Lyons Leadership

Have any of your friends ever gotten a mobile phone completely free of charge, not just the handset itself, but the line rental too? Well, some of mine have, and here is how they do it!

First off, what does a free line rental deal give you? Well, as the name suggests, a free line rental mobile gives you a free mobile phone handset, and free line rental, and free text messages. That means that your entire contract will not cost you a penny!

By now you will have smelled a rat, it is not possible for retailers to give away free phones on free 12 month contracts and still make a profit, is it?

The way it works is this, when taking out your new mobile contract the retailer offers to give you cash back, to cover the cost of your bills. So, initially you have to pay the bill as normal. At this point, you are out of pocket, not what you would expect from a 12 months free line rental deal!

Later on in the contract, the retailer will give you the chance to make a claim for cash back from them. This cash back is what actually covers the cost of the mobile phone contract. Once you get that money back from the phone retailer, you will have got your phone cost free for 12 months.

So how do the retailers make money? Surely retailers lose money on free line rental deals? Absolutely, but, only if the customer successfully makes their claim for cashback! If the customer forgets to make that claim, then they end up paying their line rental as normal, and the retailer makes their money. You see, it is a battle of wits!

To reduce the number of people making a successful claim, retailers insist that you submit your claim on a particular date hoping you will forget! They also insist that you produce documentation such as phone bills, which they hope you will lose! By putting trips and clauses like these into free line rental deals retailers make sure that enough customers fail to get their cash back for them to make a profit. So, only by you failing to claim can the retailer make their money!

So, yes, 12 month free deals are too good to be true, but, they are also possible to exploit. It is possible to out smart the retailers and get that elusive 12 month free contract, but you have to be determined.

If you go for a free line rental deal, make sure you record all the relevant dates, keep all relevant paperwork and above all else, read the small print!