Probably a very silly question about mobile phones

[Parisbanana]

Dd has a phone on contract (which she has honoured) so looked for a new deal. Good deal online but no good for an upgrade which was a bit about. So decided to take out a new contract.
So just need to cancel old one. It's fine to do it, it was a 2 year contract so we are allowed to! But do I go into the store and tell them and ask them to stop direct debit or do I just stop it at the bank?
Told you it was a silly question but dh and I have always got great upgrade deals so never had to cancel before.

You have to cancel direct debit at the bank, store can't do it ... it's your bank account. I'd let the store know you're cancelling just out of courtesy.

Great thank you

You may prefer to wait until after the account is closed simply because they will send one perhaps 2 'final' bills (one may appear a month after closing account... they do this in case any straggling charges accrue if (for example) the phone had been used abroad just before closing the account.

It's probably just as easy to ring customer services to say you wish to cancel... why make a special trip to a shop ?

For future (and advice I've seen on HotUKdeals.com) it is sometimes worth asking for the PAC (porting authority code) which one uses to move the number to another network. That needs to be done in place of saying 'cancel the contract' (I made the mistake of saying 'cancel' and have had to chase Three via OFTEL to get the PAC to move my number), and on asking, the 'retentions' staff may offer a better deal as they see you are serious about going.

I was after a deal costing 4 or 5 quid less than what I'd been paying with Three. Unfortunately it was for a phone shown on Three-Clearance.co.uk (a refurbished Nokia) and the deal for 11 quid a month gave 500 min, 5000 texts, unlimited internet, but the phone was out of stock and they wouldn't offer anything close to 11 quid to attempt to keep me. If they could have done a SIM with the allowances and ignored the Nokia (and perhaps charged a couple of quid less for it being without a phone) I'd have jumped at it.

Even more galling after the hassle I had asking for the PAC a week or two back, was that others have been offered (when asking for their PAC) a different phone, 500 min, 5000 texts, 2000 '3 to 3' minutes and unlimited internet for 11 quid a month, in the weeks since I cancelled. So a real kick in the teeth as far as I was concerned.

Anyway I managed to get a deal with T-Mobile offering their 'Full Monty' for 16 quid a month (reduced from 31) giving unlimited minutes, texts and internet, and TopCashBack should give me the sum of 101 quid in a couple of months or so, taking the overall cost to under 8 quid a month.

I wish I'd used a cashback site before I got the contract with Three a year ago, as that would have saved me about a fiver a month on the effective cost. Sorry if this is too late for the contract for your DD, Parisbanana but we often learn how we might have done things after the event, don't we...

Always worth going through the 'I'm leaving' option on your network's customer service line. Tell them the other deal you have and see what they can do. They'll often give you a better deal. I've had networks effectively pay me to upgrade to top of the range handset before now!

Phone up your mobile company. They have a department whose job is to persuade you to stay. They will look at how much you use your phone and how many people call you (they get a cut from the originating network so if you are a popular person then you make them more money). From there, they will decide how badly they want you to stay with them.

I suggest that you find the phone and deal that you want and then get your existing company to better it. Nothing lost if they don't.

With regards to cancelling, you give your notice, usually to the end of the month. You should be paying in advance so go ahead and cancel your DD. Your new company will provide you with a PAC which is a serial number. You give that to your current company and they will give you a date a few days in the future. Some time during that day your number will switch over to the new phone.

Your old company will calculate how much it needs to reimburse you for unused days. Remember, you paid in advance for the month.

Without the PAC DD won't be able to keep her old number so do get that.

Is the new contract on a different network? If it's the same network they don't have to give you the PAC code (though they might offer the deal via network) so DD would have to start again anyway.

If it's the same network they don't have to give you the PAC code

True, but you can move to a PAYG and then move the number back.

PITA I know but not impossible to keep the same number if you want...

Not sure if any networks charge a fee, so worth searching in case the PAYG 'stop gap' then charges you extra to move the number away... (back to originall network, IYSWIM).

s/to a PAYG/to a PAYG on a different network/