Where Does It Go? - UK Money Blog £

Last month I spoke of going onto pay-as-you-go on my mobile to try and cut expenses, they offered me an £18 a month contract which despite hard work from the TSR at the call centre I said no to. Pleads included “This offer is only going until next week!”

Well today I was phoned up by another salesman from 3 (My mobile phone provider) asking for me - nowadays I always answer “Is this Robert Brown?” with “Who’s speaking?”, and I was about to launch into a murder scene interrogation…..

…but as I was lining it up with grunts and obscure mutterings (I doubt I could of pulled it off with the Tom Mabe style) the guy at 3 offered me £10 a month for life for 500 minutes anytime/any network. 

This works out over £300 a year less than what I was paying for up till this month, with 100 minutes more text/calls.

Just goes to show how desperate companies are to fix you into a contract - no doubt the iPhone is taking away a lot of business so they get me locked in for another 18 months, hell they even threw in a new phone (Nokia 6500 Slide), which I read a few reviews of and it breaks a lot, but I could always sell it on ebay.  I’m pretty happy today since I would have probably used about £10 a month in top-ups.

Anyway, a good lesson for me: never accept the first thing they offer you.  Just by saying “no” I’ve saved probably £100 a year.

One of the first cutbacks in reviewing my budget was my mobile phone - by the end of the contract this had risen to £35 a month after a half price deal had finished 12 months before.  I’ve always been on contract and have never tried pay-as-you-go, so thought I’ll try it out as a way of keeping track of my expenses.

£35 may be pittance compared to the girlfriends bill (£90 last month) but still felt unnecessary as I rarely used all my free minutes (I use email much more)

This didn’t stop 10 minutes of polite “No”s to the 3 salesman trying to convince me to take out a new contract.  I felt 18 months is a long time for any mobile phone contract at the moment, particularly with new deals coming out.

One of the big pluses with a contract phone is that you get a new phone out of the deal, but my Sony Ericsson’s performs well (well it takes calls and texts - thats all it has to do really innit? ) and I’d still be contactable.

Naturally if you use a phone more than I do, you may want to consider a contract, but I’m always conscious that the companies make their money on the contracts, not the phones.

3 my provider tried to sign me up to the £15 a month 300 anytime minutes or texts, which gives you 300 minutes or texts or some combination of the two.  This works out at 5p a minute or text.

I’ll compare this is the Pay-As-You-Go 12p a minute I’ll be on, but know I’ll be a lot less likely to use the phone with this rate upon it.  If I use the phone more than 125 minutes a month, I’ll be better off on the pay-as-you-go.

Am I just being kooky not wanting to be tied to a contract?  I just feel having the money coming out of my account kind of forces you to use the phone more.

Tags: budgeting, mobile phones, 3, contracts, tips