The variety of mobile phone tariffs available on the market these days is remarkable, and can seem like a confusing and complicated place to navigate through.
It’s tempting to go for the cheapest contract you can find; after all what difference can it make? It’s surely the most affordable?
This is not always the case.
The Myth of a Cheap Contract
Unfortunately, as with most things in life, you get what you pay for. A cheaper contract will contain a smaller allowance than a more expensive one, and this is to be expected.
‘But I don’t use that much, so I can live with a smaller allowance,’ you may think. For some, this may be true, but the vast majority greatly underestimate just how much they use their phone.
Call Charges
For example, a plan with 100 minutes sounds like it would be plenty for a light user; this actually works out to just over 3 minutes of call time per day. Go over this allowance and you will be charged, on average, 35p per minute.
Therefore, if instead of 3 minutes a day, you talk for 6, and end up using 200 minutes instead of your allocated 100 that month, you will be charged an extra £35 on top of your line rental.
In fact, these call charges will probably cost more than the line rental itself!
Text and Data Charges
This is similarly true of going over your text allowance. At 12p per text on average, 10 extra texts will add £1.20 to your bill each month.
Data charges are where most people get stung worse. The latest mobile phones are incredibly data hungry, updating your email, news and social network feeds constantly. Many mobile contracts now include at least 1GB data, but cheaper ones often contain little if any at all.
Data Usage
If you had a contract with 250MB data, and considered yourself a light user, you may think you were covered. In actual fact, 250MB would only allow you each day to;
- Browse 10 web pages
- Read 50 BBC News pages
- Read and reply to 20 emails
- Watch a 1-minute video on YouTube
- Upload a photo to Facebook (Source: three.co.uk)
A lot of people will do far more than this each day on their phone, such as downloading apps, e-books, commenting on Twitter and Facebook etc. Go over your allowance, and you may be charged up to £1.54 per day, which could add an extra £46 to your monthly bill.
You will also experience loss of functionality as your data usage get capped if you go too far over.
What to Consider
- When looking for a new contract, take the time to really look at your mobile phone usage. If you have 200 minutes but regularly go over by 50 minutes, consider taking a contract with 300 for an extra few pounds a month rather than constantly paying out of bundle charges.
- Similarly consider your data usage. Don’t underestimate what you think you’ll be using your phone for, particularly if you are new to smartphones. In general with high-end handsets, you should be looking at tariffs with 1GB or higher (some even include unlimited data).
In most cases, by paying a little extra each month and getting the right tariff to suit you, you will save yourself a fortune in the long term.
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