Cheap calls please

January 13, 2009 6:52 AM

UK Mobile phone monthly contract recommendations?

My current contract with T-Mobile is up next month, and it's costing me way too much.

I need roughly 3 hours and 300 texts a month, but I also need to be able to make short calls and send texts to abroad relatively frequently.

I also travel to Europe and North America around three or four times a year, so ideally roaming would be somehow included or cheap.

Currently I'm also charged for calling Voicemail, so if that would be included, great.

I pay around £45 a month at the moment, but bills have gone up to £70 with roaming. I'd ideally like to reduce my payments.

So, on the basis of that, what can you recommend? I stopped into the Carphone Warehouse, and the guy basically said O2 was pretty good, but didn't really develop anything beyond that.

posted by djgh to shopping (4 comments total)

In order to work out the best option, a few questions:

- In order to save money on your international calls and texts, would you be willing to use an override number and/or an application running on your phone, rather than just the phone's standard interface?

- Roaming to North America is always somewhat expensive, would you be willing to get a US SIM card and just roam in Europe?

- Do you have a hankering for a particular new phone? Or a range of new phones?

- Are you happy to take an 18-month contract?

- Are there any networks that don't have good coverage in your area?
posted by quiet at 7:40 AM on January 13

You will continue to have a high monthly bill no matter which tarriff you choose if you keep making international calls on your mobile. You have three options to reduce you bills:

1. go for a business tarriff on T-Mobile which gives you inclusive calls to US and Europe (assuming that is where you are calling). This is a very cost effective option especially if you are calling EU based mobile numbers where termination costs are high (pro: direct calling, no prefixes etc; cons: still expensive to call outside EU and USA)

2. Sign up to something like Jajah or Rebtel which will give you local number patched to your favourite overseas destinations and you pay a very reasonable routing cost to the provider. (Pro: very cheap; con: you will need to programme your frequently called number)

3. If you have a high end web based phone or a high end Nokia go for Truphone or other voip applications (Pro: direct, doesnt need change in habit; con: Truphone is not very cheap)

All the above will use up your local/mobile minutes so you will need enough minutes in your package.

The best way to build a package is probably this which lets you pick minutes etc. You may be able to find a tarriff which gives you more local calls in case you use the option 2 above.

For roaming costs outside of the EU I agree with the responder above about getting a local sim and a local number to forward your calls to it (try skypeout which works well for me).

Hope it helps.
posted by london302 at 11:08 AM on January 13

- In order to save money on your international calls and texts, would you be willing to use an override number and/or an application running on your phone, rather than just the phone's standard interface?

Yes, provided that it's relatively easy to install/switch between.

- Roaming to North America is always somewhat expensive, would you be willing to get a US SIM card and just roam in Europe?

Prefer not to. I can make outgoing calls from a landline in the US, but generally the thing that costs me when roaming is receiving.

- Do you have a hankering for a particular new phone? Or a range of new phones?

Not fussed.

- Are you happy to take an 18-month contract?

Yes

- Are there any networks that don't have good coverage in your area?

Not that I'm aware of.
posted by djgh at 5:57 AM on January 14

Outgoing international calls from the UK
Use a service like Rebtel, VoipCheap or VoipDiscount. They give you a local phone number that comes out your minutes and charges very good rates (for example, 1p/min to the US). I've been using VoipCheap for a few years and for my commonly-called international people, I add another number to their name in my phone addressbook with the 0161xxxxxx number, p to wait for 1 second and then their number. This means that it's as easy as calling them directly.

Inbound calls when roaming
Because of an EU regulation, receiving calls in (Western) Europe is reasonably cheap (for example, O2 is 18p/min) . But the US will be around 100p/min. All the networks have different international cost saver options: Orange Frequent Traveller, O2 International Traveller and T-Mobile International Option.

If you make or receive long calls, Vodafone's Passport is a great option. It's free to sign up and you pay a fixed 75p per call, after which you use your normal minutes at home. But if you have shorter calls then it may not be worth it.


So, how do you choose? Firstly, try work out the nature of your calls based on frequency and length. If you tend to receive long calls, it's worthwhile going with Vodafone. If not, pick the cheapest rate, save maybe 5 pounds a month (60/year), pay for the appropriate international option for the times you're roaming, and put that towards your roaming cost.

Now to find the best deal for a phone contract. The first decision is whether you're willing to deal with cashback. This is where you have to post some of your bills (for example, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, etc) and they'll send you a cheque. This works because the company that signs you up gets money from the network every month and they're giving some of it back to you. It works for them because they're hoping you'll forget or get bored, which happens all the time. For me it's not worth the effort and these companies regularly go bust, but many people are very happy with it. If you do want to go that route, I recommend going through E2Save as they're part of Carphonewarehouse which means that they should be around for a while.

If you're avoiding cashback, buying directly from the networks online is my choice. Orange has 600 minutes and unlimited texts for 24.46/mo with a free phone and 18-month contract. O2 does 600 minutes with 1000 texts for 19.58/mo which offers no phone but also no contract. Vodafone also has a SIM-only deal for 20/mo with 600/mins and unlimited texts and a 30-day notice period.


If you don't need a new phone (and your current one supports your roaming, which I assume it does), I'd go with the Vodafone SIM-only option. You cut your current bill from 45 to 20, get plenty more minutes and texts than you think you need, and if you do decide that you want/need an expensive new phone in the future, you can get a contract (which just means that you get a subsidised phone, paid off over the 18 months). And with Passport, your roaming charges are known and reasonable, but make sure you sign up for it as you will need to call them to do so.

Last thing - your phone will need to be unlocked in order to put another SIM card in. You can check by putting a SIM card from another network in and making sure that it works with no error message. If it doesn't work, you need to either call T-mobile, ask for a Subsidy PIN (cost 15 pounds) which will unlock your phone, or check out one of those little stores that advertises phone unlocking, which is easier IMHO and often cheaper with older phones.
posted by quiet at 4:09 AM on January 18 [1 favorite has favorites]