Mobile Costs

Because many networks’ prices are tied to inflation, which has hit a 40-year high, most mobile prices are shooting up between 9-12%. With most household bills rising, including energy, council tax, broadband, petrol etc, it’s important that you understand what you are paying for and whether there’s a better option for you to get the best out of your phone costs.

There are many ways of paying for a mobile or smartphone, but it is worth looking through them to understand exactly what you get for your money and whether, for example, you can use a mobile phone to reduce landline and broadband costs. 

You could have a sim only arrangement where you own the phone, or you could have a pay monthly phone contract where you pay one monthly fee to cover the cost of the phone and a sim card.

You could have a PAYG sim card where you only top it up once you have used all of your credit, but call rates are usually expensive. But if you rarely use your mobile to make calls, then a £10 top-up could last you a year! Could you save on landline costs though by moving to an unlimited calls contract?

You could have a sim-only contract where you pay a fixed amount per month. Most contracts give you unlimited calls and texts with the cost increasing depending on the amount of data you want. Some contracts tie you in for a fixed period, 12 or 18 months, but some contracts let you stop any time you want, you simply pay for a month at a time. 

Most SIM cards come with a data allowance, but if you don’t use your mobile for Internet, there are a few deals that have calls and text only. Bear in mind, if you have a smartphone, you can still use the Internet to get your emails and browse etc when you are connected to Wi-Fi.

It’s nearly always better to buy your mobile phone rather than pay for it on contract. If you pay for a phone on contract, your supplier will encourage you to upgrade the phone at the end of the contract, but if you own the phone and have a SIM only contract, you keep the phone for as long as you want, and have more options on the SIM that you use. You can get the phone of your choice and use a PAYG Sim, a monthly contract SIM, a full contract SIM, or even a SIM for calls and text only.

 What do you use your mobile for? 

• Calls, text? 
• Email, WhatsApp, Facebook, directions/maps, banking, shopping, supermarket loyalty cards, marketplaces (FB, eBay), news, NHSApp, simple games / quizzes?
• Zoom, music, video?

Where do you use your mobile phone?

• At Home or out and about – connected to Wi-Fi
  • Do you never use it for calls, always use a landline?
  • Do you use it for checking emails, games, listening to the radio or watching TV?
• Away from home – not connected to Wi-Fi.
  • Do you use it for calls / text?
  • Do you occasionally check emails, lookup something on the internet, check directions?
• You don’t have broadband at home.
  • Do you use your mobile for calls / Text?
  • Do you use your mobile for emails, browsing etc? 

Answering these questions is important as it lets you estimate how much data you need. Remember in the early days of mobiles, a phone contract would be limited to 100 or 200 minutes per month. These days you usually get unlimited call minutes, but data still carries a premium. You can get contracts that give you anything from 2GB per month up to 200GB per month, even unlimited data! I think within 5 years it will be normal to have unlimited calls, text and data.

If you have broadband at home, then you should connect your phone to your router, so you never use your mobile data when you are at home. If you don’t use your phone to watch or listen when you are not connected to your broadband, then you probably need no more than 1GB of data allowance per month. Don’t overestimate the amount of data you will use. You can always increase your monthly allowance if you find yourself running out, but you are unlikely to decrease if you don’t use all the data in your allowance.

If you don’t have broadband at home and rely on your mobile data all the time, then you may need a larger data allowance. Beware of software updates that the phone will do automatically every now and again as these can use a lot of your data allowance, perhaps 2-3GB every 2 or 3 months. You can always delay software updates until you are connected to free Wi-Fi, for instance at the Library or the Spire Cafe. If you buy a PAYG phone and SIM, make sure you get the phone updated in the shop while connected to THIER Wi-Fi, otherwise your Wi-Fi data allowance could disappear in the first few days. You may need to go to 4GB per month or higher if you don’t have broadband at home, but you can still get a 4GB/month SIM for £5 per month.

There are only four main networks in the UK, Vodafone, EE, Three and O2. All other operators like Tesco, Giffgaff etc (called virtual operators) piggyback onto one of the 4 main operators. Each one has its strengths, but probably the most important factor to look at is who provides a good signal in YOUR area. It’s pointless getting a mobile that you can’t use in your house or other places you frequent. Use the Ofcom Mobile and Broadband Checker to check which operator is best in your area. 

If you live in an area with poor mobile coverage, but you have broadband at home, you can use something called Wi-Fi calling. Both your Mobile and SIM card must support Wi-Fi calling, but once it is switched on, if you have a good Wi-Fi connection and poor mobile signal, your phone will use your broadband for incoming and outgoing calls. The calls still come off your data allowance, but it can be a very useful facility in some cases.

It’s often cheaper and more flexible to use one of the smaller virtual operators but check which main operator they piggyback with. For example:

Lebara (Vodafone), Giffgaff (O2), Smarty (Three), Plusnet (EE), Tesco (O2), Asda (Vodafone)

How much do you pay for your mobile calls and data? There are many deals out there offering SIM only with 2-4 GB of data per month for as little as £5. Some even have introductory offers through comparison sites offering the 1st 6 months for 99p. Just about all contract SIMs offer unlimited text and unlimited calls. Generally, the main networks offer 12 or 24 month contracts, whereas the smaller virtual networks are more flexible and offer 1 month contracts. Always go through a comparison site, you will get a better deal than going directly to an operator’s own website or a shop.

If you only use your Mobile for calls and data, or you are happy only using the Internet when you are at home and connected to Wi-Fi, then there are a few Call and Text only SIM deals. For example, Asda (Vodaphone) offer a no-data SIM with unlimited calls and text for £4/month. The SIM even supports Wi-Fi calling, so you can make calls over Wi-Fi when your mobile coverage is weak.

If you only have a PAYG SIM, always check the call rates. For example, a Tesco PAYG SIM will charge you 25p per minute for calls, 10p per text and 10p per MB of data. However, a mobile operator called 1pmobile (EE) charges 1p /min for calls, 1p text and 1p /MB data.

If reading this has made you think about switching, how do you go about it and can you transfer your number? 

First of all, check if you are still in contract as you may have to wait until your contract expires. But if you are out of contract, switching is very easy

• Unfortunately, most great deals are available online only, so if this is a problem, see if you can get someone to do it for you, but once you have an online account, managing is easy.
• Find a new contract that suits you. Use a comparison site like moneysavingexpert.com, comparethemarket.com, uswitch.com, moneysupermarket.com or gocompare.com.
• Cancel your current contract and contact your old provider to get a A Porting Authorisation Code (PAC). This allows you to take your old number with you when you change service providers.
• Sign up with your new provider and tell them you want to port your number, you will need to give them the PAC code you got from your old provider.
• They will send you a new SIM card and tell you which date they will port your number over. Follow their instructions and take the old SIM out of your mobile on that date and insert your new SIM.

Although most Broadband suppliers provide social tariffs for those on certain benefits (pension credit for example), social tariffs on mobile are rare, although mobile operator Three have recently released one offering unlimited calls and data for £12/month through its virtual operator Smarty. 

Finally, if you have a mobile with unlimited calls, then consider switching to it for all calls, including the calls you make at home. If you make calls using your landline, you either pay for every call, or you have some sort of anytime call package. But those packages will be costing you around £10/month, whereas if you don’t already have unlimited minutes on your mobile, you can get an unlimited calls SIM for as little as £4/month.