What should I aim for?

Gary_Delaney

Hi moneysavers,

My 02 contract (carphone warehouse) is up within the next month or so. I spend loads of money with them. Typically use maybe 200 mins in calls per month and up to 1000 texts. I usually end up paying 60 to 100 pounds per month. I am rubbish and reckon I could probably save loads.

I'm probably going to do the threaten to leave thing, but may be persuaded to pac my bags and go somewere else if CPW don't play ball.

What should I aim for? frankly I've no idea.

cheers,

Gary Delaney
https://www.garydelaney.com

fonefather

Afternoon Gary,

I've seen you on TV! ... then again, I imagine alot of people have too.

You mention spending about £60-100 a month which is pretty heavy considering the contract you are on.

Questions I would ask would be...
1. Would you contemplate moving onto a 3G tariff or are you more of a ''can't be bothered looking at people while i'm on the phone'' and stick to your voice minutes package.
2. What type of phone are you after (Nokia/Motorola... Small/large but useful)..

on a quick look on the main networks pages i've come across the following which *may* appeal to you.

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Orange
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Orange 400 X-Net + 1000 sms for £50pm. You can have your pick of alot of nice handsets for free as well. Should you opt for less than 1000 sms messages, you can have 500 sms and have 200 off peak minutes on top of the 400 (making it 600 in total) for FREE.

http://shop.orange.co.uk/

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Vodafone
=======

Alot of people knock vodafone down for being too expensive they do the business when you need them to. My current tariff with them is the X-Net 750 with 300 sms for £35 which is a bargain as my bills never exceed that amount. Now for you, i looked at the following:

***Edit*** can't find anything decent which would cut your costs down, so time for the next one...

==
O2
==

Online 400 + 1000 sms at £45 and... yep, you can get most phones at a decent price.

http://shop.o2.co.uk/

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T-Mobile
=======

Relax 400 - £47 per month - 400 X-Net minutes. Note: sms bundles are extra... BUT, you do get free voicemail (which might be helpful incase you're on the move?).... and once again you can pick up a pretty nice phone on that plan.

Why 400 minutes rather then something higher? I imagine that the extra cash on your tariff is made using cross network calls. Therefore 200 extra minutes should deflate your bill lower AND you can have a nice new phone to show off...

HTH. Let me know if you need anymore info. Only thing i'd ask you is....

What phone do you want???

Regards,
FF.

Gary_Delaney

Wow FF. I'm impessed. Thanks.

Don't really care about phone having whistles and bells, cameras, pictures etc. or particularly what it looks like. Ideally I'd want something that holds it's charge for more than a day (I am usually on the road and often forget my charger) and has a decent bit of memory for numbers/new words.

When I've got high bills in the past it's usually been run up more by exceeding my quota of texts than of minutes.

I thought most packages had free voice mail. Obviously not. I'd either need a package that has it free or to have more minutes than 200 I guess.

Cheers

Gary

PS: I haven't been on telly for 2 years. Either you're a comedy anorak, or we went to college together.

Gary_Delaney

Gary_Delaney wrote:

PS: I haven't been on telly for 2 years. Either you're a comedy anorak, or we went to college together.

Or you're being nice. bless you.

MeNoMoney

fonefather wrote:

Afternoon Gary,

My current tariff with them is the X-Net 750 with 300 sms for £35 which is a bargain as my bills never exceed that amount.

Bloody hell how did you get that for the price? I pay £33P.M. for 300x-net plus 100 texts.

fonefather

[QUOTE=PS:_I_haven't_been_on_telly_for_2_years._Either_you're_a_comedy_anorak,_or_we_went_to_college_together.[/QUOTE]

Repeats on paramount if i'm not mistaken (jongleurs?)..

what phone do you have at the moment - that'll help determine what I think should be your next phone... ie, if you're unhappy with it in some way then there's some form of variation with it.

t-mobile are the only network to provide free voicemail for personal customers. However, o2 and orange do provide free voicemail on their business tariffs (which you could blag as you're self employed??). Only catch with that is that you suffer from not having as many free texts and would have to attach them as bundles.

Just read on the orange website that if you choose an extra 120 texts for £8.00, you get them doubled up for the first 6 months (ie, 240 texts for £8.00 which works out at 3.3p a text - bargain!!!) so you can easily accommodate and mix between your minutes and your texts (most new phones can keep a track on how many messages you want). Best thing about the additional texts (in the form of bundles) is that you're NOT committed to keep them for the term of the contract... so after 6 months ditch them and stick with the standard sms allocated to your tariff.

@Menomoney - Was with Singlepoint (now vodafone) and I did kick up such a major fuss with them about it as I was getting ridiculously high bills for someone who was with them for years. I'll see if I can get the name of the sales person at singlepoint who sold me the package but if i'm not mistaken it's not been discontinued.

HTH.

FF.

boatman

This online package comes with 400minutes/1000text and free voice mail.
http://shop.o2.co.uk/shop/choosetariffs
Go to the 'online400' package.

MeNoMoney

fonefather,
I know what ya mean about singlepoint,i was with them for 2years(which was 23 1/2months to long:) )now with vodafone direct and also have another contract with them through dial-a-phone.
The reason i did this was to have one main mob. and then sell the free phone i got with the other contract,which pays for 90% of the cost of the second contract,if ya get what i mean.

boatman

This sim only offer by O2 is better if you don't want to get a new phone.

400minutes/ 1000 text, free voicemail, only £30 a month.

http://shop.o2.co.uk/shop/simonlydetails/consumer:O2ONLINE:200:SIM:GROUP
If you find you need a new phone get a cheap pay as you go phone.

Pink_Elephant_2

Gary_Delaney wrote:

Hi moneysavers,

My 02 contract (carphone warehouse) is up within the next month or so. I spend loads of money with them. Typically use maybe 200 mins in calls per month and up to 1000 texts. I usually end up paying 60 to 100 pounds per month. I am rubbish and reckon I could probably save loads.

I'm probably going to do the threaten to leave thing, but may be persuaded to pac my bags and go somewere else if CPW don't play ball.

What should I aim for? frankly I've no idea.

cheers,

Gary Delaney
https://www.garydelaney.com

Hi Gary,

If your usage of inclusive minutes vary from month to month and you don't care about the phone you should consider easymobile. They charge 15p per minute and 5p for texts (only 6p and 2 p until end of June) and you don't have to worry about going below or above your inclusive minutes and texts. You can also use their "auto refill" service making sure they top up for you whenever you are close to 0 on your account.

I have saved loads (especially due to their opening offer) but expect to do so also when they return to normal prices as I have experienced in the past that my usage varies a great deal - some months I have utilised my inclusive minutes perfectly, but usually I have either used less or more and then paid more per minute and text than I was expecting.

The only thing is if you want a new phone - you won't get that from easymobile.

Cheers
PE

Gary_Delaney

Hi Guys,

This information is excellent. My contract ends today. I like the sound of the sim only 02 400 mins plus 1000 texts for £30 per month. That seems like the best. If my total bill was only 30 quid a month I'd be very happy as that's less than half what I pay most months.

My old samsung is pretty much dead, but don't mind just picking up a cheap handset from a supermarket or something.

cheers

Gary

PS: FF, The jongleurs thing, I was filmed (and paid) for that. Didn't know they'd actually used it though. Don't have Paramount. If you're into live comedy and see on my website that I'm playing a club near you get in touch via the site if you want to be on the guestlist. cheers.