Buy 1 get 1 free on all Tesco Mobile top-ups from €10+ (free credit lasts 30 days)

Oracle

Tesco Mobile are now matching your paid top-up (amounts from €10) with the same amount in free call credit, valid for 30 days from top-up. The only catch is your paid for credit is used first, then the free credit: http://www.tescomobile.ie/index.aspx

Terms and conditions: http://www.tescomobile.ie/great_deals.aspx

Good deal on the Motorola V3 for €40 with up to €125 free credit: http://shop.tescomobile.ie/phones/displayPhone.aspx?p=29

shalom

can I put my old sim card in this phone or does it have to be a tesco sim card? I am with vodafone.

Esel

You can port your existing number from vodafone.

Also, the free credit in the above Get One free offer expires after thirty days, according to the T&Cs.

Oracle

You can't use your old SIM card in this phone, it's locked to the Tesco Mobile network. But you can move your number over to them, although if you're on Pay As You Go, you'll lose any existing call credit on your old network. So it's best to use that up first: http://www.tescomobile.ie/KeepYourNumber.aspx

shalom

ok Thanks for your help. I want to stay with vodafone for various reasons. I appreciate the help.

PeterDuggan

Steer clear of Tesco Mobile. They love removing your credit!

thecivvie

PeterDuggan wrote: »

Steer clear of Tesco Mobile. They love removing your credit!

Strange never happened to my or my kids

PeterDuggan

thecivvie wrote: »

Strange never happened to my or my kids

Ah but you wouldn't know... they remove it without telling you.

I discovered this only by accident. Thought I had just used up the credit myself but when I pressed them for details they admitted "actually we removed it". Has since been noticed by some mates as well.

Might look like good value but if they're removing bits of your credit they're not!

Oracle

I think you're being a bit unfair to Tesco Mobile Peter. Any extra free call credit that Tesco Mobile apply expires after 30 days, any top-ups you pay for do not expire. This is clearly stated in their terms and conditions: http://www.tescomobile.ie/terms/tcs_free_credit.aspx under point 7, and the expiry date is clearly shown in your account online. Plus all free extra credit is used before paid credit so overall it's fair. As far as I remember, they send a text message about this as well.

PeterDuggan

Oracle wrote: »

Any extra free call credit that Tesco Mobile apply expires after 30 days, any top-ups you pay for do not expire. This is clearly stated in their terms and conditions: http://www.tescomobile.ie/terms/tcs_free_credit.aspx under point 7, and the expiry date is clearly shown in your account online. Plus all free extra credit is used before paid credit so overall it's fair. As far as I remember, they send a text message about this as well.

Well no I'm just stating the facts - which I discovered by chance and which most people are probably unaware of.

Tesco's unique policy (of deleting people's credit) is certainly not clearly stated at all. It's a a fairly nasty thing to delete someone's credit without their knowledge. Tesco's policy should be clear in big print on their advertising and the front of literature before you buy. It's not. Instead it's buried in the very small print of T&C's enclosed with the product.

My friends have discovered by chance several lots of credit which were removed from their phones by Tesco in most cases without any notice, text message or otherwise.

And by the way all credit (including top-ups) can be deleted by Tesco. Their own staff are confused as to when paid credit is removed but confirm that they do in fact remove it.

Maybe Tesco will change this policy but until then - steer clear!

Oracle

Sorry for your trouble Peter. This has not happened to me, I'd say if this was widespread there would be a lot of bad reports about Tesco Mobile. As far as I know there's not. You and your friends you should complain to Comreg and ask for a refund. On a point of information, their policy of free credit expiring is not unique, free credit also expires after 30 days with 3 Ireland.

Morlar

Oracle wrote: »

Good deal on the Motorola V3 for €40 with up to €125 free credit: http://shop.tescomobile.ie/phones/displayPhone.aspx?p=29

Shame it's pink. Also the conditions on the €125 credit - ie you have to topup by €20 per month to get much of that in €8.50 installments which you then need to use per month and the other conditions too.

Oracle

It's a shame there's so much moaning and groaning on this thread as well.

Morlar

Oracle wrote: »

It's a shame there's so much moaning and groaning on this thread as well.

I wouldn't call it moaning - just pointing out the details which were lacking in the original post.

The main one being that the phone is pink but also the stringent conditions to access the 'free' credit.

If the phone wasn't pink and the conditions were better I probably would have gone for it. I wouldn't call that moaning so maybe you should be a bit less sensitive.

PeterDuggan

Oracle wrote: »

Sorry for your trouble Peter. This has not happened to me, I'd say if this was widespread there would be a lot of bad reports about Tesco Mobile. As far as I know there's not. On a point of information, their policy of free credit expiring is not unique, free credit also expires after 30 days with 3 Ireland.

Yeah but I think most people don't even realise they've been done out of credit... they just assume they've used it up themselves.

Interesting about 3...

Shelbo

I was with Meteor for about 6/7 years and moved to Tesco Mobile in July - they are the cheapest around and with their new offer if I top up by €10 I actually really get €20 worth of calls or texts and with their low rates that gives me 100 minutes of calls which is fab value!

