O2 Refresh

[Gray]

Seen an advert before for O2 Refresh, it seems it splits your contract into two parts, a "phone" contract and an "airtime" contract.

http://www.o2.co.uk/refresh#tabs

It has piqued my interest, and the ability to perhaps go and get a Galaxy S4, but my contract isn't up for renewel until September...

Think it sounds like a decent price plan(s), or a potential con?

 

[dysfunction]

Sounds very complex and you could easily be spending more than you need to.
You pay for the phone over 24 months....so you can't really change your phone as often as you want cos you still need to pay off the old phone If you get a new phone.

Its not really any different to a regular contract.

It certainly wouldn't be for me as ive only ever had 12 month contracts which have worked out cheaper than the refresh example

 

[Athan]

I'd hope no-one seeing the advert has been stupid enough to think it means they can just get a new phone whenever they want with no penalties. A quick glance over the examples does show that it would enable for quicker refreshes, so long as you're still able to pay off the previous phone portion of the contract, and that amount will be less than if you were having to pay off the 'airtime' portion as well.

Oh and note the '24 month' bit of the example. At this stage you've fully paid off the phone so you're now on a £17pcm contract, whereas on the old system you'd continue paying the full £32pcm.

The bars for the Airtime also imply it's just a rolling 1 month contract, so you could change to a different one any time. I wonder if that is actually so.

So the real question is are there cheaper ways to do the same thing (which for you might be "change phone every 12 months"), either with O2 or another company ?

 

[dysfunction]

Last year I got a 12 Month Contract on O2 at £40pm and got a Galaxy S3 with the option of upgrading to a new phone 3 months early.
I have taken their upgrade offer and "upgraded" to a cheap Simplicity tariff of around £20...I can then get a new contract whenever I want I don't have to pay out the rest of my contract or phone.

This new system seems like a great way for O2 to make more money and make getting new phones and contracts more complicated.

 

[Nate]

I wonder how far away it is that the phone part of a phone becomes unused and just skyping/whatsapp'ing becomes the norm.

 

[Ch3tan]

Clever marketing rip off

 

[soze]

Unsubsidised contracts are the norm in most places I thought. I would never do this a SIM only deal is the way forward and if I cant afford the phone right away a 0% credit card will do the trick. I can get away with a £5 contract on my personal phone. That is £30 less than my current monthly plan. £30 a month over two year is £720 of subsidised phone. Seeing as I only got a HTC sensation on that plan I know who did well on the deal and it is not me.