Millions Of Brits Overpay For Mobile Phones

Ten million mobile phone users in the UK are paying more than they need to for their mobile service, consumer watchdog Which? has warned.

The research found that British users are paying more money for extra call-time, texts and data, over and above the monthly line rental.

The watchdog said that its survey of 1,271 adults, had found that 70 percent of people check their mobile bill at least once a month. However, it seems that six million people have only a vague idea of their monthly allowance of call minutes, and five million are unsure of their text and data allowances.

Lazy Users?

The central message from the research is that users need to be a bit more savvy about their mobile phone bills by making sure they are on the right tariff for them. For example, if users find they spend more than the cost of the line rental, the advice is to find out where you are incurring the extra costs and locate a more suitable tariff.

“If you regularly spend more than your line rental, check your bill to see where you’re incurring extra charges as you may be able to save money by moving to a tariff with more minutes, texts or data,” said Tom McLennan, head of Which? Mobile.

“If you never go over your agreed line rental, it’s because you’re not using up your allowance so you may be able to save money by finding a cheaper tariff that reflects your usage,” he added.

And it seems that British users also need to start being a bit more ruthless with their service provider, as over 18 million users had never switched mobile phone providers. And nearly 40 percent of people have never shopped around for a mobile phone deal.

Shop Around

So the advice is clear, mobile users need to shop around for the best deal for their particular circumstances, and don’t be afraid of looking to another service provider if your current operator does not measure up.

And don’t forget to measure your data usage. This is especially important nowadays with the increasing use of smartphones, which means that users are increasingly using more data instead than voice. Indeed, back in August this year ABI Research warned that mobile data use in Western Europe is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 42 percent from 2009 to 2015.