This weekend I shaved £15 off my monthly outgoings and earned myself £52 in the process. At the same time I got myself a free top-of-the-range mobile phone. Not bad for an hour’s work. Here’s how you can do it.
What do you need?
Before you start shopping around for a new mobile phone deal, think about what you need. If you never use your phone to browse the internet, then there is no point getting a contract that gives you cheap internet usage. The same goes for the phone you get. Don’t opt for a top-of-the-range phone with bells and whistles if you only want something you can use to call home in emergencies.
The other decision to make is whether to opt for pay as you go or a contract phone. In my opinion, pay as you go phones aren’t much use once you’re old enough to get a contract. You run the risk of running out of credit at the worst possible moment, and contract deals usually work out cheaper. The exceptions to this are if you are buying a phone that will get minimal usage – for example, one for elderly relatives to use in an emergency – or if you can’t tie yourself to a minimum 12-month contract.
For everyone else, a contract phone usually offers the best value for money. If you know where to look and how to ask, you can now get deals for under £10 a month.
Fire up the computer
Once you know what you want, it’s time to get online and find out who will give you it for the least cash. Moneysupermarket provides a good comparison service which is an excellent place to start. Or head to Mobiles.co.uk which offers very competitive deals, including cash back and free gifts with phones. Just choose the phone you want, then you can look at the best deal offered on each network. A word of warning though – steer clear of the free gifts. A free Wii might sound nice, but the contract will probably cost more than if you had just saved up and bought the Wii separately.
Right – that shouldn’t have taken long, and you should now be armed with the knowledge of the best deal out there for you. Now it’s time to call your phone provider.
Who to talk to
The key to success at this stage always used to be to make sure you spoke to the cancellation team – also known as ‘customer retentions’ – as they have the most power to offer the best deals. However, this doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. My research this weekend revealed that some providers have now merged their cancellation team with the rest of their renewals team, and increased everyone’s power to mould deals to the specific customer. Presumably they’ve done this because everyone wanted to deal with the cancellation team rather than renewals.
So now I would suggest just calling your renewals team. Ask what they can offer you if you renew your contract. See if it matches up to the deals you’ve seen online. If not, then mention the deal you’ve seen and ask if they will match it. If they say no, then it’s time to ask to speak to cancellations. If you still aren’t happy with the renewal deal you are being offered, then cancel.
If you have to switch providers
Switching providers isn’t as much hassle as it used to be. You can even keep your current number. Just make sure you ask your provider for your porting authorisation code (Pac) before you cancel your contract, then give the code to your new provider. You should be up and running with your old number within a couple of days.
One word of caution before you switch providers. Check how good their coverage is in your area. Otherwise you could end up with a really cheap deal on a mobile phone you can only use at the top of the nearest hill.
If you don’t discover a coverage problem until you’ve got your new phone, don’t panic. You have a “cooling off period” of at least seven days, in which to cancel a new contract without penalty.
Sell your old mobile phone
Once you’ve got your new phone, it’s time to make some easy money. Rather than shoving your old handset into a drawer to gather dust, get online and sell it. Numerous sites will buy your old phone, even if it’s broken. The amount you get depends on the make and model phone you have.
Mazuma, Fonebank and Love2Recycle will all give you cash for your old mobile. It’s worth shopping around, as the amount you’ll get can vary a great deal. My old Samsung F400 would only get me £23 with Money4URMobile, whereas I sold it for £52 to Love2Recycle. Even if it was broken, Fonebank would have given me £20 for it. To do a quick check to see who will offer you the most money, visit MoneySavingExpert.
And there you are. All that shouldn’t take more than an hour and you’ll be a bit richer for it.
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