How the hell do these work and how much do they really cost?

I'm confused.

http://www.mobiles.co.uk/clearance-nokia-n73.html#MobilePhoneTariffs

Pat...

At a guess, you have the choice of ....

a) nothing upfront and £35/month for 18 months. After the first 90 days, you will be sent a cheque for £150

b) Nothing upfront and then nothing for 8 months. After 8 months you pay £35/month for the remaining 10 months

c) Nothing upfront and £35/month for 18 months. A week or so after taking delivery of your phone, you'll also receive a Wii.

[Edited on 30/11/07 by stevebubs]

...unless it's like the one I got for my daughter - £35 a month with the contract amount paid back in 5 chunks over the year: in fact, 3 paid back, then the company went bust

if you watch watchdog a lot of paybacks dont payback.

the companies usually go bust before they can honour all the paybacks!!

Both myself and the other half had contracts with E2save for the last year. They paid all the cheques they should and even sent me an extra £40 they probably shouldnt! I even messed up and completely missed the deadline for sending the bill to them, and they still paid it back. They sent us more than half the 12 month cost back.

how do they make money though???

Several ways;

1, Commission from the network

2, Customers forgetting to redeem the cashback

3, Bonuses by signing up x number of new contracts

Used to work in the industry - know most of the tricks!

[Edited on 1/12/07 by anup]