Which? research has revealed that 36% of people on “bundled” mobile phone contracts are overpaying.
A “bundled” contract is basically one where your monthly fee pays for both the handset and your minutes, texts and data.
Typically you’ll pay a premium for a set period, after which the fee should automatically drop to cover just the minutes, texts and data as you’ll have paid off your handset.
But the reality is that the discounts aren’t always automatically applied, and even when they are, they’re not the best deal around. So if you want to save money, you’ll have to call your provider to renegotiate.
To be honest, if you want to find the best deal, it might be worth checking whether it’s cheaper to buy the handset sim-free and maintain a low cost contract, especially when you might not be using your mobile as much now.
ID Mobile and GiffGaff, for example, have sim-only deals from just £6 a month.
The same principle applies to other bills too. If you have a deal that’s fixed for a certain amount of time, always renegotiate if the provider wants to increase prices or when the contract is about to end.
