BuyMobilePhones.net Cash-back Redemption Review

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Mar

2010

BuyMobilePhones.net: My Cashback Experience

Written by David Towers

You might have been surprised recently to see mobile phone offers in the UK which look too good to be true: a free phone with an 18 month contract with free line rental via cashback! So the total cost of the phone and the contract after cashback is nothing!

Are deals like this actually too good to be true?

In this post, I reveal my experience of buying a mobile phone contract with cashback redemption from buymobilephones.net...

Cashback deals with providers like buymobilephones.net, mobiles.co.uk, emobilephonedeals.co.uk and mobilerainbow.co.uk

Most people looking online for a mobile phone deal within the UK will have come across line rental deals where there is an element of cash back. In the vast majority of cases the line rental refunds are via redemption at certain periods of the contract duration. For example on a 12 month contract with full line rental redemption, claims for redemption may need to be made at 4 intervals:

End of month 5 - First 5 months airtime bills within 60 days of the date on your 5th bill
End of month 7 - 6th and 7th months airtime bills within 60 days of the date on your 7th bill
End of month 9 - 8th and 9th airtime bills within 60 days of the date on your 9th airtime bill
End of month 12 - 10th, 11th and 12th airtime bills within 60 days of the date on your 12th airtime bill

So what is the catch?

You need to be disciplined

Reading the terms and conditions of the mobile phone retailer carefully, you will see that redeeming the cashback requires a certain amount of organisation and self discipline. You need to ensure that you send off your airtime bills within the specified time period (often 60 days) because failure to do so will invalidate the line rental redemption claim. Furthermore, if you fail to claim one of the redemption periods, all subsequent redemptions will be invalidated.

If the retailer goes bankrupt you cant claim back

The other downside with line rental redemptions is that you are at the mercy of your mobile phone retailer. If your mobile phone retailer goes bust, no-one is going to pay the line rental cashback and because you have a contract with your mobile phone provider (e.g. T-mobile, 02, Vodafone or Three), you will be required to pay the full contract without the benefit of redemption.

Do cashback deals with retailers like buymobilephones.net actually work?

My first experience in 2003

In 2003 I found several online offers for "12 months free line rental". These offers looked fantastic and back then the phones that were being offered (also for free) were good and had a retail value of around £70. I read the terms and conditions and was confident that I could be organised enough to be able to send off the vouchers at the appropriate time during the year. I concluded that if I was going to go through with it, it would be as easy to claim back for 2 line rental redemptions as it would be to claim for one (based on the assumption both contracts begin at the same time). So I signed myself up for 2 line rental deals. I had a spare sim-card for whenever I exceeded my 500 minute per month quota (at the time I was in a long distance relationship so it was useful) and I had a spare phone if the first one broke.

I did manage to claim all my line rental redemptions in a timely manner, and as such, I was fully reimbursed for the line rental! I was really happy with the deal, so much so that I encouraged my dad to sign up for a similar deal the following year with mobilerainbow.co.uk - he did so and he too got the full cashback.

If you are organised you should be able to get the full line rental cashback

The key to receiving the line rental cashback was just being organised in writing down clearly in my diary at what point bills need to be sent off for cashback and then being disciplined in sending them off. When I did my first mobile contract redemption offer, I actually typed out the letters and and sorted the envelopes with correct address and postage at the beginning of the contract so that when the appropriate time came during the year, it was simply a matter of photocopying the airtime bill and placing it into an envelope. I found this to be helpful for me, because it made the process of sending off the redemption claim throughout the year hassle free.

How to find the best deals line rental cashback deals online

The best website I have found for finding the best value cashback deals is Onecompare.com. Using this link, you can find the best line rental redemption offers online because it aggregates all the offers across websites like buymobilephone.net, mobiles.co.uk, mobilerainbow.co.uk and phones4u.co.uk. Having looked at all the deals we decided to go for a deal with buymobilephones.net.

Signing up for a full line rental redemption offer with buymobilephones.net

Once I had used Onecompare.com to research the best offer for my wife and I, we requested our PAC codes from 02 and Three. Having the PAC codes meant that we could change mobile phone provider but keep our phone numbers. 02 and Three provided our PAC codes free of charge.

Which deal should you go for on buymobilephones.net?

