, and there is no come back on the phone network ,cause its nothing to do with them, so be warned!

*slaps head*

DUH

really? Tell us more about this Forward Cellular........ (:¦

Quote:

Do you work for this phone company by any chance


Nope.

Quote:

there was a company based in Leicester called Forward Cellular who would give you cash back after a while, but they went bankrupt right before paying up to loads of people, and there is no come back on the phone network ,cause its nothing to do with them, so be warned!


No kidding sherlock! - My post opened with with a reference to this company`s demise and contained a prominent reference to the pitfalls of cashback deals as follows:

Quote:

WEALTH WARNING: This deal is dependent on claiming cashback from the retailer. For those unfamiliar with the machinations of cashback contract deals, please read my article on this subject:

http://www.reestit-mutton.co.uk/MOBILES/CONTRACT/index.html


For what it`s worth, although I could never provide a cast iron guarantee for ANY retailer being around in 12 months time (Carphone Warehouse included), Mobileshop are not in the same league as Forward Cellular. They have been around for many more years than Forward Cellular have. Forward Cellular were always known to be a one-man-band, albeit a genuine one. I was personally quite fond of FC. They didn`t have the financial muscle to undertake the kind of advertising campaigns that their bigger rivals could. However, they deserved a mention for their price-busting TMobile deals.

We can only be thankful that their cashback schedule wasn`t far longer than it was otherwise they could have ended up owing many more people money than they did. Of course, that doesn`t make it any more palatable for the hundreds of customers who are probably still awaiting the outcome of the liquidation process to see how much of the cashback owed they actually receive.

HtH
RM

This item was edited on Monday, 23rd May 2005, 11:12