Today's heartsink task

Oh dear, I’m sure it will be fine, we will be in a similar position soon DH will come off of his Company phone and will have to sort out a phone and contract. I have an old pay as you go phone, but I think we will need something decent for our main mobile. Maybe we should package it all with Broadband and TV as well?
Let me know how many hours it take you battling with call centres ☹️

I know what you mean. I also dread the phone calls to the extent my Sky package has gradually increased from the original special offer just because I can’t face the negotiating. My mobile phone package is linked to my daughters account and I pay her a DD for my share and then luckily she deals with all that but it’s hard isn’t it? You have my sympathy.

Jane It may not be a disadvantage. My virgin tv/broadband contract is about to renew. I phoned them yesterday and asked them to leave the loyalty discount in place. It reduces my bill by £12.50 a month.

If you don’t have a loyalty discount with your provider phone them and dither over renewing your contract as you’ve seen same package cheaper elsewhere.

Then say you’d much prefer to remain loyal to them if only they would apply a discount.

When I phoned Virgin it said I could be waiting up to an hour. I stuck with it and an agent answered in 15 mins. A nice young man working from home who added a further £3 to my discount!

Being out of mobile contract is an advantage if you are happy with the same phone.

There are many good sim only deals. I pay £9 a month for 1,000 mins unlimited texts and 2GB data with o2. It’s a monthly rolling contract I can cancel anytime. There are prob cheaper deals but o2 is the best signal for me.

Set aside an hour today and brave it and you might save yourself a tidy sum during the next year.

Good luck !

Why can’t we email these companies the issue we need to deal with and have a call back from the relevant person?

With BT I deal directly with the complaints dept. I always end up having to complain and the complaints staff seem human and helpful.

When my phone contract with EE came to an end in January, I did an online chat with them.

I changed to SIM only and my monthly payments came down from £17 to £8 a month. They initially said it would be £21 a month, then £18. After I said it was more than I was paying now, he had a chat with his Manager and it came down to £8 a month, you have to persevere!

If you are happy with phone contract you can probably just continue paying it.I think the end date is if you want to change. I'd leave it until you can see someone in person if that's how you normally do it.
Changing just now I believe is not offering good value because companies know we are in greater need of communication devices and cankeep prices where they want them. Good luck

Jane10 if you can get through to the “thinking of leaving” option on the phone that’s where you’ll get best service.

I do it every year. I remain very polite and grateful for their wonderful service throughout the year ? during the chat. But emphasise I’m on a tight budget and will have to consider going elsewhere if they can’t reduce the payments.

Jot down a few rival deals before phoning that you can quote to them.

Let us know if you have any success

Know exactly what you mean
Jane10
All of our renegotiations (done by myself) are in between Christmas and the New Year.

One thing I do when faced with usual press this button, is to go straight to the button for leaving company.
Puttingthe onus straight on them to provide the same or better deal.
Good luck

I feel sorry for the people at virgin who have to deal with my OH. He screws them into the ground.
On the last virgin increase he didn't even bother to phone them. He went straight to Sky and signed up. Virgin phoned him to discuss why we had left. Not only did they beat Sky's offer, they reduced the monthly payment we were already paying.

Granbabies123 mobile companies love customers who continue paying beyond their expiry date. As NannyJan posted it really is possible to half your monthly bill in a simple call or online chat.

If your original contract included a phone then you are paying them for that phone twice over if you continue paying contract price.

It’s a big financial advantage to move from contract to a sim only deal asap. And so easy to do

You don't HAVE to change your contracts right now but it's likely to be in your best financial interests to do so.

If your phone is in good nick and can be unlocked then go for a SIM only. I use Giff Gaff - no tie-ins at all, I can cancel it at any time. I pay £10 per month for 6GB data, unlimited minutes and unlimited texts.

Re Virgin/Sky then a quick phone call to the option for 'wanting to leave' will guarantee some one offers you a better deal.

