No Redemption Phone Deals

If you are looking for a new mobile phone contract, then you may have noticed that different retailers are offering redemption phone deals. These deals usually look too good to be true – which is usually a warning sign that it is, so before you sign on the dotted line, do your homework and make sure that you know exactly what you are doing.

What is a Phone Redemption Deal?

Mobile phone retailers will offer you a monthly contract price and promise to pay you the balance between this and what your actual bill is from the network provider, such as T-Mobile or Orange. On the surface, this sounds fantastic – it doesn’t matter how much you use your phone, you will still only pay the amount that you have agreed upon each and every month.

Drawbacks

The problem with this is that you will not be credited with the balance automatically; instead, you will have to fulfil certain criteria to ‘redeem’ the money before you are paid anything whatsoever.

For a start, there is usually a minimum length of time before you are able to redeem anything, and then you have to follow their redemption guidelines, which usually means sending your monthly bill to the retailer’s registered office within a particular time frame. Some retailers are much more flexible than others on this and will give you a leeway of 28 days, whilst others want to receive your bill within seven days of you receiving it.

The most obvious drawback to this scheme is if you forget to send your bill within the time frame, but there have also been reported instances of people maintaining that they sent their bill in plenty of time and retailers claiming that they haven’t received it. Because the address you need to send it to is not your local store, it isn’t possible to hand deliver it. Naturally, this means that you will be advised to post it by using some form of guaranteed mailing option, which is often expensive.

Another drawback occurs when the retailer goes bust before you get the chance to redeem your bill balance, so if you are interested in this kind of deal, make sure that you are as certain as you can be that this won’t happen.

Benefits

If you are an amazingly organised person, then a redemption contract could be perfect for you, and you could benefit from hundreds of pounds.

No Redemption Deals

The reason that redemption deals have been offered in the first place is because retailers are offered large cash bonuses to encourage their customers to sign up to them. After all, many people believe that they will fulfil the criteria and so run up phone bills that they wouldn’t ordinarily do in the belief that they will get their money back - and then forget to claim. Win/win for the retailer and the network.

Unless you are very efficient and don’t mind the hassle of having to complete the necessary paperwork each and every month – on time, then have a look through all the other mobile phone deals that are on offer – you could save more this way!