Hi @Kwhitelam ,
The upfront payment is taken as a safeguard against the customer defaulting on later payments.
By extending credit irresponsibly, customers would be enticed to enter into contracts which they cannot afford and that would be bad for all parties.
Basically, you would be asking EE to lend you that additional £193 up front on top of what they will already lend you and you will pay that back with interest over the contract. This would only make sense if you would be perfectly happy to borrow that same amount with the same interest from any other party, such as a bank or a friend (at which point, it would be less of a headache just to do that rather than get an exemption/exception).
