Samsung E1080, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.

Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Samsung E1080, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0

24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00

Nokia 100 black, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.

Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Nokia 100 black, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0

24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00

If you are the type of person who is incredibly organised and writes everything down in a diary, plans every minute of every day and is never late for deadlines, then a 12 month (or 18 or even 24 month) free line rental contract is for you.

In order to get your line rental completely free you need to send off the relevant paper work on time and correctly filled out each quarter (every three months). There is also a time bracket that the paper work has to arrive in, this is usually a week. Also, if you are going for a 12 month free line rental deal make sure you read the small print regarding what type of paper work they want you to end to them. They will want you to send bills but can be picky about what format you send them in. For example some mobile phone retailers demand the original bill but some will only accept a photocopy (incidentally, it is always a good idea to keep a photocopy yourself for your records).

The way 12 month free line rental deals work is that you pay them first, so say the deal is £15 a month, you pay that for the first 3 months and then at the end of that quarter, you send off all your bills and the money will be put back into your account in full. This means the mobile phone retailer (and remember it is the retailer that sets up these deals and not the network) doesn’t earn any money from the contract. In reality they can make quite a lot of money from these deals but they rely on you forgetting to mail off your forms and bills and therefore not claiming the money back. Some companies even offer the first 3 months free completely, meaning that by the time it comes to 6 months into your contract (the free 3 months and the 3 months you have paid), you will have forgotten about the contract and therefore forget to send the relevant paperwork off which therefore means that the mobile phone company gets to keep your money. 12 month free line rental deals can work in your favour and can be very beneficial but you need to know how to play the system right.

Automatic cash back deals however offer a guarantee of getting your money back, but not all of it. When you sign up to an automatic cash back deal you are agreeing to pay some of the original contract yourself. What this means in simple terms, is you are getting a phone contract half price. There are of course, some limitations to this. The contract will often feature not as many minutes and texts and a 12 month free line rental contract.

An average automatic cash back deal offers 100 minutes and 100 texts, although this can be more. Also, the handset that comes with the phone is often basic, so don’t expect a blackberry on one of these deals! The handset you will get will do all the basic needs of a phone, texts, calls, voicemails and many will do basic pictures. And automatic cash back deal is for you if you want a phone just for basic texts and calls and don’t want a sparkly model.

Nokia C1-01 black, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. 100MB data per month.

Tariff Name: 50 mins 250 texts (12m), Network T-Mobile, 12 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Nokia C1-01 black, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £16, Total Cost After Discounts £176

12 Month Contract, £16 Instant Cash Back, Monthly Cost £16, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £14.67

Samsung C3050 black, 200 minutes to any network and 1000 texts. 1GB internet data per month.

Tariff Name: Talkmobile 20 with 1GB (12m), 12 Month Contract, 200 Anytime Minutes, 1000 Free Text Messages, Samsung C3050 black, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £190, Total Cost After Discounts £50

12 Month Contract, £190 Instant Cash Back, Monthly Cost £20, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £4.17

Although these automatic cash back deals mean you do have to pay some of your line rental bill, many people find these better as especially people with busy and hectic lifestyles. With an automatic cash back deal you don’t have to worry about sending off forms and different documentation at specific times.

So you will be wondering what the catch is when it comes to automatic cash back deals, because nobody gives something away for nothing right? Well the catch, and it isn’t even a very big catch, it that the handset you will receive won’t be the latest model. For some people this is more than adequate as they just want a phone to make calls and not to take pictures and play audio files. The number of minutes offered is also less than a free line rental contract and by doing this the mobile phone retailers are hoping to push you towards the better looking free line rental deal by offering more minutes and texts with the 12 month free line rental deal and also offering it free. But remember unless you are incredibly organised then the free line rental deal will actually end up costing you more money than the automatic cash back deal. The automatic cash back deal at least offers you a guarantee of getting some money back.

There are a number of questions you need to ask yourself before signing into a contract. You need to be sure if you are the right person for a free line rental deal and whether you can commit to a 12 month contract or even an 18 or 24 month contract. Two years is a long time.

Samsung E1080, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.

Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Samsung E1080, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0

24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00

Nokia 100 black, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.

Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Nokia 100 black, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0

24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00

1. Organisation. In order for you to get your cash back in a free line rental deal, you need to be really organised. Make sure you write down all the dates you need to send off your relevant paperwork and make sure you send it in time to get your money back. Remember, these free line rental deals often have a very narrow time window in which to claim the money back. They make their money on commission which relies on your forgetting to send off the right information at the right time. So keep all the correct documents in the same place and remember where that place is! It is also a good idea to keep copies of all the documents that you will be sending off and send everything recorded delivery.

2. Text and call allowance. Make an accurate estimation of your monthly text and call numbers so that you can choose the tariff that is right for you. It is best to always estimate slightly over your accurate number of texts and minutes used a month as if you go over your tariff you will be charged extra and the extra charges won’t be able to be claimed back. Also, be aware that the extra charges are a lot more than a normal tariff, sometimes double the normal text rate. Now that may only be 10p more per text but if you go over your text limit and aren’t aware, the extra pennies on your extra calls and texts can add up to a lot of pounds!

