12 & 18 Months Free Line Rental

Free Line Rental Mobile compares close to a million deals every few hours, of which a small proportion may be what are classified as “Free Line Rental Deals”. The way we do this is to order all deals by “Lowest Total Cost”, which will bring up the cheapest deals first. If there are any free line rental deals available they will show at the top of the results below.
Below are the best 12 months free line rental mobile deals currently available.
To identify 12 Months Free Line Rental Mobile offers look at the “Total Cost” field.
Click here if you need more information on how free line rental deals work.





Samsung E1080, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.


Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Samsung E1080, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0
24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00




Nokia 100 black, 50 minutes to any network and 250 texts. Priority Tickets and Priority Moments for all O2 customers.


Tariff Name: O2 50 (24m), Network o2, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 250 Free Text Messages, Nokia 100 black, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £264, Total Cost After Discounts: £0
24 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 24 Months Free saving you £264, Monthly Cost £11, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00




Nokia 1800, 100 minutes to any network and 500 texts.


Tariff Name: 100 mins 500 texts (18m), Network T-Mobile, 18 Month Contract, 100 Anytime Minutes, 500 Free Text Messages, Nokia 1800, Free Mobile Phone, Total Savings £288, Total Cost After Discounts: £0
18 Month Contract, Free Line Rental, 18 Months Free saving you £288, Monthly Cost £16, Avg Monthly Cost After Discounts: £0.00

What is a Free Line Rental Deal?

A free line rental deal is an incentivised offer made by mobile phone retailers to their customers. It is not an offer made by the network provider. It is very important to understand this.

With a free line rental deal the retailer offers customers the opportunity to claim cash back by redemption over the course of the contract. Typically claims need to be made in months six nine and eleven, but this varies between retailers.

If all cash is claimed back on time, within the terms of the agreement, then, the cash refunded will cover 100% of the total cost of the contract, and are thus described as “free line rental” deals.

This means that for the first portion of the contract you must pay your bill as normal. Again this is why it is important to understand that these deals are an arrangement between yourself and the store where you purchased the phone and are nothing to do with the network providers themselves. The network provider still expects to be paid on time every month!

A free line rental deal is only free if you correctly make your claim for cash back. If you fail to do this then you will have to pay the full amount for the contract as normal.

Are Free Line Rental Deals Genuine?

Yes they are genuine as per the terms of the agreement, if they were not then they would be illegal! I personally know people who have used these deals successfully for years. Whether they should be described as free line rental deals is another matter, as it is not guaranteed that you will receive your cash back. The onus is on you the customer to make the claim. Only if you do this will the deal actually be free.

How Do Free Line Rental Deals Work?

As mentioned, you have to order your mobile phone and pay the bill as normal. When you order your phone you will be given a contract with instructions on how and when to make your claim. It is important you read, understand and keep this contract!

Typically you will not only need to make the claim on specific dates, but you will also need to provide some documentation which may be either:

  • Vouchers given to you when you took out the contract
  • Original copies of your mobile phone bill
  • Now, you may well ask why they need copies of your bill when you have already signed the contract, and the money is being paid to the network providers? Well, I don’t know if there is a genuine reason or not, but, if I were being cynical I would say it is because you may lose them! Read on and I will explain!

    How Do Retailers Make Money From These Deals?

    If you make a successful claim they don’t, they lose money! Think about it, retailers are only paid a commission from the network provider. The network provider has to make a profit on top of the commission paid. So, the commission paid will be less than 100% of the value of the contract. So, if the retailer subsequently has to refund 100% of the cost of the contract they are going to make a loss.

    The only way retailers make money on these deals is if a significant number of customers fail to make their claim, so they introduce a number of “tasks” you must perform in order to get your money back:

  • Provide bills or vouchers (which you may lose)
  • Make several different claims on different dates (which you may forget to do)
  • Make those dates late in the contract (when you are more likely to forget)
  • By using the above methods (and possibly more I have not yet seen) the retailers are able to reduce the number of successful claims to the point where they are able to make a profit. For the majority of customers, this means paying the full price. For the steadfast minority who are pedantic in making their claim on time and to the letter this means… getting a completely cost free mobile phone!

