Haggle Your Way to a Better Deal

Don’t worry, we’re not talking about going to a market and haggling with a salesman, which isn’t for everyone. Phone and network providers want to retain customers. With the increase in popularity of sites like uSwitch and Compare The Market, phone providers can no longer pull the wool over your eyes about what phones cost. If your contract is coming to an end, or you’ve received correspondence about a price hike, it might be time to get on the phone and talk to an agent. Typically when your 12, 18 or 24-month contract comes to an end, your phone provider will continue charging you, often at a cheaper rate, but sometimes not. But this rate is not what the contract is now worth.

 A poll conducted by Money Saving Expert found that 75% of mobile customers were successful in negotiating a better deal. Customers with EE had the best chance of success at 77%, and O2 customers came in the lowest with a 67% success rate.

 The best way to go about this is to have a browse on a comparison site for the package or phone you want, and ring your provider to let them know you’re thinking of leaving and ask the process. The agents are trained in getting you to stay, so start off saying you want to leave, and give your reason as a better deal “X” that you’ve seen online. They will likely try to offer you something similar, often cheaper, or with an added benefit thrown in such as Spotify or Apple Music. 

Browse Christmas Deals for Added Extras

Most phone providers tend to offer similar prices, this is especially true for iPhones since Apple tightly controls the prices. If you’re looking at contract alone, you may not find much difference between the providers, but if you look at what else they’re offering, it tends to focus on specific niches. For example, let us have a look at the 2018 Chrismas deals from the major providers:

EE

Free Nintendo Switch with the following phones:

• Huawei P20 Lite (£0.00 upfront, £38 a month)
• Nokia 3.1 (£0.00 upfront, £33 a month)
• Huawei Mate 20 lite (£0.00 upfront, £43 a month)
• Huawei P20 Pro (£0.00 upfront, £53 a month)
• Nokia 7.1 (£0.00, £43 a month)

So if you wanted one of these phones, and fancy yourself a Nintendo Switch, EE is probably the best option for you this Christmas.

O2

Free Netflix for 6 months:

The O2 website says: “Buy a phone on a 25GB+ tariff, or a tablet, dongle or 12-month sim on a 15GB+ tariff, and you’ll get a six month Netflix subscription, on us. Once your free subscription is up, it’ll be £7.99 a month. Or you can cancel at any time.”

 Virgin Mobile and Three haven’t released their Christmas deals yet, instead, they seem to be focusing on Black Friday. Vodafone has “Christmas Deals” listed on their website, but there are no added extras thrown in.

 Its quite common for providers to throw in headphones into the deals, AirPods or Beats which can sweeten things, but remember to look at the deal as a whole. Mobile data is becoming the bottleneck for contract prices. Most providers will now offer unlimited texts and calls but offer a measly amount of data for the price. Its always better to opt for slightly more data than you think you need because apps are increasingly requiring more data, and what you use now might not be sufficient towards the end of your contract and you could be paying over the odds to get extra.