If you're having a problem with them I'd write to them/e-mail them all the details - no operator can delete credit unless it's covered in their terms & conditions - I've never had this problem and have found the customer service excellent any time I phoned them. Must check the terms & conditions on credit now.

Shelbo

Just looked at the terms & conditions - all free credit is valid for 30 days then it will expire which is fair enough - if you use your phone at all you'll use it up.

Shelbo

Morlar wrote: »

Shame it's pink. Also the conditions on the €125 credit - ie you have to topup by €20 per month to get much of that in €8.50 installments which you then need to use per month and the other conditions too.

I'm a Tesco Mobile customer and I do have to top up by €20 in a month to get the free credit I got with my Sony Ericsson W580i but unlike most other operators it is cumulative €20 in a month with Tesco Mobile so if you want you could buy €5 a week for four weeks and you'd have your €20 cumulatively - most others ask for €20 in one go which some people like students and those hit by the credit crunch mightn't have.

The V3 is pink but they have lots of phones for €40 or less on their website with varying amounts of credit on them so maybe there's a non pink one there for you - they may have more in store too so if you've a Tesco store near you it might be worth a look?

irishpaddy

you dont have to buy a tesco phone to get their offer do you. i have a nokia and i find it a very good phone with a great camera, so i would like to keep it. the thing with 02 that i was with is if you topped up for €30 you got €3 free; very little but they even stopped that, anyway thanks for the reply.

Esel

No, just either buy the Tesco SIM card for €2.50 (you get it free if you buy a €10 top-up with it).
Your existing phone has to be unlocked of course. The SIM comes with €0.50 free credit (!), but you get €20 when you register (expires in a month), plus something like €2.50 a month for 3 months (I think). If you switch your number you also get even more free credit. Any free credit you have is used before your paid credit, and when you top up by €10 or €20 in one go (i.e. not multiples of €5), you get the same amount of free credit.

After typing all that, I hope I haven't repeated what was in the thread already, because I didn't read the previous posts when I saw how old they were!

irishpaddy

no fine thanks for all the help.

Barr

Is there any free web texts with tesco mobile ?

Esel

Pretty sure there are no free texts.

chalkitdown

The most negative aspect is the minimum 20c call charge.

Xterminator

i have a tesco mobile over a year now, and no credit dissapears.

you get a credit balance, (paid for) which doesnt expire. and a separate free credit balance , which expires 30 days after top up, (and when you check your free credit balance; it tells you what date it expires).

theres nothing hidden about it, the credit balances are even kept seperate so you dont mix them up.

whatever i top up by,is matched in free credit, thus i never to up by more than 10euro at a time, and get 30 days to use my free credit.

for a lite user like me, thats 30 days free calls and texts before i start using my on paid for credit.

Oracle

Yes this was confirmed by a Tesco Mobile user on another thread. Contrary to what their terms and conditions say, the free credit is used first, then your paid for credit.

mell61

I signed up to Tesco to cut my call costs, yes I use the EU10 credit plus Eu10 free, so financially its making sense for me, but....
I have a lot of problems getting reception in my home, the hubby is on O2 (the network providing tesco mobile), and he doesn't have any problems at all - his reception will show full bar, while I'm struggling to get 1 bar! So I'm missing lots of calls when at home.
I contacted tesco custoemr service to see if they can identify a problem with why the reception is so bad, and basically I got told it was because "its 2G not 3G". I pressed for more details as that doesn't really make sense to me, as 2/3G is the media being transferred as far as I know, so wouldn't 2G be a more basic less 'hungry' method?
When I asked for more details I got told that that was it, and if I wasn't happy I could just to to O2!
I'm seriously checking other providers, as reception is a basic requirement, not a bells and whistles add on!
Whomever is doing their customer service really needs some retraining!

My take on it, financially it a good deal, but I lose reception in city centre Dublin, at home and when driving on the M1, so its not the best option for me.

Esel

^ That's a weird one. I've never had any coverage issues.... Maybe you might get a better response/explanation if you e-mail them? Keep us posted!

dowtchaboy

mell61 wrote: »

I have a lot of problems getting reception in my home, the hubby is on O2 (the network providing tesco mobile), and he doesn't have any problems at all - his reception will show full bar, while I'm struggling to get 1 bar! So I'm missing lots of calls when at home.

That does sound odd - are you certain it's not a handset problem? Can you swap the SIM with someone and see if the reception is still as bad?

I signed up with them 2 weeks ago and am very happy with the value, even though I now have to pay to call SWMBO who is on Vodafone. Their Customer Service I found polite and helpful, though it did take quite some time to get a problem over initial credit being wiped when I moved my old number sorted out. They also respond to emails which is nice.

mell61

Just to follow up, I had changed my mobile about 2 months ago (I've been with tesco for 3 months), to see if it was the handset causing the issues, but have still got no reception at home (ok a flickering 1 bar if its left on a metal box on my window sill :rolleyes: ).

At the moment Vodafone are in the lead for changing my mobile, as their new landline/broadband offer of 30% discount for 'existing' customers will cover the difference financially of changing from Tesco.