It seems like MobileShop.com have a few issues with their tariffs - just check out this phone on T-Mobile’s new Combi 30 tariff. It looks like you get 4,294,967,295 texts free per month… that’s nearly 100,000 per minute! Crazy!
Currently available on a 12 month contract for £30/month - with cashback the full term costs £120 (£10/month). Go go go!
http://www.mobilephonechecker.co.uk/nokia-phone/n95_clearance-handset/
A quote from a mobile phone retailer went along the lines of “Do you promote Free gifts - this is making up 65% of our sales currently” - and this was a big wake-up call. With the problems associated with claiming cashback reliably from retailers, it seems as though a large majority of people are now going for the easier “free gift” promotions, which are normally dispatched when you receive your phone, or up to a month afterwards.
That’s why we’ve now upgraded the Mobile Phone Checker to enable you to search for contracts with free gifts. As we speak, many retailers are offering an Xbox 360 on a £30/month contract or a PS3 on contracts for £35/month.
As always, comments or suggestions are very much welcome, and will help shape the Mobile Phone Checker for the future.
A short and sweet post - if you’re looking for free PAYG sim cards - here you go!
o2: http://freesimo2.o2.co.uk/
Orange: http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/freesimcard
Tesco: http://www.tm-standardplus.co.uk/
T-Mobile: http://www.t-mobilesimgiveaway.co.uk/
Virgin: http://www.virginmobile.co.uk/promo/duoSim.html
Three have, this morning, released two new tariffs as part of their product offerings, namely the £25 Texter and £35 Texter price plans.
Interestingly, their Texter tariffs are available in 12 and 18 month varieties, compared to their ‘Mix and Match’/Flext-killer tariffs which are only 18 months - perhaps they have enough margin on these tariffs to make them worthwhile for shorter contract commitments?
Anyway, they provide pretty good value for the text-a-holics amongst you. Although they’re quoted as having “unlimited texts”, their “fair usage” policy effectively makes makes this term redundant - we’ve set texts to 100/day as a fair max - namely 3,000 texts/month.
Webuser published a review of the MobilePhoneChecker as part of their “Best new websites” feature in January.
Getting 3 stars is pretty good as in the same feature, Yell.com’s revamped website received 4.
As always - feedback enables us to shape the MobilePhoneChecker going forward, so get in touch!
We thought it would be interesting to share with you a few stats regarding the retailers we index on the MobilePhoneChecker.
Firstly, we wanted to take a look at the number of deals offered by each retailer. Here @ MPC we’re always looking to find the best deal - but does more = better?
| Retailer | Number of Deals |
|---|---|
| Asda | 384 |
| BT Mobile | 170 |
| Carphone Warehouse | 4517 |
| Dial A Phone | 8750 |
| e2save | 3820 |
| Mobiles | 824 |
| Mobiles2YourDoor | 669 |
| Mobileshop | 1194 |
| MobilesPlease | 841 |
| o2 | 486 |
| Orange | 800 |
| One Stop Phone Shop | 1556 |
| Phones4u | 885 |
| T-Mobile | 1252 |
| Tesco | 491 |
| The Link | 245 |
| The Phone Spot | 3252 |
| Three | 240 |
| Virgin | 386 |
| Vodafone | 1328 |
Interestingly, Dial A Phone offer almost double the number of deals compared to it’s rivals.
Carphone Warehouse (4,517) has more on offer that it’s sister companies of e2save (3,820), One Stop Phone Shop (1,556) and The Phone Spot (3,252).
Out of the networks, BT Mobile has the least number of deals (perhaps due to the limited collection of handsets available - at 170), compared to Vodafone which has 1,328.
| Cashback | Non-Cashback | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Retailer |
Monthly Cost |
Retailer |
Monthly Cost |
| Three | 22 | Three | 22 |
| Mobiles | 23 | Virgin | 31 |
| One Stop Phone Shop | 25 | Mobiles | 34 |
| Virgin | 31 | Mobileshop | 35 |
| e2save | 31 | Tesco | 36 |
| Tesco | 33 | Dial A Phone | 38 |
| Dial A Phone | 34 | Orange | 38 |
| Mobileshop | 35 | o2 | 39 |
| MobilesPlease | 36 | BT Mobile | 39 |
| The Phone Spot | 37 | T-Mobile | 39 |
| Asda | 37 | The Link | 41 |
| Orange | 38 | Carphone Warehouse | 41 |
| o2 | 39 | Asda | 41 |
| BT Mobile | 39 | One Stop Phone Shop | 42 |
| T-Mobile | 39 | Vodafone | 42 |
| Carphone Warehouse | 40 | MobilesPlease | 44 |
| Vodafone | 41 | e2save | 45 |
| The Link | 41 | Phones4u | 46 |
| Mobiles2YourDoor | 43 | Mobiles2YourDoor | 47 |
| Phones4u | 44 | The Phone Spot | 51 |
Three stands-out as the retailer who is aiming to increase it’s customer base - with a noticeable difference in it’s monthly fees. Also, as you would expect, the cashback kings of e2save and One Stop Phone Shop make a staggering jump from below mid-table in the Non-Cashback league to the top 5 in the Cashback total.
At the other end of the spectrum, Phones4u and Mobiles2YourDoor are both showing high average prices - perhaps targetting to those bigger-spenders?
Anyway - just something for you guys to ponder as you’re searching for the best mobile phone deal.
The Nokia 8800 Arte mobile phone is the latest in the premium range from Nokia. With an elegant slide-function design, which reveals an amazing array of high-tec features. Including a 3.2-Megapixel camera with digital zoom and auto focus, multimedia messaging and data transfer via bluetooth or USB.
Two touches on the steel facia wakes the clock up and brings it alive on your screen. ‘Living wallpaper’ allows your wallpaper to come alive by adapting to time, battery power and signal strength.
Finally the coolest feature of all, the ability to silence a call simply by turning the Nokia 8800 Arte face-down on a surface.
The price? Currently from £499.99 with a 12 month £25 contract. Final cost for the year - £799.99. Please remember - this is just a phone!
Find the best deal on the MobilePhoneChecker at http://www.mobilephonechecker.co.uk/nokia-phone/8800_arte-handset
Just a quick note to highlight the fact that both MoneySavingExpert.com and MadAboutBargains.co.uk are now promoting the MobilePhoneChecker on their websites. Both are respected “save money” websites, which take time to research and analyse the marketplace before referring their trusted users to specific tools or companies. Because of this, we’re very proud to have been selected by both 
This demonstrates the trust, reliability and “best of breed” that is the MobilePhoneChecker!
Tesco telecoms have recently launched their Deal Finder. Take a look, it’s such a simple concept - why let people try and figure out what each mobile contract offers them to find their best deal? Reverse the process, and provide tools for people to be informed as to what’s most suitable! (a la MobilePhoneChecker!) - and actually, it looks good too!
The main problem is the results it produces - the first rows of contract deals are listed under the title “For a little more”. Well, that’s just plain pushy! If your monthly budget is £25 a month, then listing higher-priced tariffs at the top of the list is asking for trouble. At least with the MobilePhoneChecker we provide a simple service - tell us what you want, and we’ll tell you what you need.