We decided that we would go for a deal with full line rental cashback. We werent too concerned about which mobile phone to get because I have an unlocked "HTC Tytn" (so will be using the simcard for the contract in it) and my wife would like an iPhone (it seems the most cost effective way of getting an iPhone at the moment is buying one on eBay). We decided to choose a monthly line rental plan which gave us 300 minutes cross-network anytime, 300 texts per and unlimited internet . We chose the T-mobile 18 month internet contract at £25 per month which comes with the Nokia 2330 and is fully reimbursable through cashback.

buymobilephone.net free line rental nokia 2330 offer

18 Months free line rental by redemption deal from buymobilephones.net

Buymobilephones.net requires the 18 month line rental redemption we chose to be claimed in 5 stages:

End of month 4 - 1st to 4th month airtime bills and first claim voucher within 60 days of 4th airtime bill
End of month 8 - 5th to 8th month airtime bills and second claim voucher within 60 days of 8th airtime bill
End of month 12 - 9th to 12th month airtime bills and third claim voucher within 60 days of 12th airtime bill
End of month 15 - 13th to 15th month airtime bills and fourth claim voucher within 60 days of 15th airtime bill
End of month 18 - 16th to 18th month airtime bills and fifth claim voucher within 60 days of 18th airtime bill

More cashback on buymobilephones.net through Quidco

Once I had decided which offer I wanted to go with, I checked and found that buymobilephones.net are on Quidco. For a new mobile phone contract on all networks except Three you receive £25 in cashback. So I logged into my Quidco account, clicked through to the buymobilephones.net website, browsed to the phones I wanted to have, entered in the relevant info and purchased the two phones.

Delay in sending the phones

Having ordered a new phone with line rental for my wife and I, I received an email which acknowledged the order within minutes of ordering. Normally, buymobilephones.net says that phones are sent out by next day delivery. Unfortunately this wasnt the case for me. 24 hours after ordering I received this email:

Hi David,
Thanks for your order. Due to high demand there is currently a delay in order processing.
As soon as we progress your order we will send you an email and ship your phone for next-day delivery.

Kind regards

Customer Services
0844 880 8100
Mon - Fri: 8:00am till 5:30pm
Sat: 9:00am till 1:00pm

Today, 3 days later, I received an email to let me order has been approved and the phones have been dispatched.

Will you receive cashback on free line rental by redemption deals from buymobilephones.net?

The main reason for writing this article is to record how I get along with the line rental redemption from buymobilephones.net. In the table below I will record the activity relating to ordering two free line rental phones from buymobilephones.net in March 2010:

Mobile phone order status
	Phone 2			Phone 1
Phone ordered	08-03-2010			08-03-2010
Phone received	12-03-2010 (old phone number not ported, this had to be done with T-mobile when phone received)			12-03-2010 (old phone number not ported, this had to be done with T-mobile when phone received)
Cashback via Quidco	Acknowledged: 08-03-2010 Status: Paid: £29.99 on 18-03-2010.			Acknowledged: 08-03-2010 Status: NOT PAID - Cashback only accepted on one phone.
Cash back claim status
	Date I sent the claim	Date accepted by email	Date payment received	Date I sent the claim	Date accepted by email	Date payment received
Cashback at end of month 4	20/06/2010 claim for £90	22/06/2010	03/08/2010 £90 paid	20/06/2010 claim for £90	22/06/2010	03/08/2010 £90 paid
Cashback at end of month 8	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Cashback at end of month 12	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Cashback at end of month 14	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Cashback at end of month 18	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Last updated: 4th August 2010 - BuyMobilePhones.net were very quick to confirm receipt of the cashback claim by email which was reassuring! They did however take quite a while to make the payment. Initially, I thought that I was entitled to the £100 cashback on the first payout, but BuyMobilePhones.net pointed out to me over Twitter that the cashback is paid in 5 equal installements, and as such the initial claimed for amount is £90 (total contract cost is £450 divided by 5 is £90). All good so far!

Have you ordered a phone with line rental cashback from buymobilephones.net?

I am interested to learn about your line rental redemption experience with buymobilephones.net so please share in the comments section below.

Comments (4) Add Comment

James Camden

March 28, 2010

94.192.221.190

Votes: +1

...

Interested to learn whether you had problems getting full cashback on buying your phone with buymobilesphones.net through Quidco?

John Smith

April 21, 2010

86.131.4.222

Votes: +1

...

When claiming back line rental on buymobilephones.net do you need paper bills or can you use online bills? If so can you email them the online bills?

Campbell Gordon

May 07, 2010

90.206.36.69

Votes: +0

...

Have used them continuously for three years for my own and 2 sons mobile contracts; never had a problem. Once I didn't send them the right documentation and they emailed me to tell me I had made a mistake and how I should correct it.

mario

May 18, 2010

82.38.33.218