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Mobile retailer Phones 4u has launched a contract that lets customers upgrade their handset as often as every six months, without egregious upfront costs.
It's called "Jump" (Just Upgrade My Phone), and it splits your contract in two: one with the network for minutes, text and data; and a bonus one with Phones 4u for the handset.
Here's how it works. Let's say you've agreed to pay £37.99 a month for two years to Phones 4u: that's £15 a month to Orange, and £22.99 a month to the retailer to cover your Android phone.
After six months, Apple announces a brand new slab of plastic desire and you decide that you were wrong to denounce Apple all these years, and you can't really go on living until the iPhone 4S is in your possession. It happens.
If you want to upgrade to that, you'll need to pay £413.82 (that's the remaining 18 months of £22.99 payments on your Android). You can reduce that by trading in your old blower, and up to two others. You'll get at least £100 a phone, but more could be on offer depending on the type and condition.
If, for example, they paid you £175 for your old phone, then you now owe £238.82 total. That's split over a new Jump contract (£9.95 a month), and added on to the monthly cost of the iPhone 4S (£28.49) and your new contract with Orange (£20.00) meaning your new monthly commitment is a grand total of £58.44.
So yes, it's the world's most confusing and convoluted tariff to work out. But it means that you have the flexibility to switch and swap handsets every six months -- rather than being stuck on a one or even two-year-long contract on the same phone. Of course, the flipside is that if you do swap handsets every six months, you could be paying for four handsets at the same time -- which is going to get very expensive, very fast. Be warned.
Phones 4u says that for the freedom to swap phones you'll only need to pay an average added monthly cost of £2.99 to £3.99 over the cost of a standard contract.
Jump has been successfully trialled since May 2011 in 100 stores. The national roll-out begins today, and will be available in Phone 4u's 600-odd shops and on the website by May 2012. Phones 4u is also offering remote data back-up and storage for contacts, music, pictures and videos, so you don't loose all your gumpf when you change phone.
Image: Shutterstock.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
