How To Get The Cheapest Mobile And Contract Possible

Need that mobile phone and service, but don't want to pay a fortune? Today we're going to tell you the cheapest possible way to get what you want. So if you're looking to save some cash, then here's how you can do it...

Buy Mobile Phones Online...
The first thing that you're going to need is a phone. Don't fall for the incentive contracts that mobile operators are trying to sell you. These are the contracts that come with a free phone, and as tempting as they may be they're going to end up costing you a lot more. The phone you get isn't free; you pay for it in instalments that are added to the cost of your monthly mobile bill. And when you add up all the instalments you'll find that you pay more than the retail cost for the phone. In the long run you're going to save more, and get lower mobile bills, by buying your own phone. The best way to buy mobile phones is online. Online prices are always cheaper, even if you're buying directly through a mobile operator.

You can get a perfectly decent budget, touch screen, smart phone for under a hundred and fifty pounds, so don't let the thought of big prices put you off. Check out the Huawei Ascend models or the lower end Sony Xperias for good deals. If it bothers you to buy mobile phones online, go out and get a physical look at the model you're buying before you commit, but then come home and buy it over the internet. This is by far the cheapest way that you're going to get a phone.

Consider Pay as You Go...
Now you're going to need to get service for that new phone, and you have a couple of options. The first thing you should consider is pay as you go. This is where you buy a SIM card from and operator and load it up with credit. When you use your phone, credit is deducted from your account, and when the credit's gone you phone stops working (though you can still receive texts and calls), at which point you'll need to put more credit on.

This has the advantage of only paying for services that you actually use. Plus, it makes controlling your budget easier, since you can only spend money that you've already put on your phone in credit. But rates on pay as you go are higher than on contract. This doesn't mean that you don't get savings though. In general, light phone users benefit more from pay as you go contracts, since they rarely use up the monthly calling plan limits on contracts. If you use less than ten calling minutes a week, send only three to four text messages a day, and only use mobile data for casual surfing and emailing, then you're probably going to save money with a pay as you go plan. Check out Tesco Mobile for the best pay as you go deals.

Choose a Calling Plan...
If pay as you go isn't for you, then you're going to be signing a mobile contract with an operator, and this means choosing a calling plan. The right calling plan is exceptionally important when it comes to saving money. A calling plan is going to give you a set of limits for the amount of calling minutes, text messages and mobile data that you can use each month for your fixed monthly fee. If this plan is too big you're going to waste money paying for minutes, texts and data that you don't use, because your monthly fee is the same regardless of whether you use all of your limits or none of them. If your plan is too small, then you're going to consistently go over your monthly calling plan limits. When this happens, you have to pay expensive premium rates on any extra services you use on top of your regular monthly fee. There are a couple of things that you can do to make sure that you're choosing the right calling plan. If you've had a contract before, then look at some of your old phone bills. These should give you an idea of what your monthly usage looks like. If you haven't had a contract before then the best thing that you can do is to get a pay as you go plan for a month and then track your phone usage. You can do this yourself, however most modern phones will do it for you. Just look under the settings menu and see if you can find minute, text and data counters. Set these counters to zero, use your phone normally for a month, and then go back and check the numbers. This will tell you the size of calling plan that you should go for.

Shop (online, again...)...
Now you're ready to find the cheapest contract for you. Go online and find yourself a mobile tariff comparison web site. You'll put the monthly calling plan limits that you're looking for into the site, and then you'll get a list of plans with different operators that match your needs. Make sure that the plan says it's SIM only (you don't want to sign an incentive contract, remember?). Now find the cheapest plan that's the closest match to your required limits. Before you buy, there's one more step to the process. Go to the web site of the operator that the plan is with, and find the coverage map. Every operator has one on their site. Use this to make sure that the provider has good coverage in your area. If they don't, choose another plan with a different operator. Bad coverage will give you bad mobile reception, and it's just not worth paying for. You can then go ahead and buy the contract, again doing it online to get online discounts. And you'll be safe in the knowledge that you've got the cheapest mobile and service plan that you can possibly get.

Sam Jones decided that it was time to buy mobile phones again for the household.  He found the latest offers online with sites like uSwitch and managed to get great phone packages for next to nothing.