CA investigates: Free laptop deals

Over at www.dabs.com we were offered the same computer for a £44 deposit followed by 36 payments of £14.30, giving a total cost of £559. If you didn’t need the mobile broadband, the credit purchase would have saved you around £400.

Don’t forget to think about the broadband contract side of things, too. When signing a long contract, think about whether the service will still be suitable. In the final few months ­ you might prefer to sign a shorter, one-year contract that gives you the flexibility to find a new tariff, even if it’s more expensive now.

Also, before signing up to any mobile broadband contract, it’s vital to ensure that you have decent reception in your area. You can check the network operator’s website but the only way to be sure is to get hold of a mobile phone with 3G (the standard behind mobile broadband) and test the coverage in your home.

It all adds up
Even if you do want a new broadband or mobile broadband contract as well as a new computer, it’s important to work out whether a free notebook deal is really good value before signing on the line. Remember that it could be cheaper to buy a notebook, either outright or on credit, and set up the broadband contract separately.

For example, at The Carphone Warehouse, we were offered an HP notebook for £15 if we signed up to AOL’s Home ADSL broadband package at £20 per month for two years. That’s a total cost of £495 over two years.

Over at AOL’s website, we saw that the cheapest AOL wireless broadband and talk package cost £5 per month for three months, then £10 per month after that. Over two years, that would cost £225. This means that, if we can’t find an equivalent notebook for less than the £270 difference, the Carphone Warehouse deal could be good value.

Future perfect?
When buying a notebook that you will, effectively, be paying for over the cours e of several years, it pays to think about the future.

You might be concerned by the one-year warranties advertised alongside many of the notebooks on offer, but remember that a warranty is only an additional insurance policy and does not limit or replace your statutory rights as a consumer.

Most importantly, remember the Sale of Goods Act. This states that if your notebook suffers from an inherent fault ­ that is, a problem caused by the manufacturer, not by something you’ve done to it or normal wear and tear ­ you have six years (five in Scotland) to seek redress. This means if you can prove the fault is inherent, the Sale of Goods Act will always protect your notebook for longer than the 18-month or two-year term of your contract.