Rant about mobile phones

Kevicho

I think as long as people are on the right tariff for them, and monitor their usage there arent really any problems.

My contract is 15 a month, and im happy with that, as i can budget against that and use it whenever i want, as i use MSN or email more often i rarely get near the limits, but they are there in case i need them

Alexnikov

I'm perfectly happy on PAYG. I have an ancient Genie SIM card which gives me 300 free texts a month if I top up £10. O2 give you 10% of your top-ups back every 3 months, plus 15 free mins a month as a treat thingy and I've just started on their numbers bolt-on whereby you pay £5 a month and get 1000 mins/texts to the 10 02 numbers you call/text the most. It suits me right down to the ground as I text a lot and don't use it for calls very much so I almost never spend more than £10 a month.

embarrassed_about_my_debt

pania wrote: »

my phone is the bain of my life barron, my mobile bill is frequently £200+, but is it due to being a gasbag? nope, is it down to poor management, nope. it is down to bloomin work, is a business mobile but they refuse to pay a penny for it!!! so for now am stuck with it. yes mobile phone cos take people for a ride, they are costly adn over indulged, the days were when you would go into town knowing exactly what you wanted and if you saw anything else when there it would wait until next time rather than a phonecall home, can't wait for the day that my mob can get chucked in the first lake i see.

Pania, it would mean you filling out a tax return but you could reclaim the tax on your mobile. Based on £200 a month (you would need to remove personal usage though) you would get a tax refund of approx £528 if you are in the 22% tax band. You can go back a few years aswell. Would be def worth looking into for you.

HTH

bringmeshoes

i work for o2 so i get a really good staff deal for my mob ( i am also a saddo that gets a new phone every year but never pay for it) i dont have a landline so my contract works out a lot cheaper for me than using PAYG as i'm always on my phone but i get so many free mins and texts that i could never go over

Gemmzie

I have a £15 a month contract now, was on a £30 one before and it really wasn't worth it - the extra was the cost of the phone really.
I'm happy to stick with that until my work get me a new one, then it'll be a Blackberry/PDA type phone because I work all over the place and need constant access to email.

Personally, I can't understand why people spend £30 ish on Broadband, when you could get £18 Sky and free broadband. Works out better surely?
As PAP said, everyone's different.

GreenFingers_2

I’ve got one of those Mobile Phone thingys. It’s a RAZR 3i – cooooool. Apparently it’s got a camera and text and other things and buttons….you can even talk on it. Wicked.

I’ve never sent a text in my life…too scary for me. It’s a PAYG one and I’ve put about £20.00 in it this year. The only number stored in the silly thing is the local Chinese Takeaway. Mmmmmm… Chinese takeaway.

The network provider is Virgin…..Virgin’s network coverage in this part of Kent is abyssmal….so the phone doesn’t work hence I don't use it much – how MSE is that! <scurries back to the garden shed>

g_attrill

pania wrote: »

my phone is the bain of my life barron, my mobile bill is frequently £200+, but is it due to being a gasbag? nope, is it down to poor management, nope. it is down to bloomin work, is a business mobile but they refuse to pay a penny for it!!!

Are you sure there aren't contracts which will cover all your calls, when I have looked at prices it seems for ~£90 you can get a huge amount of minutes. If there are calls you are regularly making that fall outside of your tariff, see if there is a way you can reduce the cost, eg. a calling card or for 0845/0870 numbers find the geographic number behind it.

On the work subject, def. claim as a business expensive, but you will need to file a tax return. Otherwise "break" your phone, say you can't get a new one for a couple of weeks and see what your employer does about it?

dooby39

we have got contract sims from virgin but they are £10 a month with 300 free txts and 300 free mins which i nevere use them all and they carry then over to the nxt month too so i know i never have more than £10 to pay:D
got my son a payg phone for xmas and am a bit miffed i may have to pay more per month on his then my own as he is on different network:eek: :rotfl:

postingalwaysposting

Gemmzie wrote: »

Personally, I can't understand why people spend £30 ish on Broadband, when you could get £18 Sky and free broadband. Works out better surely?
As PAP said, everyone's different.

See thats teh ting gem, i give bt 25 shiney £1 coins for my internet connection when i know i can get the same speed for £17.99 however i have used another provider and the amount of 'down time' i suffer with bt is none whereas another provider was allowing me no connection. I think i have had about an hour down time in the last 3 years and they gave me £10 back because of it. Much prefer them. However everyones differnet and i guess thats what makes the world turn.

rog2

I have a contract with O2 - it costs me £8.50 a month and I get 200 minutes included, plus (I think) 100 texts - but I'm not a texter, so I hardly use any of these.
I haven't, personally, upgraded my handset for 3-4 years, maybe more - I have a perfectly good Nokia, with bluetooth, for hands free in the car. I don't need a built in camera as I have a 7 megapixel? digital camera that will take all the photos I need. My youngest daughter often uses my 'contract' to upgrade her PAYG handset and, sometimes, offers me her old handset.
My only gripe is with the accounts team at O2 - I do not want to pay my bill by direct debit - my wife writes a cheque on the day that the bill arrives and we post it by first class mail - at least once every couple of months they will 'restrict' my service to incoming calls only, even though the cheque has been cleared. Their excuse is that it takes up to ten days for it to be marked as cleared - that is not my fault, and I shouldn't have to ring them to get my service reconnected - I know that they prefer direct debits as it gives THEM control of MY money, but I prefer to be the only one to have control of my money.
I also use BT broadband - but I will not have SKY TV on principle.