Money saving tips – mobile phones

In these recessionary times, it pays to watch the pennies and where they end up. One of the things that really jumped out at me from my bank statement was my monthly phone bill. This was around the same time as I was looking to change my phone and I looked at upgrade options. Needless to say, I was not particularly impressed by the price of phones on offer and in a state of shock when I saw the price plans. O2 and the others might think that handing over €600 a year in after-tax pay is perfectly reasonable but I’d much rather spend that money on something more worthwhile. I immediately looked at changing to Vodafone, Meteor and 3 but their billpay options were not all that attractive either.

It was then that Ms Gaius suggested “pay as you go” and I had a look at it. I mainly text people and phonecalls are kept to a minimum and sure enough, I found the perfect solution where all texts to all Irish mobiles were free for only €20 every 30 days. Any phonecalls that need to be made can be made out of that €20.

Considering that I was spending approx €60 a month on phone bills, getting that expense down to €20 a month for the same service is pretty good business. The lesson is that big savings can be made if you’re prepared to look around and not accept the first thing that’s offered to you.

Note: at the time of writing Vodafone no longer seem to have a similar price plan but they did about a month ago. Meteor also have a “€20 and text whoever you like” price plan.