Paid to have a mobile phone
I take extreme saving to far out levels. I don't end up poisoning myself with grotty improvised meals but I will engineer money saving deals beyond logical.

That's why for the last 3 years I've been PAID to have a mobile phone & home insurance!

Careful choice of the right cashback deal, contract length, phone handset etc means that I'm currently on a 12 month contract for which I'm getting the 12 months reimbursed in cashback form.

Add to this the affiliate payment of £45 I got for taking out in the contract in the first place and I'm already up on the deal.

Then I've never been fussed about having a decent handset so I reused my old one and the new (free) one went out on ebay just before Christmas for £110!

All in by early December I will have been PAID £155 to have a contract mobile phone for 1 year!!!

A similar deal on house insurance has seen me paid £70 to have house insurance free of charge.

Admittedly it did take hours to figure out the connection of deals to make it feasible and keeping calendar dates is very important to claim on the right dates!
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:59, 5 replies)

I'd ask how
but they'd probably close whatever loopholes you're exploiting. So I'll just click instead.
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:04, closed)

Not that hard
Use various sites like "onecompare" and "nocostmobiles" to identify the best deal on a contract.

Then use affiliate schmes like "quidco" (NOT the ones you used in step 1 to find the deal!) to get some cashback for taking out the contract.

Then use ebay or other marketplace to sell the handset for as much as possible (helps to do your research on which handsets sell for the most before choosing your deal at step 1).

Finally use a free reminder site like "memo to me" to diarise all the claim dates for your cashback so you never miss a single one.

Setup envelopes & photocopies off all relevent claim paperwork in advance so when you get each bill, pop them in the envelope and post on the relevent date.
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:16, closed)

Don't count your chickens
Most of these mobile cashback deals are frauds or, at best, so insanely complicated that it is near impossible to get the money. Typical tricks include demanding that the first twelve bills are submitted within twelve months of the contract starting and even if you manage they they are likely just not-to-receive-them. Guv.

That said, flogging the upgrade phone has always struck me as a Sound Scheme.
(ubergeekian, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:23, closed)

Which is why
I only do it with reputable national companies like onestopphoneshop & e2save who are both owned by carphone warehouse.

Plus this is the 3rd year I've successfully done it. 6 weeks time I'll be starting my 4th year.

Oh, and I always send them recorded delivery with a backup sent by fax.
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 11:49, closed)

Great plan but...
Also some luck?

I tried the cashback thing with e2save a few years back and never got a penny back from them. They refused to answer my letters or emails of complaints, and wouldn't deal with me via the phone. They also subscribed me for phone insurance after I had explicitly instructed them that I did not want phone insurance, which I could only then cancel with a months notice in writing.
(cherrynicola, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 23:54, closed)