EVO Plans - Be Careful

[Mobilemandan]

So just a heads up for anyone on Vodafone they only sell handsets on EVO plans now and this may cause a few headaches. 

now they even credit check upgrades and differently for addition lines

on the OLD way once you pay for A SIM for 3 months you can upgrade to a phone, and when you are due a phone upgrade you can pick any phone. 

also if you want to add an additional line once approved you can pick what you like. 

HOWEVER!

EVO has changed all that, now a sim only customer gets credit checked for an upgrade which might decline….. and worse…..

if you are on a handset plan and due an upgrade they check you for that too now, which means you can be due an upgrade, fail a new credit check and be declined your new upgrade phone meaning you usage to keep what you have or change to a sim only. 

also if you pay off your phone or choose to upgrade on 12 months it’s ANOTHER credit check being done on you to see if they will let you, not an internal one based on your bill history like before. 

when EVO was announced I thought it was amazing and excited to see the deals, however I have already known of someone who had an account with Vodafone already, had handsets only last month which were returned in order to order on the new EVO plans and get declined, and then declined upgrading their sim to a phone also. 

seems a backwards move so just a heads up to everyone to look into the details before getting too excited, personally if I paid my bill every month for 2yrs and then I got told I can’t upgrade to a new phone because of a credit check system I would end up just getting my PAC and going elsewhere 

[Jambo1872]

Just upgraded last night and thought it was strange that I had been credit checked. 13 years a Vodafone customer now. 

Its not an issue of paying your debts on time and being fine, but the fact that any credit searches and new applications for credit have a detrimental effect to your credit score. 

Also not a fan of the device plan and airtime plan being split up the way it is. Although it makes no difference in the end when the money is taken, it just seems strange to switch to that method. It has always been an “all in one” price. 

[chistery]

As much as I don't like the credit checks, when you see that CPI+3.9% yearly increase is only applied to your airtime agreement and not the phone, you'll be glad of the split!

CPI was 0.7% in Jan, it's now 3.2% for Aug. By Jan it's likely to rise more.

[Jambo1872]

Good point.

As you are basically paying for the phone with a full credit agreement, and its not subsidised by the network via an airtime plan + phone combined, does that mean the phones are unlocked?

[garetc]

Vodafone have been selling most of their phones unlocked for a bit now. As of December 2021, Ofcom require all phones to be sold unlocked including those on a device plan.

Might need to check that’s the case with Apple iPhones at the moment but this is definitely the case with Android devices. 

Got my direct from Apple so can’t check. 

[Jambo1872]

Ahh thanks, I didn’t know that. Last phone I got was an IPhone 11 in 2019 from Voda. It ended up being faulty and was replaced by Apple with an unlocked handset. It comes in handy when you need to stick a local sim in abroad. With the rise of eSim and dual sim functionality all phones should be unlocked anyway. 

Just seen this on the Voda site:

Good news - many of our devices, including all Apple products, are already unlocked. Just insert a SIM from another network and you should be ready to go.

[garetc]

Not sure if it’s limited to the pro models but dual-eSIM works on iPhone 13’s.

Before we were limited to an eSIM and a physical SIM only. 

[sm9690]

I've just hit this rubbish barrier - I just got declined after trying to pay off my existing contract (£577) and upgrade online to a new phone. Apparently they can't overturn any decisions as the phone plan is underwritten by PayPal credit! 

I had issues with eBay/PayPal 6 months ago due to incorrect billing of eBay fees, so had to do a chargeback through my bank and won. This is the only reason why I can think it would be declined as i've been with vodafone for 3 years and pay £85pm for phone/broadband. 

[Memszy91]

Unfortunately I have also just now started to see this with the new EVO plans, been with Vodafone 7 years which I know doesn’t mean anything but point is the old style contract which im currently on I was planning an Apple Watch upgrade which goes out of contract in a weeks time, tried to upgrade and subsequently failed the credit check because of the new plans, I get my report is no where perfect in fact it’s worse because of covid 19 like many others out there, I had took out a annual upgrade promise last year had the iPhone 11 Pro Max and upgraded to the 12 pro max, plan was to upgrade then to 13 pro max  and can now assume this isn’t going to work my report at the moment I can confess is terrible loosing various jobs because of covid debt etc , however my bills have been paid again because of covid there has been times where I’ve fallen short and haven’t been able to pay the full amount but this is now cleared and my account is in good standing, Is there any point taking this via the ombudsman route or is this a waste of time, I don’t like the way EVO plans are set up but I noticed that all other providers had this ages ago unfortunately it’s Vodafone that’s now switched it 

[garetc]

If you’ve failed the credit check for the watch then it’s safe to say you won’t be able to use the annual upgrade promise. Vodafone are covered by their T&C’s which says ‘subject to status’ in the small print. I’d email in to complain about it, if enough people complain they might review the policy and look at internal credit ratings the same way O2 do. 

You can wait and see what happens in 3 months, which is when the old check should expire.

It also might be worth registering for a free credit checker service and look at ways of improving your report if/where you can to increase your chances of being accepted next time around.

Repeat or frequent credit checks can also adversely impact your credit rating so in the 3 months run up to trying again you might want to make sure you don’t apply for anything that requires a hard check. 

There’s little point going to the Ombudsman with this as they won’t be able to overrule the decision.

[WelshPaul]

Am I the only one scratching my head as to why anyone would want to take a phone via Vodafone EVO? Why wouldn't anyone shop around and buy SIM free? You can get 5 interest free payments via Amazon, interest free credit via Klarna and Paypal Credit to name just two... After all, if you can pass a credit check with Vodafone then you will pass a credit check with the rest. Your phone will be SIM free, Unbranded,  you get the latest firmware updates earlier than one supplied by Vodafone and it works out cheaper at times too (never costs more)!