Every year, millions of people fall out of contract on their telecoms deals – broadband, mobile and television the common ones.
Typically, we take out a contact for 24 months* and pay a monthly fee which nudges higher each April with inflation-linked rises.
These rises appear to be even meatier from next year, thanks to new rules which mean telecoms firms need to show much a bill will rise using pounds, rather than percentages.
In terms of mobile contracts, costs come in two parts – the handset and data/minutes/texts. The goalposts have changed somewhat in recent years, with most offering unlimited minutes and texts, then a varying level of data.
Data is typically the more crucial element, given that texts have faded and been replaced with messaging apps, requiring wifi or data, and calls can also be made this way too.
Often, you can get away with a relatively small amount of data, if you connect to wifi at home, in an office or out and about, although if you don’t do that and go over your data allowance extra costs can rocket.
Putting the Sim into simple: Once your contract is up, it’s time to get onto a far cheaper Sim-only deal
But what often happens is the contract comes towards an end, we leave it too late to shop around or get tempted into an ‘upgrade’.
AKA, a phone you probably don’t really need, putting your perfectly fine phone into a drawer, never to see the light of day ever again.
Meanwhile, some do nothing at all and continue to pay the monthly amount, a large chunk of which is the handset you now own as you’ve paid it off.
It’s an epic waste of money, one of which is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of pounds each year.
What I tend to do is get to the end of the contract, shop around for the best Sim-only deal, and attempt to keep the same phone for a further three years.
A phone should last five years in my eyes.
It works for me – and let’s face it, how much more impressive can smartphones get? We can already take superb photographs, listen to millions of songs and watch TV in high quality at our fingertips. I can’t see how much better a phone can really become.
So recently, coming towards the end of a £35 a month contract with Three Mobile, I shopped around. In the end, I grabbed a Sim-only deal with Three itself.
Not the very cheapest offer I found, but for the sake of ease and not heading to a mobile provider I’m not familiar with, I went for it.
For £11.20 a month with a loyalty discount on a year-long contract, I’m getting 12GB of data. More than enough for me.
But a crucial reason why I stayed is its Three+ membership. Firstly, it offers a weekly Cineworld film ticket for £3 to use at the weekend, making it a super cheap activity with my six-year-old when we occasionally choose to go, especially in the wet and wild, dark days of winter.
However, the second perk is even more valuable to me – a £1 coffee at Café Nero every week. That saves me £2.60 per week on a coffee I’d buy anyway, at the chain I think serves up the best cuppa joe, a few minutes from the office.
That’s a £11.40 per month saving, which is neatly almost the same as my monthly contract. I see it as now having pretty much a free mobile contract.
It is also a serious saving on my previous monthly contract, and I’m now directing that £35 a month into something useful – a regular savings account paying 6.5 per cent with Nationwide.
This time next year, I’ll put it towards the cost of Christmas, and it’s good to feel the benefit of a few minutes work finding a Sim-only deal.
It’s vital you keep up to date with all your contracts and bills – telecoms firms rely on a chunk of people that are too lazy or forgetful, leaving them to pay far more than they need to for months… or even years.
Don’t let that be you. And don’t let it be your loved ones either, it could well worth helping more vulnerable members of your family or friends do an audit on all of these different costs that can be easy to lose track of.
*I’ve noticed this year that many providers are trying to nudge us onto 36 and 48 month deals, by making them look cheaper – they’re not. They appear cheaper as the total amount is stretched out over a longer period of time. Do your research before taking the plunge.
PS: Broadband and TV firms aren’t immune from joining in the Black Friday selling frenzy and while you need to be careful what you sign up to, there are some genuine good deals out there. Try our broadband and TV comparison tool to check.