Thread: Whats the catch

Other than a slightly crap phone, what is the catch with Virgins £2.50 mobile?

http://www.mobiles.co.uk/virgin-sony...s-you-go.html#

I need a new mobile and for £2.50 I'm tempted, although as they say. If it is too good to be true it often is.

Your thoughts?

The mandatory £10 topup, which makes it £12.50. Still, that's very good value.

£12.50 for a new mobile isn't all that bad.

Would the phone be tied to virgin networks only?

At that price, i would imagine so - they have to get their money from somewhere.

Not really. There are some very cheap phones about. Tesco were doing ones for £20 including £20 credit. Orange had £15 phones with £5 credit. You can get a phone for absolute peanuts.

But surely that kind of cost is a loss leader - is the phone really going to be that cheap to manufacture?

I haven't seen the one above but the really cheap phones are extremely basic.



You can get that for about £5-10. You can make calls and thats about it. Good luck trying to text anyone or change your ring tone. It's a phone and thats it. According to motorola they don't lose money on the handset they are that basic and cheap to make.

Thats all I want though, is a personal phone to take out at weekends etc.

I have a workie phone that I do anything else on. Just dont enjoy having it with me on a Saturday night down the pub.

No probs then! They are good backup phones. Just not what you'd want to use all day every day!

but with these £20 with £20 credit, how much does that £20 credit really cost? Probably not all that much - I'd not be surprised if that credit cost the networks under £5 to actually provide.

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I dont think they will really last for long.
As the phone is offered at very low a price, the quality also of very low only, may be the spurious Chinese one.

and how long does that credit last? Normally isn;t it you have to use it within a month

I believe it's so long as you use the phone once in 6 months the credit lasts forever now? Except for 3, unless they've changed their policy too

Originally Posted by vaserv

and how long does that credit last? Normally isn;t it you have to use it within a month

I just got a prepay in Romania. About 3p to text Romania, about 6p to text the UK, cheap domestic calls and even free voicemail. The credit lasts 6 months too. I've not looked at prepay stuff for years, it seems great value now.