[merkin51]

I'm approaching the end of my 18 month contract with Vodafone, it's £26 p/m 250mins, 250 texts and "unlimited" internet. At the moment, no phone offered by Vodafone is making me want to upgrade my N95. If I don't phone them, what happens? Does it automatically start a new contract on the same plan? If so, can I phone up to upgrade my phone whenever I want to, even if it's say 3 months into the new contract?

[ma1234]

If this is a standard tariff then you will carry on as you are but in affect you will move to a 30 day rolling contract meaning you can upgrade, cancel, move network etc with 30 days notice.
The only difference would be is if you had agreed a contract for a fixed term, i.e. my last tariff was half-price agreed for 12months, 250 mins and 250 texts for £9, after the 12 months my tariff doubled to original price of £18. I had to contact them to negotiate another deal.

[merkin51]

Originally Posted by ma1234

If this is a standard tariff then you will carry on as you are but in affect you will move to a 30 day rolling contract meaning you can upgrade, cancel, move network etc with 30 days notice.
The only difference would be is if you had agreed a contract for a fixed term, i.e. my last tariff was half-price agreed for 12months, 250 mins and 250 texts for £9, after the 12 months my tariff doubled to original price of £18. I had to contact them to negotiate another deal.

Ok great, thanks mate. It's not standard like one picked from their contract list, I had to haggle with them to get the N95 and internet bolt-on for free, but the price has always been £26 p/m and there wasn't any mention of say "after 18 months the price goes up". So in theory I could leave it rolling on a 30 day contract, then when / if they finally get some decent phones in, I could just upgrade phone and negotiate a new deal then? Or just jump ship if I get fed up waiting.

[WildeKarde]

I'm with vodafone and haven't yet taken a new contract. I did however change onto sim only 30 days contract. Basically I get 600 minutes, unlimited text for £20, then I added internet for £5 as well

You can then still take an upgrade or cancel if something you fancy comes along

[n8384]

I came up to the end of my vodafone contract and switched to O2 Simplicity.
for 20 pounds a month, 600 minutes, 500 text and unlimited internet. chose to stick with my N95 8GB. Vodafone tried to get me to stay but could not match the above price... so far so good with O2.

[NicolasB]

Originally Posted by n8384

I came up to the end of my vodafone contract and switched to O2 Simplicity.
for 20 pounds a month, 600 minutes, 500 text and unlimited internet.

The last time I checked O2's website they had some online-only special offers where you get double the monthly texts if you buy from the website. I'm getting 600 minutes, 1200 texts and unlimited internet for £20 a month. It's not a bad deal - the unlimited internet has a fair usage policy which specifies no audio or video, but at least they don't have an explicit data cap unlike the other providers - Vodafone and Orange define "unlimited" as "500MB a month". One MMS message also costs only four texts out of your monthly allowance, and video calls cost the same as regular calls. On some other contracts I've seen (e.g. Vodafone business contracts) you don't get any free MMS messages or free video minutes. The unlimited internet is a "free promotional bolt-on" so there are some other options there if you don't need mobile Internet e.g. unlimited free calls to land-lines, or unlimited O2 to O2 calls. etc.

Original poster, you will probably find that if you don't call them you will keep on paying the same amount per month for the same level of service, which is actually a really bad deal. For the past 18 months you've not only been paying for your minutes and texts, you've also been paying off the price of the phone. If you want to upgrade right away then it might make sense to keep on the same tariff so that you're now paying for the service and also paying off your new phone; but if you don't need a new phone then you should be able to get a SIM only contract which offers the same level of service for substantially less money. If you choose a "rolling" contract then you can cancel that at any time with 30 days' notice, which keeps your upgrade options open. The afore-mentioned O2 "Simplicity" is one such contract; I imagine Vodafone will do something similar if you want to stay with them.