Getting a Better Deal from your Current Provider

By telling your network exactly what you need they will be able to find you the best tariff available. There is no need to stay with one network anymore. Threatening to leave a network can ensure you receive the best offers the service provider can give.  You simply need to phone customer services and tell the provider that “give me a better package or I’ll leave”. You will often be put through to specialist customer service, the disconnection department, who have more power and leeway to keep you on the network by offering you exactly what you want.

Looking for a New Package

When choosing a new package, there a number of options available – comparison sites which compare high street and online retailers or cash-back deals which usually provide the cheapest deals, but with more hassle.

In order to choose a new network you have to look at what you currently use in terms of texting and phone calls. This requires a more in-depth analysis than simply the number of text messages and minutes used. You need to identify which calls are made to other mobiles, which are off/on peak, any roll-over minutes you take advantage of etc.. Once you know this information you can enter it into a specialised search engine which will pull up suggested networks:

• onecompare.com
• omio.com
• uswitch.com
• mobile-comparison.co.uk
• niftylist.co.uk

None of the sites cover all available networks on the market so it is best to check a few for a full comparison.

Cash-Back

A great way to get a very cheap deal is to buy a cash-back¬ package, but you must remember to fill out all the forms and send them back on time. If you don’t mind buying your phone and contract online, you can get cheaper deals than on the high street, try:

• e2save.com
• mobiles2yourdoor.co.uk

Other suggested retailers include: (hotUKdeals.com , mobileshop.com, studentphones.2u.co.uk , mobilesavingexpert.co.uk, dialaphone.co.uk)
If you are going to go down the route of cash-back, make sure you read our cash-back section first.

Pay-as-you-go

Pay-as-you-go mobiles are a viable alternative, if you use less than 150 minutes a month and 100 texts a month. If you are a low user you could simply buy a SIM card and use an older phone. Getting the right tariff is more of a priority than having the ‘coolest’ phone.

There are often offers from the different networks for PAYG customers for example T-mobile customers can text “FRIDAY” to 411 to receive free text messages for the weekend, if they top up at least £10 on the Friday. Orange customers are entitled to 2for1 cinema tickets on Wednesdays.

Save £100s from Cash-Back

The cash-back part of the discount is not available straightaway – it has to be claimed from the retailer about six months after taking out the contract. This means for the first six months you may be paying a higher rate but in the long run the cost will be significantly cheaper. The value of the cash-back can be hundreds of pounds but you have to remember to fill out the forms.

When taking out a cash-back deal you should buy from one of the bigger companies, such as e2save.com or mobiles2yourdoor.co.uk (which are owned by the Carphone Warehouse and Phones4u respectively), which are extremely unlikely to go bankrupt. If you buy from a smaller company and they go bankrupt, you won’t get back any of your money. The bigger companies are also less likely to refuse to give you your money back.

Using your Mobile Abroad

If you are taking your mobile abroad call the network provider.  Under European law all mobile phone customers are entitled to have access to cheap roaming for international calls. The maximum price that can be charged for outgoing calls is 38pence/min and 19pence/min for receiving calls. Legally all customers must have access to these offers unless they have already opted for a cheaper roaming package.

All of the mobile phone providers, bar T-Mobile , have free add-ons enabling international calls at a low rate but bizarrely most don’t advertise their offers. These can work out an extremely cheap way of staying in touch while you are away.  For example, Vodafone Passport enables you to use your free minutes abroad; all you pay is a flat fee of 75 pence per call. As long as you don’t exceed your free minutes the calls are free. O2 has similar offers – O2 International Traveller and O2 My Europe . If you don’t have this option, then there are other ways to reduce your costs.

1. Text instead of calling. It costs nothing to receive texts on any network. If you are on T-Mobile and visiting Europe it is cheaper still to send a picture message than a text message, and you don’t even need to include a picture. You can also send 1000 characters unlike an SMS which is 160.
2. It may be worth buying a local SIM card when you arrive at your destination. If you stick to the same network there is no worry of having to ensure your phone is unlocked.
3. If you would rather have a mobile number before you go on holiday, buying a worldwide could be the answer. This will enable you to make reduced calls at your destination and most offers come with some initial credit. Prepaidgsm.net has a full list of SIMs available in each country and enables you to buy online. Other sites worth checking for local SIM cards are 0044.com, uk2abroad.com, storytelecom.com, mycherrymobile.com, sim4travel.com and letsroam.com.
4. Try and text over the internet if you are online. There are loads of different websites which allow you to send free or very cheap SMS messages. Try fonetastic.com and mtnsms.com

Unlocking your Mobile

Unlocking a mobile phone means that a mobile can be used with any compatible SIM card enabling you to take advantage of the best offers available in the market place. Having an unlocked phone has many benefits in terms of using SIM cards which have bonus offers, (for example Orange Wednesdays), as well as using different SIM cards when you are travelling abroad¬ in your existing handset. Unlocked phones can also be sold at a higher price on eBay.

Unlocking a phone is not illegal, unblocking a phone is illegal. The internet has revolutionised unlocking and there are now a range of websites which will provide detailed step-by-step instructions of how to do this – unlockitfree.com, unlock.nokiafree.org and trycktill.com/eng cover most Nokia phones.

You need to do 3 things to unlock your phone:

• Get your IMEI number by entering *#06# into your phone and noting the number that appears
• Entering your IMEI number into one of the above site to obtain a code
• Put the new SIM into your phone and enter the code [for ‘+’ press the * twice; for ‘p’ press * 3 times; for ‘w’ press * four times]

There are only five attempts available to unlock your phone so be careful when typing the code to ensure you don’t have to resort to paying for unlocking.

If there aren’t any codes available for your handset for free, codes can be purchased from specialist sites such as mrunlock.com and mobileunlocked.co.uk. The mobile networks will also unlock your phone but all the networks bar Virgin charge a premium for this service. If you are technology-savvy you can unlock via a data cable by downloading specialist software to your phone. Cable can be purchased from eBay.