Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, 8.ta, Virgin cellphone contracts compared

I think there should have been three types of contracts compared. I know this would have been difficult with Cell C since it has the straight up contracts with 99c for everything but I think the three types of contracts compared would help a lot of people. Especially when new and exciting phones have just come out for instance when the iPhone 5 hits SA shores.

The three types of contracts would be those with peak and off-peak rates and bundles (data, SMS and airtime), Top-Up contracts and the third type of contract would be those in which you pay in say R1,000 (seperated between the two contracts I mentioned above).
 
Spot on regarding the per second! try just once scrutinize you calls over a month and look at how many sub 10 second calls you make, Vodacom would be charging you R2.70 during peak for every one of those (to other networks)!!! Best plan is to make a simple excel table with all your calls for a month, then add a column with the billing from each operator. Per minute is an absolute killer no matter the rate!

One more week and I can move to the Cell C awesomeness!!
 
There should be a law against per minute billing and excessive OOB rates. It is a disgrace how the service providers rip their customers off like this. How do they sleep at night?
 
Face it, most of us pick the phone we want first and then try shoehorn it into a contract we can afford. This is probably the worst way to select a contract, as you often end up with a phone that’s too “expensive” for the contract you can afford and then end up paying in, and on a contract with prohibitively pricey rates.
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I don't know about everyone else but I prefer to buy the phone I really want at a good price outright for cash and use it on a 4U contract (I don't make a lot of cellular calls, I use VOIP calls and make Neotel to Telkom calls). The downside to 4U contracts is that the call rate is high but I still recommend buying one's phone outright and use it on a contract that comes with a crappy phone (or no phone if you can find such a contract with decent call rates). Cell C's 99c any time to any network is an even more compelling reason to buy the phone you want and use it with a Cell C prepaid SIM.
 
j4ck455 said:
I don't know about everyone else but I prefer to buy the phone I really want at a good price outright for cash and use it on a 4U contract (I don't make a lot of cellular calls, I use VOIP calls and make Neotel to Telkom calls). The downside to 4U contracts is that the call rate is high but I still recommend buying one's phone outright and use it on a contract that comes with a crappy phone (or no phone if you can find such a contract with decent call rates). Cell C's 99c any time to any network is an even more compelling reason to buy the phone you want and use it with a Cell C prepaid SIM.
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Or get your phone with FNB, at least you still pay a good price, but can pay it off over 24 months. Then use that phone with a much cheaper contract as you say. I for one like this option a lot more, and is what I will do with my next contract. For now, I did get a pretty damn good deal from 8ta with per second billing.
 
Tinuva said:
Or get your phone with FNB, at least you still pay a good price, but can pay it off over 24 months. Then use that phone with a much cheaper contract as you say. I for one like this option a lot more, and is what I will do with my next contract. For now, I did get a pretty damn good deal from 8ta with per second billing.
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I bought my S2 on special from Telkom/8ta, IIRC it was R3589 (no contract), as much as I want an S3 I will wait patiently until I can find a really good price. I did have a look at the phones that FNB were selling before I bought my S2, at the time FNB did not have a good selection (fairly sure the S2 was not on the FNB list at the time).

The point I think we are both making is that people should save up for a new phone and shop around instead of automatically thinking that a cellular contract is the only way to get a new phone.
 
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