Credit Crunch Your Mobile Bills

How many of you have opened up your monthly mobile phone bill and wanted to hide the envelope and pretend you never saw it? You were sure that your monthly payment was only £15, so why is your latest bill so much more than you expected?

Most of us have had this same experience, and for many of these mobile phone customers it’s their own fault. It’s unfortunate but too often true that most mobile customers are complacent when it comes to their mobile phone costs and are wilfully ignorant of the terms of their mobile phone agreement and their allotted free texts and minutes limit.

Below we offer some top tips to help you to tame your mobile phone bills.

1) Look at your current contract. Make sure you know your precise text message and free call allowance. If you regularly exceed this limit then ask your provider if you can switch to another tariff that better suits your needs. The line rental will no doubt cost more, but you’ll receive more free texts/minutes per month so you’ll be far less likely to exceed your monthly limit.

2) Avoid the upgrade! Your provider could be tempting you with that new iPhone come the start of your new contract, but beware as the cost of this new gadget will be priced into your new contract. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as they say, and there’s no such thing as a free iPhone unfortunately. A better option may be buying the handset yourself and going for a lower-cost SIM-only contract. You’ll still receive the usual free texts and minutes, but you’ll never be tied to a contract for more than thirty days, so you can easily switch if it isn’t working out.

3) SIM-sharing. Many mobile service providers such as o2, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile have started to offer several SIMs together in one cheap package – by sharing these out amongst your relatives and friends you’ll have limitless free calls and texts to each other.

4) Put your old mobile to good use. You can trade in your old mobile towards the cost of a new one? Many retailers offer this service and it can get you more than £20 off the cost of a new handset.

5) Look out for free text and call deals. Various advertisers have teamed up online to give free texts and minutes to sixteen to twenty-four year olds. In exchange, they must agree to receive six multimedia messages each day from companies. So if you’re willing to sell your soul (a little) you could save yourself some cash.

By: David Maine

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