Cash advice

If you’ve been stung by mobile phone bill price hikes, then it’s time to make sure you’re getting the best possible deal. Here, the Financially Fabulous Money Team tells us how to cut our bill by up to £200 a year…

1 TIMING IS EVERYTHING

The best time to get a better deal is just before your contract ends, so you won’t incur penalties for leaving early. Make a note of the number of calls, texts and the amount of data you tend to use per month (use your statements to work out a monthly average), as that will help you choose a new tariff. Contact your provider to see if they will give you a better deal based on your usage… And don’t be persuaded to upgrade!

2 SHOP AROUND

If what your provider’s offering isn’t good enough, find out what other companies could do for you on a comparison site such as uSwitch.com or comparethemarket.com. Research from uSwitch found that, on average, people save at least £187 a year by switching – a huge amount of money!

3 SIM-PLE!

If you’re not bothered about getting the latest phone, you could be much better off keeping the handset you have and going with a SIM-only deal. SMARTY from Three, giffgaff and Tesco Mobile offer some impressive packages. As little as £10 per month gets you unlimited calls and texts and 4GB of data. Unshackled.com lets you compare the SIM-only plans from different providers.

4 NOT USING MUCH?

If you’re just an occasional mobile user, you can save lots with a 4G iD Mobile deal from Carphone Warehouse. For just £3.99 a month on a pay monthly contract, you’ll get 500MB data, 150 minutes and unlimited texts. You can set a cap for just £5, so you won’t get a huge bill if you go over your allowances.

5 SET A LIMIT

With Vodafone’s Pay as you go 1 tariff, you won’t pay more than £1 a day no matter how many calls and texts you make. You’ll also get 500MB of data a day and, if you use less than the £1 cap, you’ll only be charged for what you use. Only Vodafone has this kind of offer.