billmonitor.com

Stuart_W

The billmonitor.com website has been mentioned a few times on here and managed to get lots of coverage in major newspapers, mainly because it uses various algorithms and clever wizardry to compare bills, and was developed by Oxford University mathematicians. However, that doesn't stop it being utterly useless.

Email this morning -



Given that I can instantly think of half a dozen tariffs that would be cheaper, and of course billmonitor.com has no idea what cashback I have already received for my current contract, even with its clearly very limited knowledge it should at least be clever enough to tell me to stay on the same tariff if the next best thing it can think of costs more money each month.

Advice on moneysavingexpert.com is by far more valuable than using advice from mathematicians at Oxford it seems!!

Notmyrealname

Stuart_W wrote: »

Given that I can instantly think of half a dozen tariffs that would be cheaper, and of course billmonitor.com has no idea what cashback I have already received for my current contract, even with its clearly very limited knowledge it should at least be clever enough to tell me to stay on the same tariff if the next best thing it can think of costs more money each month.

Advice on moneysavingexpert.com is by far more valuable than using advice from mathematicians at Oxford it seems!!

Sorry but in this case it is you that is wrong. The best contract isn't necessarily the cheapest. It may be that the one for the additional 50p has far more minutes, texts and/or data than your current one. As a mere 50 out of allowance texts or 15 minutes out of allowance calls A YEAR would more than wipe out the savings, the additional allowances on the slightly more expensive contract would be a better option.

mobilejunkie

Any mathematical model has to make all sorts of assumptions. People don't fit into boxes - and neither do mobile contracts. The best way of finding the best deal is to do your own searches and weigh up the pros and cons of what you discover. I wonder if they know anything about cashback deals - and if they do, anything about the risks in general (they certainly cannot possibly cater for the acument of the individual punter).