    Is a Free Line Rental Deal for You?

  • Do you like a bargain?
  • Are you methodical and organised?
  • Are you determined to beat the system?
  • If you can answer yest to the above, particularly the second point, then you may make a free line rental deal work for you. If on the other hand you are the kind of person that loses paperwork, forgets dates and cannot be bothered to read the small print, they you should consider an Instant Cashback deal instead (see link at top of page).

    Are There any Other Risks Associated With This Kind of Deal?

    Yes, a big one! If the retailer go’s out of business you will more than likely lose your money, and, this happened quite recently. One retailer got the terms of the contract wrong, I suppose they made it too easy to get the money back. They lost money, went out of business and left a lot of people out of pocket. Look for established retailers that have been running these deals for some time, and check their history (how long they have been in business). Most companies are reputable and you should not have a problem finding a reliable free line rental company.

    Who Can I go to if the Company Go’s Bust?

    Your only recourse is via the administrators winding up the company. Get yourself listed as a creditor and see if you get any money back.

    Wont The Network Providers Help if the Retailer Go’s Bust

    Not on your nelly! I keep stressing, these deals are between you and the retailer. They may be described as free line rental deals, but the networks still want their money, and you will have a binding agreement with them.

    Are 12 Month Free Line Rental offers The Only Kind?

    No you can also get 18 month free line rental deals, but these are not as popular as the 12 month. You can also find deals advertised as 6 or 8 months free. These are all cash back incentive offers and all work in a similar way. The difference is really in the quality of the handset you get. The cheaper the handset, and the more minutes you order, the closer to a 12 month free deal you will get.

    In a Nutshell, Heres The Deal!

    For years mobile retailers gave away free handsets as an incetive to take out contracts via their company. Some users decided that they did not actually want a flash handset, instead wanting cheaper monthly rental fees. These fees are fixed by the network provider, largely non negotiable. So, the retailers engineered this “free line rental” system. They said

    OK… take a cheaper handset and we pay you back the saving which will contribute to the monthly cost”.

    So, what you end up with is something like this:

    1) You sign up with and pay the network provider
    2) The retailer gets paid their commission from the network
    3) You claim your cash back
    4) The retailer pays you your cash back (if you claim correctly, and if they are still around!)

    So, Are These Deals Legit?

    As the saying go’s, if something is too good to be true, it probably is! That is the case with these deals, however, that does not make them a bad idea. As I have already mentioned, I know several people who have been using these deals for years and have made big savings, so, do not be put off! Most companies have been in business for years and are not going to go bust. All you really need concern yourself with are the specifics of the contract, and whether you think you can make a successful claim!

    So Now You Know!

    There is no reason to pay expensive monthly tariffs if you take time to research the best mobile phone deals online!

    The deals listed on Free-Line-Rental-Mobile.co.uk are, by default listed in order of cheapest overall cost. These represent the best mobile phone deals available in terms of overall cost savings. We list deals from all the UK networks and all the major online mobile phone retailers. Additionally we list many deals direct from the network (as opposed to those supplied by a retailer) making our mobile comparisons the most comprehensive in the UK.

    The deals we list represent the best possible buys in terms of service, range of phones, range of tariffs, cost savings and service.

    The 12 month free line rental mobile deals not only give you a mobile phone for free, but, via cash back redemption allow you to claim back 100% of the cost of your mobile phone contract, meaning you also get free inclusive minites and free inclusive texts.

    You can save several hundred pounds over the period of your 12 month contract just by doing a little research (with the help of this comparison site).

    As well as specialising in 12 month free line rental deals we list many mobile deals with other incentives such as free gifts and instant cash back.

    Using this site can save you hundreds of pounds on high street mobile phone prices, and many of the retailers are actually the same as those on the high street!

    Good luck, and remember you can email search results to friends (using link at top of page) ;-)