UK Couple Stung With £11,000 Roaming Bill

Posted March 4th, 2008 by Paul in Mobile Phone Tariffs

If you’ve ever been stung by unexpected charges for sending or receiving texts or making calls when abroad, you’ll be aware of the increased cost of roaming charges and if you’re lucky, will have gotten away without too much damage to your bill.

While mobile phone providers do make an effort to inform customers of increased charges, they are often difficult to police, something which an executive couple who took advantage of an unlimited Vodafone broadband package will find difficult to forget in a hurry.

… continue reading "UK Couple Stung With £11,000 Roaming Bill"

Poor Tariff Choices Cost Mobile Phone Users £8.45billion Per Year

Posted February 6th, 2008 by Paul in Mobile Phone Tariffs

There’s a lot more to picking a mobile phone than simply settling on your favourite shiny new gadget. If you’re lucky enough to find the phone you want at a price that’s acceptable to you, it’s vital that you pay careful attention to exactly what you’re getting for your money.

We’ve all been there, pouring over free minute and message combinations, add-ons, ‘favourite’ number selections and on-peak/off-peak coverage to try and work out which package will cost less in the long-term. Unfortunately … continue reading "Poor Tariff Choices Cost Mobile Phone Users £8.45billion Per Year"

T-Mobile still the UK’s best value tariffs

Posted February 22nd, 2007 by Nick in Mobile Phone Tariffs, Mobile Phone News

T-Mobile’s Flext tariffs are extremely popular because they are compatible with people’s actual phone usage, rather than cramping them into rigid talk and text boundaries. They help people to stay within their monthly limits, saving on excess call charges, but they are also the best value tariffs as well, as I shall prove with the simple table below!

Take Flext 35, which is the most popular T-Mobile tariff, and has a £35 equivalent on every other network in the UK.

Flext 35 lets you use up to £180 worth of calls and texts, charging 20p for a minute’s call to any network, and 10p for a text. So you could only use the calls and talk for 900 minutes, or only text and have 1800! More likely you would speak for 600 minutes and make 600 texts, or maybe speak for 300 minutes and make 1200 texts.

By applying the same logic, ie that a minute is worth 20p and a text is worth 10p you can assign a monetary value to the £35 of every network.

Tmobile is stronger even than the recently enhanced 02 tariffs, and significantly stronger than some of the others. In fact Flext 35 also beats the £45 tariff from Three with 600 minutes and 400 texts and Vodafone’s (Vodaphone) £40 tariff with 500 minutes and 250 texts, and is the same value as Orange’s £45 tariff with 800 mins and 200 texts.

Of course, this is a very simple way of looking at it, and assumes that everyone uses all their minutes and texts each month, which obviously they don’t. For some people 3’s £15 tariff that includes 500 minutes and no texts, or Virgin £20 with 50 minutes and 100 texts will be much more suitable to their needs.

I personally am on 3, and I love the free music and video downloads I get each month on top of my 400 minutes and 250 texts.

But if it’s pure value for money you’re after, and you’re prepared to place your faith in a little bit of simple maths, T-Mobile have the tariffs for you! 

For more information on tmobile have a look our network page.

Three mobile, o2 mobile phones, Free phones, Orange.com, Phone shop, 3.com, Orange phone

The alternative Orange Animals tariffs!

Posted January 18th, 2007 by Nick in Mobile Phone Tariffs, Mobile Phone News

Orange were on to a winner when they brought out the Animals tariffs, we’re all a little animalistic in our mobile behaviour! But why stop at four? I can think of loads more examples! 

Dog - This is the tariff for your dad. He has no idea what phone deal he is on, would not understand if you told him, and as such is extremely loyal to whichever package he first signed up to.  

Love birds - Obviously this is an off-peak tariff, with billions of minutes, perfect for couples who like to spend hours lying awake listening to each other breathing.

Magpie - Ridiculously overpriced tariff that comes with the latest, shiniest phone on the market. The D&G Motorola Razr for example!

Monkey - Why has there never been a tariff released for the cheeky git who insists on ringing once then hanging up to make you call back? This will be a low minute, high text affair, seeing as he’s not going to actually connect any calls!

Shark - The business tariff. Particularly for cowboy tradesmen and car salesmen. Has special call alerting device that warns of troublesome calls requesting money.

Hyena - Each phone on this tariff comes complete with a built-in set of extremely annoying ringtones. Come to think of it, why isn’t there a crazy frog tariff?

Busy Ant - This tariff comes with a bumper answerphone service for people who simply don’t have the time to answer the damn phone!

Dinosaur - For people using phones so old they’re liable to become extinct. 

Fox - A particularly cunning tariff, aimed mainly at students, or anyone who can work out that they can actually get away without paying any money at all if they sell the phone on eBay for silly money, then borrow their mum’s old phone for the next year and a half!

Spider - special “web” tariff…

sorry.