Your mobile phone could save you £400 and generate some extra cash this Christmas.
Buying someone a laptop, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation3 or TV for Christmas? You could save up to £340 by getting it for free if you switch your phone deal or sign-up for mobile broadband.- You can instantly save at least £10 per month by moving to a SIM Only mobile phone tariff.
- Light phone users or those on a very tight budget who are currently on pay monthly contracts could manage their budget more closely by moving to Pay As You Go.
- Switch to a new deal and sell the ‘free’ phone on eBay to make between £100 and £400.
- Recycle that old mobile phone stuffed in your bedside drawer to make anything between £5 and £60.
- Buying online gives you access to exclusive, better value tariffs, stronger promotions and much more choice.
- Make the most of bundle offers to shave an extra £5 to £10 off your monthly bills
It looks set to be a frugal festive season for many of us thanks to the Credit Crunch and advancing recession. Forget the meagre 2.5% cut in VAT, I’ve looked into a number of ways you can really save money and cut your Christmas shopping bills all at once. Below are some examples of great deals and also some tricks of the trade that can get cash in your pocket – instantly.
Free Gifts – Save up to £340
For the last few years a handful of retailers have been offering increasingly high value ‘free gifts’ to entice you to switch your mobile phone deal. This Christmas you could fill the space under your Christmas tree with a free Nintendo Wii, PlayStation3, LCD TV or laptop just by changing your mobile phone deal. The rapidly growing and highly competitive Mobile Broadband market is awash with free laptop offers too.
Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U, e2save and now Vodafone are offering a wide range of free gift deals this Christmas. If your Christmas shopping list includes a Wii, PS3 or laptop you could cut up to £340 from your seasonal spend whilst also benefiting from a new phone and a better value tariff.
See our comparison of the best mobile phone free gift offers in the UK.
To see the latest free gift offers click on the retailer logos below:
SIM Only – Save £120 a year
SIM Only deals are mobile phone tariffs that cost less than standard tariffs because you don’t get a ‘free’ phone in the deal. You just get a new SIM card that you simply use with your existing mobile phone. The general rule for SIM Only is that you’ll pay around £10 less per month for the equivalent amount of minutes and texts because the operator doesn’t have to subsidise the cost of a new mobile phone. For example, O2’s Simplicity Online 15 gives you 200 minutes and 400 texts, the same as their Online 25 ‘with a phone’ tariff. This equates to a saving of £120 over a year.
The other great thing about SIM Only is that you only have to sign up for a very short minimum term. Most SIM Only tariffs require just 30 days notice so you can switch to another, better deal or move back to a ‘with a phone’ deal whenever you want.
SIM Only tariffs start from just £10 per month and for as little as £20 you can find a tariff that includes 500 mins and unlimited texts. You can keep your existing mobile phone number too.
Compare the cheapest SIM Only deals here
Downsize your contract to Pay as you go
If you’re on a monthly contract that costs £25 a month or less and you find you’re not using all your inclusive minutes and texts it may pay to copy the big companies and do your own version of ‘downsizing’ by moving to a Pay As You Go (PAYG) deal. Many PAYG tariffs now offer bonuses if you top-up more regularly, such as free weekend calls or texts which deliver lots of extra value for money.
- Vodafone offer free calls and texts at the weekend if you top-up by £5 during the week.
- Topping up just £10 per month with Orange Dolphin PAYG gets you 300 free texts and 20 minutes of mobile Facebook access everyday.
- Topping up your O2 Pay & Go gets you an O2 Surprise – free texts, minutes picture messages or mobile internet browsing and prizes such as shopping vouchers or cinema tickets.
- T-Mobile give you a free £10 credit to use over the weekend if you top up £10 during the week.
PAYG also gives you more control of your usage so that you can carefully budget your spend and avoid any surprise big bills at the end of the month.
Check out each operator’s PAYG tariffs by clicking on the logos below:
There are some great value Pay monthly tariffs out there if you don’t want to Pay As You Go. If the hassle of regularly topping up your credit is not for you then perhaps 3’s £15 Mix and Match tariff is worth a look. You get the highly rated S2 Skypephone for free, 300 minutes and unlimited texts.
Sell your free phone on eBay – Earn up to £400
One of the tricks of the trade is to sign up to a new mobile phone deal and then sell the included flashy new handset on eBay to get cash in your hand instantly. eBay is a huge marketplace for the latest mobile phones thanks to Pay As You Go customers struggling to get access to the swanky new Nokia’s and Samsung’s until they’re already last season’s gadgets. You continue to use your old phone, or buy a cheap Pay As You Go handset, with your new contract. By selling the new phone that you get free with your new deal you could get hundreds of pound’s of cash in your palm ready to hit the pre-Christmas sales.
Although this tactic is not liked by the operators I was actually introduced to the idea by store staff from one of the biggest brands. As long as you do your research to choose a popular, high value, new phone model you can sell your mobile for between £50 and £400. The most important thing to do is check the price new phones are selling for on eBay for a guide to what’s the ideal phone to sell on.
Recycle your mobile – Earn up to £60
A great tip for making some instant cash, at the same time as doing your bit for the environment, is to dig out any old mobile phones you have stashed away in your drawers and send them to one of the many phone recycling companies. Companies such as Envirofone and FoneBak refurbish phones and sell them on or if your phone is un-repairable they’ll strip it down and recycle the components in an environmentally friendly way.
The mobile recycling companies will pay you between £5 and £60 for per phone depending on the age, desirability and condition of your mobile. They’ll take broken or really old phones off your hands too. You can get quotes for how much they’ll pay you for your old phone on their websites. Alternatively you could sell a working phone on eBay.
Shop online – Save up to £180
Most operators and retailers offer discounts or better value tariffs if you buy online. Over the last 2 and a half years I have monitored online deals and they consistently offer much better value to customers than the High Street.
Here are a few examples of the better value deals you can find.
- O2 offer a special set of online tariffs that offer more minutes and texts than you’ll be offered on the High Street. For example, The Online 25 tariff offers 200 more texts than the O2 High Street store £25 tariff.
- Vodafone offer a discount of £5 to £10 per month on many tariffs if you buy online, saving you up to £180 on an 18 month contract.
- T-Mobile offer double texts and 10% off many tariffs if you buy at their online store
Keep in mind that for every £5 you save per month, you’re pocketing £60 a year.
Bundle with your broadband – save up to £120 a year
Bundling your mobile phone with other telecommunications services can save you money too.
- O2 offer a £5 per month discount if you take their Home Broadband service with a mobile phone. They’ll knock an additional £2.50 off if you also take Mobile Broadband for £15 per month.
Orange offers their Home Starter broadband package for free with a mobile phone contract, saving you £10 per month on their standard price.
Let me know if you have any great money saving mobile phone tips by leaving a comment.
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