Lots of mobile phone retailers have made a lot of money selling free line rental deals to customers. Their trick was to ensure that not all customers actually received a free line rental deal by making cash back redemptions conditional.

Today however, the worm seems to have turned, with a number of companies previously offering these deals either going bust, or stopping their offers.

The problem seems to be that customers are now better informed on how to successfully make a claim for cash back. Also, as more and more customers successfully complete the process, retailers are increasingly up against experienced bargain hunters who know how to play the system. The more of these repeat customers there are out there the harder things will be for mobile phone retailers offering this kind of deal.

All that said, recently there has been a resurgence in this kind of deal, particularly from the big players. Perhaps, with recession in the air they are finding these deals increasingly effective in terms of driving sales, despite the risks that go with them.