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Phones 4U has launched a new contract it’s calling JUMP or Just Upgrade My Phone. The idea is to separate your calling plan from your subsidised phone, giving you one monthly price for each — and letting you upgrade the handset every six months.
So you pay for your calling time, text messages and data, with an extra charge for your phone. Both parts of the contract are for 24 months, but the phone bit can be updated after six months.
The sums involved seem pretty complicated, taking account your outstanding balance and any trade-in value should you decide to upgrade early, plus, of course, there’s a bit of a catch in that you’ll be paying a little extra (between £2.99 and £3.99 a month) for the phone part of your contract.
The company says it’s been trialling the new option in 100 of its stores since last May, and it must’ve gone down pretty well as it’s now rolling out everywhere from today. [Phones 4U]
this is not entirely clear. You say the phone can be upgraded 6 months into a 24 month contract, but can it be updated EVERY six months or just once at any time after 6 months of the contract. I can see this being popular for the annual iPhone refresh.
It’s very complicated. You can see their example workings here: http://media.gizmodo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/jump-pricing.jpg
I’d like to see this with a top of the range Android, which don’t hold their resale value like the iPhone does. Also it’s clear that if you do upgrade your phone you will be starting a whole new 24 month contract for the phone part of this. Personally I would think you are better off getting a sim only deal and buying and selling your phone once a year.
Yep; too complicated. Even for someone like me who gets itchy fingers about three months after getting a phone.