iD Mobile phone contracts: advantages & disadvantages

Good value but less flexibility on their phone contracts

iD Mobile offer all the latest phones on 24-month contracts. The cost of your phone and usage plan (mins, texts, data) are billed together to make up your monthly payment. There are no credit based options.

That means you can’t pay off the cost of your phone to upgrade early or pay lump sum amounts to reduce your monthly payment. And there’s no way to choose another contract length or upfront cost to suit your budget.

You can get the same kind of phone contract via third party resellers like Carphone Warehouse for a lower price. And you can switch your plan up or down each month whether you joined via iD or a reseller.

If you want to upgrade to a new phone you have to wait until you’ve got 60 days of your contract left. You might not like the lack of flexibility, but there are upsides to these contracts that we go more into below.

Useful link: See iD’s full range of phone contracts

There are some technical things worth knowing about

To join on any iD Mobile phone contract you’ll have to pass a credit check. This is where they look at your history of making payments to decide whether or not they trust you as a customer to pay on time.

We think they’re a bit less strict than networks who offer finance-based contracts, as they’re not taking as much of a financial risk. But if you’ve missed payments you might still get rejected.

If you want to end your contract early you’ll have to pay early termination fees. They calculate this by adding up all the monthly payments you have left. You can read the full details in this community post here.

Your phone should be delivered the day after you order it by DPD at no extra cost. There are some exceptions depending on when you order and where you live, so check their full guide here for more information.

Finally, if you’re switching to iD Mobile from another provider and want to keep your number, just request a PAC from your old network and send it to iD. They’ll port your number over for you.

Useful link: iD Mobile’s guide to their credit checks

Good call and data signal, 5G coverage and other benefits

iD Mobile use Three’s network for call (3G) and data (4G/5G) signal. That means iD benefit massively from Three’s 4G expansion, while coverage for calls is a bit behind other networks but still generally good.

You get 5G in the same 580+ UK towns and cities as their hosts. Coverage within these locations tends to be quite widespread, but still only on a street-by-street basis (check coverage near you here).

Speeds are a strength of iD. For 4G, Opensignal show typical speeds of 35.4 Mbps. Opensignal and Speedtest measured typical 5G speeds between 237.7 Mbps - 286.27 Mbps with peak speeds up to 696.73 Mbps.

iD are a brilliant choice if you’re looking for the fastest possible speeds. And despite their budget costs, they offer data rollover and network features like WiFi calling on all plans (but no eSIMs yet).

Useful link: Our full guide to iD’s signal and benefits