I quite enjoy getting a bargain and a little haggling.

Well the mobile contract phone call went well. I got a nice young man and played the 'poor old soul' card. SIM only deal for £8 pcm which is a big reduction and includes much more data. Not really bothered about the data as I use the home WiFi mostly but its potentially useful when/if away from home.
Now for BT. Groan

Jane10 you’re on a roll! Go for the big boys now and get that BT contract reduced.

A quick look online before calling them will show you competitors rates and have them ready to back you up.

Good luck

BT new contract costing £10 a month less and giving me more channels. My ear is bright red from so long on the phone but thats it done and £180 saved in the process. Phew. Off to lie down.

Delighted for you Jane ??

I've also got this looming. I have a SIM card only contract which expires in a couple of weeks. I'm paying approx £13 for unlimited calls and texts and 250 Mb. Don't know if this is good or bad value - just don't understand the Mb bit! And I don't know what happens if I move elsewhere - do I have to have a new card and does that mean that my contact list and any photos and whatever else is 'on' my card are lost? And do I have to change phone number??

I did the same as Nannyjan53.

I'm with EE and so is DH. I need lots of data when outside our wifi range, so said I was going to swap to BT as they were offering me a discount as our broadband is with them.

EE did my deal for £10.40 and got DH is now paying £8. All calls included for both of us. We both got about 30% off what we were paying.

Well done with your deals Jane10.

On line chat rooms are really good. Use them whenever they pop up in the corner!

Rowyn I’m no tech expert. But that sounds very poor value. 250mb is very little. It’s for using the internet on your mobile if you’re not on WiFi.

You should be able to have your current allowance for nearly half that price.

Your current provider will probably offer you a much better deal if you phone and ask them. Tell them it’s far too expensive for you.

Have a look online first at competitors deals and let them know during call you are aware of much cheaper deals.

If you are sticking with your current provider they should be able to make the changes at their end and your contacts, number, phone details will be unchanged. You won’t need to do anything.

I currently pay £9 on a monthly sim only. I know there are much cheaper deals but only o2 works in my house so I stick with them. I have 2GB data in that and I don’t use half it as I’m mostly on WiFi.

But the extra data is handy to have for outdoor internet use eg to receive an unexpected video call.

rowyn I'm with EE. The new deal is for unlimited calls and texts and 2 GB of data. That's £8 a month.

Jane10 I understand what you mean, nothing is as straightforward as it appears or should be. I've been with a company for years and not long ago I switched to their offer of a deal with a lower price than what I was paying. Phoned up and that was that or so I thought. I'd received notification of the new charge, fine, then a parcel arrived from the same company.

I hadn't ordered anything so opened it to see some sort of a new set-up that involved the fibre broadband hub. When I looked at the letter properly it stated I would be billed £60 !
The lockdown came, post office closed so I've been stuck with this for the past 4 months or so and there's nothing I can do with it. Talk about stung.

Yikes EllanVannin that was bad!

WOW. I'm with EE too and the price was supposed to be a good deal as I have my broadband contract with them too. Thanks for explaining the MB/GB thing in words that I can understand. I have wi fi here. Will have to get in touch with EE and talk the talk.
Incidentally, my daughter has just introduced me to Words with Friends, and I've played one game over 24 hours. My phone had to be recharged twice in that time whereas it usually lasts several days. Has anyone else experienced this?
Gosh.. I could go on and on with techno related questions... lockdown seems to be bringing them up!!
Thanks all, for your help - but still don't know if changing network with Sim only plan causes loss of contact list etc.

Ellenvannin that happened to me last time I renewed with BT. I had no idea how to set it all up. Luckily DD knew someone who installs that sort of thing and he and a lad came and set it all up for me. I could never have done it myself even though I'd set up the original system.
Good luck with yours. It was worth it in the end for me but it was very stressful. My headache from this morning's efforts has only just gone.