The Whole Truth

A lot of the time I walk around my local town contemplating (this is going to sound very sad) what my life would be like if I had a newer and better mobile phone, or at the very least one which actually performed as the box says it should.

After several years of being tied into contract deals, namely so I can receive the incredible extra money, which we all know should be used to pay for half of the contract, instead we ALL spend it as soon as it reaches our bank accounts, and then some amongst us struggle to pay the contract month after month. A friend of mine once took 3 phones out, just so he could receive the money. After a couple of months he started to struggle as at that point he was on a low salary. 18 months later and I think hes safe.

When you really think of the benefits of taking out a new contract phone, they should be that the phone is frankly better then the one before, maybe with added features such as free Skype Mobile calls or just better usability. When it comes to the decisions which should be made do people ever nowadays look at such things like battery life and how good the signal is in your area? Perhaps the latter but the former seems to go out the window pretty quick.

The ” want it now culture” which apparently we should subscribe to suggests that we should have any product which we want, within the day we have ‘discovered’ it. Of course this is not the best thing and subsequently just leads to unhappiness as I found when I took out a phone (fairly nice), refused insurance cover and then promptly broke it. Nearly 10 months in, I am down a ‘decent’ phone and stuck with a rubbish one!

Pay as you go phones seem to be loosing any appeal at all in the last few years, as frankly they cost a bomb if you want a nice one and then it sometimes costs more a month if you are a prolific texter or late night caller. When you really think about it, its makes an awful lot of sense to wait and save for a a PAYG mobile.

• By the time you have saved the amount required, the phone will probably be cheaper.
• You can effectively “pay what you want”, the phone is yours.
• The company cant recall the phone should you not pay your contract.

Other alternatives to pay as you go phones, are in the SIM only deals: meaning you can use any of the free SIM offers on the net (look on any mildly irritating site and you will know what I mean), this way you can effectively has the phone you want, on the network YOU want and still take advantage of the other offers the other networks offer.

What ever decision you make when it comes to deciding your new phone make sure that it is for the right reasons and not just the temporary financial gain that it might bring…