MSE News: Millions wasting money on mobiles

NFH

choccyface2006 wrote: »

This is precisely my way of thinking, I do the same on Orange.

Me too. I used to be on an Orange corporate tariff. £3/month basic charge with everything on top at low rates, and you still got a subsidised handset as if you were paying £20 to £30 per month. Very good deal until the company and Orange terminated their agreement.

sly_dog_jonah

simax wrote: »

Yep, it's on T-Mobile. Have 3G everywhere I go. Cracking stuff. (I also used 30GB of tethering last month to so getting my monies worth lol)

I see from your signature you work for EE, so no wonder you managed to get a good deal :beer: Your employers must love your tethering habits!

paddyrg

NFH wrote: »

This is all caused by bundling, whereby customers are encouraged to buy a number of minutes, texts and megabytes per month. This forces you to buy more than you need. Imagine if this system was the norm with electricity, gas and water supplies. It makes no more sense with mobile phones than it would with other utilities. A more transparent system would be to charge customers only for what they use, with lower rates per minute, text or megabyte above certain monthly levels, giving a discount to high users.

Isn't that called PAYG? Much like the gas bill units don't come down in usage tiers without a fresh tariff, nor do PAYG minutes.

Why is PAYG dearer than monthly fees? Well paying monthly lets the operator plan their cashflow and plan their capacity and network. Unpredictability is great for the punter, less so for the network if everyone could switch from T-Mo to O2 overnight leaving them with expensive infrastructure and no revenue.

I suppose if you wanted something in between, you could look at youfix from T-Mo with a small base monthly package then PAYG beyond that.

Me, I have the Flext35 deal but when I buy a phone, I am first and foremost buying the device I want, amortised linearly (effectively interest free loan) across the contract length, then look at the calls/data/etc package on top of that. With loyalty discounts on top, I may be paying £30/month but almost £20/month of that is paying for the handset, the other £10-15 or so for the deal. That deal is for plenty of data (never paid an overage) and £180 'worth' of calls and texts (which I rarely exceed)

If we took the oversimplified model employed by companies with an interest in getting me to switch providers, they could say I am not using sometimes £120 worth of calls a month (when I make £60 worth). In fact the phone is more than something to talk into, it is my mobile office on free credit with everything I need even in a heavy use month with no shock bills to cover. The problem with statistics and accounting is that you can prove pretty much anything you want to.

NFH

paddyrg wrote: »

Isn't that called PAYG?

No, because PAYG is prepaid and with no periodic bill. The closest equivalent to the electricity, gas and water method is the mobile networks' corporate tariffs discussed above.

Mrs_Arcanum

The average tariff with a decent phone is around £35 pcm over 2 years so a total of £840. Most of these can be purchased sim free for around £500/600. Some PAYG deals are available with unlimited downloads and a decent number of texts and minutes from as little as £5 - £10 month.

Most people don't bother looking or checking what they actually use & just see "shiny new phone".

Me I have spent less than £100 over 20 months including a new mobile at December 2010. Being on GG I have also earned £50 + back so my calls have been paid for. Not a swanky phone but does what I want and suits my usage.

simax

sly_dog_jonah wrote: »

I see from your signature you work for EE, so no wonder you managed to get a good deal :beer: Your employers must love your tethering habits!

Was merely testing the boundaries of unlimited

Back to more sensible use now though ...:beer: