With three quarters of us in the UK now carrying a mobile, phone companies are
tripping over themselves to win new custom and convince you to switch your
bill to their network.
As a result, choosing the best value mobile deal can be a nightmare. Here’s
some advice to keep you sane, and avoid paying a fortune to use your phone.
What type of deal is best for me?
There are two main kinds of phone deal, Pay as you Go and monthly contract.
Pay as you go
A pay as you go mobile phone does what it says on the tin.
You can buy credit for as much talk and text time as you need with vouchers,
swipe cards and in some cases from cash machines. It suits those whose
mobile usage varies month on month, or individuals who need a phone for
emergencies.
Although easier to monitor how much you are spending, pay as you go mobiles
can work out more expensive than contract if you make regular, lengthy
calls. You also have to buy your own handset, which, for the top of the
range models, can set you back several hundred pounds.
Monthly contract
A minimum contract is usually 12-18 months, so you have to be prepared to
commit to a line rental and monthly payments for at least that length of
time.
However, deals can start from as little as £9 a month. You get more minutes
and messages for your money when paying monthly, and usually a few free
bonus extras, such as a handset or broadband.
It may sound obvious, but make sure you’re absolutely clear about what you use
your phone for before starting your hunt. Like going to the supermarket
hungry and overestimating your shopping basket, it’s easy to get swept away
by extra mega pixels, mirrored key pads, or gazillions of inclusive video
messages that you don’t need.
How do I choose a handset?
Choosing a basic handset, or a sim-only contract, will vastly reduce the cost
of your monthly bills.
Make a list of what you want out of a phone and then browse suitable handsets
available within budget. Bear in mind battery life and how easy it will be
to use. Some dinky or touch screen phones look great, but will drive you to
despair as soon as you attempt to compose a text message.
What about the network?
O2, Vodafone, Orange, 3 Mobile and T-Mobile are networks – they supply your
mobile service. There are also ‘virtual networks’ such as Virgin mobile,
which uses T-Mobile, OneTel, which uses Vodafone, NTL Mobile, which uses
Orange, and Tesco, which uses O2.
Find out what the coverage is like in your area before deciding which network
to join. Ask friends and colleagues which they use, and try to match your
network to theirs.
Calls will generally be cheaper, and service providers often offer free calls
within their network. Many Orange contracts, for example, will allow you to
nominate a ‘Magic number’- a contact also on Orange- who you can call free
anytime.
Finding the right tariff
Mobile phone suppliers will offer different bundles of products, such as free
minutes and texts, depending on how much line rental you buy a month (your
tariff).
Choosing a tariff can be the most complicated part of the process, but a bit
of effort will save you a lot of money.
The easiest way to browse tariffs is to use a comparison site like www.moneysupermarket.com
or www uswitch.com. Search for online
calculators too. They will let you compare tariffs across all the networks.
Getting the best value tariff relies on you knowing what pattern of calls,
texts, voicemail and other services you are going to be using.
Overestimating your usage will mean you spend more than you might need, but
underestimating usage can be costly, too. Once you have used up inclusive
call minutes, for instance, you will often be charged an extortionate amount
for each additional minute.
To avoid a nasty shock when your bill arrives at the end of the month think
about when you use your phone most frequently.
• Evenings and weekends, or at peak times?
• Do you send many texts/ video and picture messages or do you prefer to make
long phone calls?
• Do you use your phone abroad?
• Do you surf the net on your mobile?
It might be an idea to take out a pay-as-you-go package for a short time with
an itemised bill, and then analyse your mobile usage after a couple of
months before you commit to an 18-month contract.
Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.
Don’t settle for the packages you see online or in mobile phone shops. Ring a
service provider and haggle prices down.
If you are already on a network and your contract is coming to an end, phone
your service provider and threaten to switch to a competitor. You should
then be put through to the customer retentions department where you can
start negotiating a better deal.
Phone companies are so desperate to retain customers that they will
dramatically lower prices, offer to throw in extra text and call bundles or
upgrade your phone to keep you sweet. Don’t take no for an answer, and
you’ll be amazed how much you can get for your money.
What to avoid
Cashback
Service providers will entice customers with cheap headline rates, but if you
look at the small print you’ll see that this involves a ‘cashback system’.
A service provider may offer you a deal of £15 a month, but in order to claim
it you will have to pay £30 a month up front and send off your bills at the
end of your contract to receive a refund of the difference. Last year
consumer organisation Which? called for a ban of cashback deals after
receiving hundreds of complaints from mobile phone customers who failed to
receive their money.
Although Ofcom has now introduced regulations for mobile companies, cashback
deals are best avoided- especially if you’re the sort to forget where you
put your bills 12 months down the line.
Insurance
The insurance offered by mobile companies is a bit of a rip off. Cover usually
costs around £6 a month, which adds up to £108 over an 18 month contract
(more than the cost of a decent replacement mobile). Many policies have
exclusions or charge an excess if you make a claim.
Instead of buying additional insurance, check whether you can add your phone
to your household contents insurance. You might find you’re already covered.
Freebies
Many service providers now offer free expensive gifts if you sign up to a
particular contract. Whilst new GHD hair straighteners or a laptop might
appeal, don’t get drawn into a deal just because the free gift seems
expensive. Over the course of a contract you are likely to spend more than
it will cost to save for the item separately, and still run a cheap mobile
phone.
Five news stories
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Keeping
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Coming
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Product
reviews: Mobile phones that play music
How
to secure the best mobile phone deal
Five websites
www.carphonewarehouse.com/
www.mobilechecker.com
www.onecompare.com/
www.moneysupermarket.com
www.uswitch.com
