A Martin Lewis money-saving hack – A step-by-step guide on how to slash your phone bill in 2024 and some additional tips and tricks to get you some extra discount and save even more money.
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Martin Lewis money saving hack – slash your phone bill in 2024 with one simple step
Money-saving expert Martin Lewis is back with top-notch advice to help you cut bills and save. His advice is good, but we have made it better and more comprehensive. This simple step can help you save a ‘shed load’ according to the UK thrift expert.
This is a great opportunity, you can combine the savings of your mobile contract and broadband contract with a new provider to double your savings.
A typical phone contract could save over a hundred pounds over the term of the contract, that’s the price of a quick holiday getaway. It is so easy to do and you can follow this simple step-by-step guide and do it in less than 30 minutes.
Things to know before you start
So there’s a few things to pay attention to before you start your negotiating, first and foremost the people that you will be speaking to, are humans and just employees, the nicer, the more polite and respectful you are the better the chances of getting a good deal.
Next, don’t outrageously low ball them or they won’t take you seriously, get your initial quotation and then use that as a baseline.
Finally, you can always ring back and speak to someone else; some people are just frustrated for being at work, so they aren’t particularly interested in being helpful employees, so, if you don’t think you are getting a good deal.
Why you should change your mobile contract in 2024?
At the start of April, prices on most mobile phone networks are going to go up 8% even if you’re mid-contract. Go to the cheap mobile finder on MoneyExpert.com to find out what’s out there.
The top 5 reasons why you should change your mobile contracts in 2024?
One of the top reasons why you should change your mobile contract in 2024 is that if you transfer to a new network they will give you an extra discount.
When you transfer from another mobile phone network, your new network provider will give extra incentives to change. The sales reps on the telephone and in the stores, have extra negotiation power and can offer more discounts to move across.
The second reason is you will save the annual mobile price increase as all the princes are going up in April, by a whopping 8%.
Each year mobile phone companies use the regulatory powers to allow for in-contract mobile increases, which allows for inflation which is usually 3.9% but the mobile networks add around 8%.
This is what you can expect if you are with any of the major mobile phone networks. Some are due to announce their price hikes so keep an eye out for the emails.
How much do each mobile phone company increase their prices on the 1st of April
EE
7.9% price rise (CPI + 3.9%) on 31 March 2024
O2
8.8% price rise (RPI + 3.9%) on 1 April 2024
Vodafone
7.9% price rise (CPI + 3.9%) if your plan started from 9 December 2020, taking effect on 1 April 2024
Three
- 7.9% price rise (CPI + 3.9%) for customers who joined on or after 1 Nov 2022
- 4.5% price rise for customers who joined on or between 29 Oct 2020 and 31 Oct 2022
- 7.9% price rise (CPI + 3.9%) for customers who joined before 29 Oct 2020
Tesco
Tesco Clubcard Price deals on pay monthly phones or SIM-only contracts, you won’t see any price hikes mid-contract. However, non-clubcard deals will see a massive 14.4% price increase.
Price rises are to take effect on 1 April 2024.
They are also very sneaky on pay-as-you-go tariffs, where the cost of a top-up becomes less valuable by around 10-15%.
The third reason is, that you can get a new phone, more updated and more powerful with better battery power and this extra efficiency.
All new phones (generally apart from Apple, see how they have been sued in the EU and United States) usually include new power technology and usage.
The fourth reason why you should change your contract is that as it is coming to the end of the quarter sales reps have until the End of March 2024 to meet their sales targets, for bonuses.
That puts the negotiating power in your domain. So make sure you haggle, they want your business so don’t let them play hardball.
The final reason why you should change your contract now is you can play all the mobile networks off each other.
They are all looking to gain new contracts before the new quarter; so call them all, and get the best deal you can. Remember every pound you save will often get multiplied by 24 as most contracts are 2 years long.
Steps to slash your phone bill
Step 1 – Text: INFO (to 85075) -don’t worry, it’s free!
If you text that number, it will tell you if you’re one of 14 million people in the UK who are currently out on contract and therefore free to switch and can likely save a lot of money.
There are a few times it won’t work – if you have a contract with multiple phones in a household for example. In which case if you’ve been with the same provider for two years you’re likely out of contract now!
Step 2 – Call your mobile phone networks and get an offer for a new contract. That performs your baseline, so use that to see what you can get that is better.
Step 3 – Call the other competing networks and see what offers they have for like-for-like.
Step 4 – Call back your current provider and see if they can offer you a better deal, for being loyal.
Step 5 – See if you can combine your broadband deal with this to get a better offer.
Step 6 – if you have a partner or children you can combine your accounts, as for multi-line accounts, where you share your data and call allowance. That can often be cheaper than having two or more contracts in the house.
Step 7 – Make a decision and change your contract before April Fool’s day.
Martin Lewis money-saving video
Watch Martin Lewis in a quick video to summarise how you can save money on your mobile phone contract. How to slash your phone bill in 2024.
Options you can use to negotiate your new mobile phone contract in 2024
Being able to negotiate the options of your mobile phone contract gives you a bit of extra oomph to get a better deal. So we though we would give you some ideas.
- Get Multiple lines on one contract and share the minutes and data. its cheaper than ing two separate lines.
- Ask for offers to streaming platforms, all mobile contracts offer some free streaming service, cancel yours and use it for free
- Freeby insurance – don’t use that and put all your phones on contents insurance for yur home, much cheaper.
- Combine your broadband and mobile phone contract as one package.
- Referrals – ask for any referral options that the mobile phone contract provider might have and refer your partner and friends.
- Last but by no means least, like every Martin Lewis money saving hack haggle, haggle and then haggle some more.
Just remember if you don’t ask, you’ll never get it! and good luck and lets hope you slash your phone bill in 2024.