3. Make sure you go with a respected company. Although most of these 12 month free line rental mobile phone deals are legit, there are some scam companies out there who just aim to take your money and disappear. These are usually easily identified as they will ask for a lot of the money in a one off up front payment. Also, with a respected and well known mobile phone retailer, you can be sure your financial side of the contract is safe in case of a company meltdown to equivalent. The same goes for your contract, if the company was to dissolve, your contract would still be safe.

And finally…

Read the small print. You may have had mobile phone contracts before where they will replace your phone, no questions asked, if it gets lost, stolen or damaged. But not all mobile phone companies that offer long term free line rental will offer this damage/loss garuntee. Also, most of the companies that offer free line rental contracts will have a clause that make you liable for charges if you decide to opt out half way through your contract. They won’t charge you anything extra that what you would have already paid of course. But if you decide you want to change networks and keep the same number, or you get a new number and don’t use the contract your already in, they can charge you the monthly bill, even if you send off the appropriate paperwork.

Free line rental contracts can work, you just need to know how to play the mobile phone companies at their own game in order to get everything 100% free.

Samsung E1080, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.

Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Samsung E1080, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0

24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00

Nokia 100 black, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.

Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Nokia 100 black, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0

24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00

The most common incentive is offering a free laptop. Sometimes the free laptop comes with a free internet connection for a set amount of months and some come with a free dongle or such device that lets you connect to the internet on the move. Internet is a big business at the moment and you’ll find that most mobile phones on these 12 month free line rental deals also come with free internet on the handset. Other than free laptops mobile phone retailers offer other sorts of electronic gadgets. Mp3 players are a popular choice of free gift. And many mobile phone companies opt to give away iPods, as anything with the Apple name on it is valuable and trendy these days. Some even go as far as offering free online downloads as part of their free mp3 player package.

Another thing to bear in mind is the handset itself. A 12 month free line rental package is a good way to get an up to the minute mobile phone for free. For example, the Blackberry is now a really popular type of mobile phone as it lets you access the internet on the move and mobile phone retailers make good use of this fact when getting you to sign in to a 12 month free line rental package. Some mobile phone retailers may even discount the handset as well  in the form of a reduced or non existant first payment. Another incentive that mobile phone retailers use when trying to get you to sign up to free line rental is instant cash back. So you sign into a 12, 18 or 24 month contract and the mobile phone retailer gives you the first 2, 4 or even 6 months free. Sounds great BUT they do this in hope that you’ll be so used to getting your line rental for free that you’ll forget to send off your documents in order to claim your refund once the free months line rental is up.

Remember, free line rental is a competitive business and mobile phone retailers work on commission so they’ll be practically bending over backwards to get you to sign up to a 12 month free line rental deal. In order to get the most out of one of these deals my advice is to know how to play the system. Keep a record of all the dates you need to send off forms to claim cash back and make sure you send all the correct documents off in time. If you are organised about it, 12 ,18 or 24 month free line rental phone contracts can work in your favour.

Although, like I mentioned before, these deals do look a bit sketchy and the word ‘free’ makes them seem a lot more so, they do actually work if you learn how to play the system properly.

Samsung E1080, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.

Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Samsung E1080, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0

24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00

Nokia 100 black, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.

Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Nokia 100 black, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0

24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00

So how does Free Line Rental work?

Free line rental is essentially a mobile phone contract in which you pay for, like a normal mobile phone contract, and then claim the money back afterwards.  Unlike some mobile phone contracts, free line rental contracts are made by mobile phone providers and not mobile phone networks (so for example the contract will be provided by a company such as Nokia instead of a network like Virgin Mobile). Free Line Rental contracts are typically incentive deals. Which means that they offer you a free mobile and contract in exchange for a number of things, one being free advertising. If you get a good contract and its free, you’re bound to tell your friends and family, meaning that they’ll sign up too and the mobile phone providers will get more customers. The other way free line rental deals make their money is by counting on your busy lifestyle. Basically, in order to claim your money back you have to be incredibly organised. Free Line Rental deals only give you your money back if you give them the correct evidence. They require you to send them monthly bills at certain times during the contract. These times are usually in 3 month intervals, so you send 3 months worth of invoices in month 3, the next 3 invoices in month 6, the next 3 invoices in month 9 and so on. But the deadline for sending your invoices in is usually in a very small window, so it has to arrive within that week or you will not claim your money back. Free line rental deals are often more expensive than if you don’t follow the rules exactly you can end up paying more than you would when actually paying for a normal contract. So, in short, the free line rental deals make their money by relying on you forgetting to send your invoices at the right time. They think that your busy lifestyle and work/family commitments will stop you from remembering to send all the correct paperwork off in time.

So, free line rental deals do work, but in order for them to work you need to be organised.

Do free line rental deals really make the phone providers money?

If used correctly, 12 month free line rental deals actually make the phone providers lose money. Mobile phone providers make their money on commission from the mobile phone networks, and quite a large commission at that. The mobile phone network controls the monthly fee but pay the mobile phone commission on top of that. So if you accept into one of these deals and follow all the rules and get your money back, the mobile phone provider who gave you the contract will lose their commission.

Of course there are risks with free line rental deals. Think about how long the contract is and how much they want paid up front. Many companies get you to pay monthly but sometimes they want you to pay in 3 or 4 month instalments. There’s always a risk of the company going into administration, especially in the current economic climate. So if you want to go for a free line rental deal, make sure you go for one that means you pay monthly, so that if something does go wrong with the supplier, you only lose a month’s money.