Have any of your friends ever gotten a mobile phone completely free of charge, not just the handset itself, but the line rental too? Well, some of mine have, and here is how they do it!

First off, what does a free line rental deal give you? Well, as the name suggests, a free line rental mobile gives you a free mobile phone handset, and free line rental, and free text messages. That means that your entire contract will not cost you a penny!

So how can this be? Surely any company offering free line rental deals would go out of business? Well, yes, indeed many have gone out of business, the ones that got their free line rental terms wrong!

So, here is where it gets complex! With a free line rental deal you actually have to pay your phone bill as normal for the first 6 months or so. So, at this point it is not 12 months free line rental at all!

Later on in the contract, the retailer will give you the chance to make a claim for cash back from them. This cash back is what actually covers the cost of the mobile phone contract. Once you get that money back from the phone retailer, you will have got your phone cost free for 12 months.

So how do the retailers make money? Surely retailers lose money on free line rental deals? Absolutely, but, only if the customer successfully makes their claim for cashback! If the customer forgets to make that claim, then they end up paying their line rental as normal, and the retailer makes their money. You see, it is a battle of wits!

To reduce the number of people making a successful claim, retailers insist that you submit your claim on a particular date hoping you will forget! They also insist that you produce documentation such as phone bills, which they hope you will lose! By putting trips and clauses like these into free line rental deals retailers make sure that enough customers fail to get their cash back for them to make a profit. So, only by you failing to claim can the retailer make their money!

So, in summary, it is possible to get a 12 months free line rental mobile contract, and the deals are legitimate, legal and above board. But, they are also too good to be true. There are a lot of strings attached, and only the smart customer is likely to walk away with a free phone. The rest will pay their line rental as normal!

If you take out a free line rental deal, just make sure that you organise yourself. That you know when you have to make your claim, and that you also know where all the necessary paperwork is!