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!

Well, if you haven’t, you are about to find out how you can get a completely free mobile phone for 12 months. That means a free handset, with free calls and free text messaging!

Sound too good to be true, well, to a point it is, it is not easy to get a free line rental mobile phone, but, it is possible. There are people who do this year in year out and never pay a penny for their mobile!

The way it works is this, when taking out your new mobile contract the retailer offers to give you cash back, to cover the cost of your bills. So, initially you have to pay the bill as normal. At this point, you are out of pocket, not what you would expect from a 12 months free line rental deal!

At a later date, often 9, 10 or 11 months into the contract, you have to submit a claim for cashback. Assuming you have done everything the retailer asked you to when you took out the mobile contract, the retailer will refund your money, via instant cash back which will cover the entire cost of your phone contract. Thus, the retailers are able to advertise these as free line rental deals.

The question you are asking now is probably how do these companies make money from giving away free mobile phones? The answer is they don’t! They have to avoid paying that cash back! So, a free line rental deal is actually a battle of wits, with customers trying to get the cashback for a free phone, and the retailers setting them up to fail!

They insist that you make your claim on a specified date (which you may forget) and insist that you produce documentation and phone bills (which you may lose). The retailers ensure that only a minority of people who take out a free line rental deal actually get the cash back.

So, yes, 12 month free deals are too good to be true, but, they are also possible to exploit. It is possible to out smart the retailers and get that elusive 12 month free contract, but you have to be determined.

If you go for a free line rental deal, make sure you record all the relevant dates, keep all relevant paperwork and above all else, read the small print!