Are free cell phones really free?

I'm sure you have heard that there is nothing like a "free lunch". Well, there is no such thing as an absolutely "free cell phone" either. You may get a free handset but you still have to pay to get it activated and since it was "free" you have to go by the regulations of the place where you got your free cell phone from. Free cell phone offers come with certain strings attached, such as:

• Free After Money-back: Very often you have to first pay for the cell phone and then claim a mail-back rebate which makes your cell phone "free". The process can take a long time, even as much as a couple of months. Some people simply forget about the offer, some lose the rebate coupon, while some just keep postponing till the money-back offer expires. For whatever reason, very few people actually claim their rebate and the seller benefits from our expected lethargy and forgetfulness.

• Longer contracts: Usually with a free cell phone offer you may be required to enter into a contract and commit for a longer period of 2 years instead of 1 year. You are liable to be stuck with your free cell phone even if you do not want it anymore as you have committed to it.

• Quality: Cell phones provided with free offers are the cheapest and the lowest quality wise. You will get a very basic cell phone which does not have any useful features. It will be large, bulky, and heavy to carry around. Definitely not something you will show off. Instead of accepting a bad free cell phone with a lot of minutes, it may be wiser to go in for a better, sleeker, and stylish phone if you do not need all that airtime.

• Higher rates: Free cell phone merchants tell you that you can get phone plans from the major service providers and even at the same rates. What they will certainly NOT be telling you is that the rate plans offered tend to be the most expensive ones.

If you are on the look out for a "free" cell phone, it might just become more costly than buying one. Which is not to say that free cell phone offers are terrible but just that they are not free.

Answer

What ever happened to the days of the $350 3 watt bag phone that people didn't blink an eye about buying? There was one phone, and two rate plans to choose from when I started in the Cellular 'world.' One rate plan with no minutes included for $19.99 and one plan with 30 minutes included for $39.99.

Answer

I agree with the first post.

Some of the best advice to follow is nothing new -- but it's some of the best advice you'll ever get, I know I've benefited from it -- "If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is."

Answer

Although some of that might have been true a while ago, free cell phones don't suck any more. When you look at all the online retailers bending over backwards to give away free Motorola RAZR phones, you can't claim the offers are only for old, bulky phones. True, you will probably have to claim a rebate, but so what. It's not like giving up your first born child or anything.

Answer

Yes There are so many sites where you can get free cell phones like http://www.mobilephonesuk.org.uk/ ..

First answer by ID3400636332. Last edit by Smith2k8. Contributor trust: 1 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 182 [recommend question]