Batter down your annual mobile costs article Discussion Area

bestfootie

Hey all

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S6 phone (about 4 years old now) and have been on a SIMO plan for a while, paying £16 per month on EE. Due to severe coverage issues due to a mast-issue that I had the last time I renewed over 12 months ago, I was able to have them put 20GB of Data, Unlimited calls and texts and some other EE freebies that I don't use.

Due to my business needs, the time has come where I really could do with a phone with more memory.

I didn't speak to retentions yet though the lady I spoke to offered me to upgrade me to a Samsung Galaxy S10:-

- 30 GB Data
- "waive the £250 fee upfront"
- £39pm (inc VAT) for 24 months.

I worked out the costings with her on the phone. It seems the '£250 waiver' was just a discounting technique as I found exactly the same deal on Carphone Warehouse for new customers.

Anyway, £39 x 24 months = £936. [(Although she urged me to deduct tariff costs so it can be a like-for-like comparison...). If we take off what I'm currently paying now of £16.67 per month = around £400 over 24 months. £936 - £400 = £536 for the phone... when the phone itself retails for more than that and this allows me to spread the cost over 2 years... (subject to committing to them for 24 months).

The phone itself's RRP is at £650. So deducting that cost from the total price...

So looking just at the tariff, £286 over 24 months = £11.91 per month for 24 months for 30 GB Data, unlimited calls and texts.

Looks good (I think) but I'm a little annoyed that this deal is available exactly the same to new customers as well and the lady made it seem like it was because I was a valued customer! :-0

What do people think?

GerryO13

Since 2014 I've been on an O2 sim only deal, with 1Gb, 1,000 minutes and unlimited texts for £16. Having checked the MSE advice I got O2's best offer by saying I could get 2Gb & unlimited minutes and texts with Vodafone (Lebara) for £5. The best they could do was £6, which I was really happy with. However, I still asked was there anything else they could do to improve and they added 6 months free Disney TV, which I'll cancel before the free period ends.
I had clearly left it too long to talk to them, but the key element is to say you know what the best deal is and they'll cut to their bottom line. I'm getting more and save £144 per annum.
Thank you MSE!

searchlight123

i use around 5gb data a month and was on sim only EE with unlimited mins and 100gb data at £20pm (completely OTT for my usage.
just swapped to EE deal of 10gb and unlimited calls etc for £10pm plus my wife's sim only on my account is £5.75pm with 1gb data but i can 'gift her data from mine so both sims total less than £16. i'm happy with that.

Norroy

Just an update on EE, as with the post directly above, a quick phone call today and I got £10pcm for 10gb and unlimited calls and texts etc

Lunicycle

I have 4 X  sim only on Virgin mobile 10gig, unlimited, unlimited was on family deal £10.15 x 4 - £6 family discount = £34.60 pcm this was going up to £39.32 phoned up and after a bit of persuasion they matched new customer deal of £7 per sim with £6 family discount and no increase until April 23  so £22 a month without hassle of changing - saved £207.82 a year. Like the man says don't take first offer.

sghughes42

Does anyone have any advise on haggling methods that don't involve calling up?

To explain, I have a terrible speech impediment. It is incredibly difficult and stressful to call anyone, and when I have tried to haggle in the past this problem makes it impossible to get anywhere.

The only solution I've found is to move, but as is mentioned in the article you don't always want to if you are happy with the service but not the price. For example, I am out of contract with BT, but their broadband has only got down once and we got straight back up via 4G when it did, and they still offer EU roaming. But I could probably halve the price I'm paying elsewhere.

I've tried using their online chat but they always raise it as a complaint but then magically resolve said complaint straight away.

Any suggestions or experience? Or do I just bite the bullet and either move or try the dreaded call?

eDicky

sghughes42 said:

But I could probably halve the price I'm paying elsewhere.

I've tried using their online chat but they always raise it as a complaint but then magically resolve said complaint straight away.

Any suggestions or experience? Or do I just bite the bullet and either move or try the dreaded call?

You could try requesting your PAC using the online chat, although they may direct you to obtain it by sending SMS.

I don't know specifically how BT try to retain customers, but they are likely to ask what you intend moving to. So have your chosen deal ready to quote, for them to offer a BT equivalent.

daz9643

I got an email from O2 this morning telling me my price rise was going to be even higher than originally told, I’m on their cheapest tariff so
i currently pay £10 a month going up £1.80 in April 26 to £ 11.80 and up another £1.80 in April 27 to £13.60, I phoned them to cancel the contract and they’ve lowered what I’m paying now to £8 a month, going up £2.50 in April 26 to £10.50 and up another £2.50 in April 27 to £13 a month so their rip off tactics have actually cost them ! 

JSmithy45AD

daz9643 said:

I got an email from O2 this morning telling me my price rise was going to be even higher than originally told, I’m on their cheapest tariff so
i currently pay £10 a month going up £1.80 in April 26 to £ 11.80 and up another £1.80 in April 27 to £13.60, I phoned them to cancel the contract and they’ve lowered what I’m paying now to £8 a month, going up £2.50 in April 26 to £10.50 and up another £2.50 in April 27 to £13 a month so their rip off tactics have actually cost them ! 

In your case perhaps but probably 90% of their customers won't do anything or even notice, so overall O2 are laughing all the way to the bank.

aidnolan

With O2 I got the email about the £2.50 increase and got in touch with them via their online chat. I was on a sim-only deal on a rolling one month contract, paying £12.50 a month for 20GB data (Doubled to 40GB because I have Virgin broadband as well).

I used the deal checker on MSE to find a better deal with O2 than what I was already on. That was £8 for 35GB on a 12 month contract.

They initially offered me a worse deal than I was already on, and tied into a 24 month contract!

After a bit of back and forth they offered me the 35GB deal on a 24 month contract. It did take a lot longer than I thought it would to get them to do it.

So now I'll be paying less, even after the £2.50 hike, than I would've been paying if they hadn't decided to increase prices. I'll also have more data as well.