Like the majority of smartphone users, chances are you constantly check your device just to find something to do. Research suggests that most of us even take it to the toilet to keep occupied while we do our thing. More importantly, though, 78% of us are now taking our phone to bed at night and spending a good chunk of time on our devices prior to going to sleep. [1]
Buying a mobile phone, whether from a retailer or through a mobile contract, is a hefty investment. With top end phones costing hundreds of pounds, you're likely to be spending a fair proportion of your monthly salary on a handset. So what happens if that investment doesn't pan out? The recent Samsung Galaxy Note 7 scare has only served to bring attention to the fact that tech doesn't always work as advertised. What do you do if you receive a faulty handset? How do you get your money back? That's what we're here to find out.
To take out a pay monthly phone you will be credit checked so you need to be at least of 18 years of age to take out a mobile phone contract. There is no way around this as you need a credit or debit card to verify your identity and the ability to set up a direct debit facility.
A credit check for a mobile phone contract looks at many factors and there is no best way to pass one. The main issue is when you have missed payments, defaults or CCJ’s against your name so keeping up to date with all your monthly expenditures is one of the best ways to ensure a good credit record. It also helps if you are earning a regular income, are on the electoral roll and are living at a fixed address.
All mobile networks in the UK require customers to pass a credit check to take out a contract phone. Whilst you might have heard some are easier to pass than others, the reality is all the networks have very similar credit check processes and it's difficult to separate them.
Whilst there are slight variances between each networks criteria it’s impossible to say which one is ‘easier’ as it depends on your own credit rating which is specific to your circumstances. All of this means that which network is going to be easiest for you to get your phone on is a difficult question to answer.
Today's question comes from an anonymous user who has a question regarding selling a mobile phone whilst still tied into a monthly contract. They ask:
Data usage is difficult to estimate as it really depends on what you are doing on your phone but as a guide, if you get 200mb of data per month you should be able to send/receive 1,000 emails (no attachments), send/receive 150 emails with attachments, view around 400 Web pages, and put around 50 photos on social media sites.
Several customers have emailed us this week to ask whether or not they need to do anything with a MicroSD card before putting it into their mobile phone.
We've been asked this question several times over the last month: Are you allowed to send a mobile phone with a battery them via Royal Mail? So we thought we'd answer.