Who doesn’t want cashback with their new phone contract? Offering cashback is a popular carrot dangled to folk shopping for the cheapest smartphone deals, not least because they offer ways to secure your new handset deal for even less. There are two main methods that networks and retailers operate cashback deals for smartphones:
Here we explain the nuances of those two main kinds of cashback offers, and the benefits and constraints of each. Ultimately, the concept is the same. Networks and retailers give you cashback for taking out a new smartphone package, with the cashback often (but not always!) appearing as credits on your account.
Automatic Cashback Deals
Ahh, automatic cashback. Just the very sound of it brings a warmth to your heart. All you have to do with automatic cashback handset contracts is sit back, relax and watch the cash roll in. Or, rather, watch it be deducted from your monthly bill. The Vodafone automatic cashback deals award your cashback during the course of your contract, in effect reducing the overall monthly cost of your plan. Other networks work their automatic cashback promotions in the same way. If, for example, you take out a 24 month O2 contract that costs £50 per month with £240 of automatic cashback included, O2 will subtract £10 per month from your monthly bill (£10 x 24 months = £240 cashback). Automatic cashback promotions are excellent ways of securing lower overall costs for your mobile deal without requiring any input or effort on your part.
Cashback By Redemption Offers
The principle behind cashback by redemption packages is identical to automatic cashback promotions. Your chosen mobile network rewards you with cashback for taking out one of its phone contracts on a handset of your choosing (assuming, of course, that handset is eligible for the cashback by redemption offer). The Three Mobile cashback by redemption deals differ from the network’s automatic cashback schemes by requiring you to claim your cashback at certain stages throughout the contract. The stages most commonly occur every three months, though this could be every six months or even every 12 months, depending on your contract. If you have taken out a Sky Mobile 36 month deal in a bid to lower the overall cost of your monthly payments, any cashback by redemption offers available for that plan could take place at longer intervals, spreading out over the course of the deal.
Cashback Contracts By Network
Every network understands that price plays a major part in any smartphone user’s decision to take out a new mobile deal. Phone deals with cashback are there to help reduce monthly contract costs, thereby automatically proving more attractive to anyone in the market for a new phone. All of the major networks like EE and O2 and MVNOs such as Virgin Mobile and Sky Mobile feature cashback phone packages at various points, and can often be in bids to compete with each other or respond to quarterly sales figures. Smartphone users can therefore expect to see regular cashback by redemption offers alongside automatic cashback promotions throughout the year.