Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 24 May 2008 14:40
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Telstra’s $0 upfront laptop has generated much debate over whether the
deal is a good one or not, but anything that locks you into a
multi-year contract with technology that gets rapidly out of date is
usually best avoided.
When I first
had a look at Telstra’s $0 upfront laptop and 1GB of mobile broadband through Next G deal, at $99 per month over 36 months, I proclaimed it a good deal in very specific circumstances.
The deal combines a $700 laptop, a Telstra Turbo 3 Series Next G wireless modem and 1GB of download per month, and will cost a a minimum of $3,564 over that 36 month period – not including any excess usage charges you might ring up at 25c per megabyte if you go over the 1GB limit.
So, why is it a good deal in specific circumstances? Because if you Flexirented a $700 laptop over 36 months, and signed up to a 36 month plan for 1GB of data over the Next G network, without any other discounts for owning a different Telstra service, the deal would actually save you more than $800 over that three year time period.
But that’s only if you MUST have access to the Next G network, for its speed and coverage, something that isn’t quite so important if you mainly work in the cities, and don’t have the money to buy a laptop outright.
The problem for Telstra is that business customers have plenty of choice in retailers to get laptops for a $0 upfront payment and can choose from much cheaper mobile broadband packages.
The deal is only available to Australian business customers with an ABN number, and only until the 30th of June, through Harvey Norman, ICT Distribution and TechHead Interactive.
Despite being available at mass market retailer Harvey Norman, regular consumers can’t access this deal, and the short timeframe of the offer seems to indicate it is something of an experiment.
Of course, while I still stand by the assessment that the Telstra $0 laptop deal is a good one in very specific circumstances, I also stand by the other scenarios I discussed where avoiding Telstra’s deal could result in much better value for money.
Going with a mobile broadband provider other than Telstra can give you many more gigabytes per month of download for the money, while I also explained in my previous article that simply buying a $700 laptop upfront would result in only $700 being paid, rather than $1225 over three years as a Flexirent deal ends up costing – and even then, you won’t actually own the computer but will need to make a final balloon payment to buy it outright.
So why do people go into $0 upfront finance deals?
And what does Harvey Norman think about a deal that bypasses its own Flexirent programs, which help generate additional income for Harvey Norman and its retail brethren? Please read on to page 2.
