Talk is rarely cheap but, according to an alarming new study of people's mobile phone habits, we may be partly to blame for our inflated bills, and if we were just a little cuter we could save a bundle, writes Conor Pope
The online survey, carried out by UK price comparison website moneysupermarket.com and published earlier this month, found that confusion over phone tariffs in the UK could be costing Britain's 65 million phone users a colossal £8 billion (€10.75bn) a year. It said many phone users were clueless about how many free minutes or free text messages were included in the phone packages they had, or even how long they spent talking and texting each month. Such ignorance was costing customers as much as £130 (€174) each per year. With many of the same mobile operators doing business here, similar confusion could be costing Irish phone users tens of millions of euro annually.
The moneysupermarket report showed that a typical user had 166 free voice minutes and 133 texts per month as part of their tariff or top-up package. However, they talked for 23 minutes longer than that and sent 23 texts over their inclusive allowance. The survey also found that 27 per cent of respondents admitted to not knowing how long they talked on the phone each month, while 23 per cent said they were similarly in the dark about the number of free messages they sent.
"People should check their monthly bill regularly," said Rob Barnes of moneysupermarket. "The reason mobile phone operators can offer such good contract deals is by charging customers for additional services." He said consumers should read the terms and conditions on their phone contracts carefully and make themselves aware of how much extra they would have to pay if they went over their allotted allowance of calls or text messages. "If they're using up all their allowance it's worth considering a move to a different tariff with more inclusive minutes and texts - it could save a lot of money in the long run," he said.
IN IRELAND, A person on a tariff ill-suited to their needs could end up paying hundreds of euro more than necessary each year. Phone users on the State's biggest network, Vodafone, spent an average of just over €45 per month in the second quarter of last year - well above Vodafone's European average, incidentally. The mobile giant's Irish customers spoke on average for 234 minutes and sent 120 text messages compared to a European average of 146 minutes and 63 messages.
By signing up to the company's Perfect Choice 100 package, users get 100 free minutes and 100 free text messages for a very reasonable-looking €29 per month. If, however, they are the average Vodafone customer and make 234 minutes' worth of calls and 120 texts, the additional charges of 30 cent per minute outside their bundled allowance would increase their monthly bill by €42.40 to €71.40. If they switched to the Perfect Choice 200 which gives 200 free minutes and text messages at a cost of €49, and spoke for the average of 234 minutes, their final monthly bill would be just €57.50.
In the third quarter of last year, O2 average revenue per user was €47 while the average number of minutes used was 250 per month. Prepay customers paid a lot less: €29.20 compared with a monthly spend by contract customers of €84.90.
A contract customer signing up to O2's most popular bundled service, the Active Life 150 package, gets 150 free minutes and 100 texts at a cost of €35 per month. But if they talked for the O2 average, it would end up costing them an additional €45, taking their total monthly bill to €80. An Active Life 250 package, which gives 250 free minutes, costs just €50.
A spokeswoman for O2 told Pricewatch that it had a team in its customer care centre "dedicated to ensuring customers are on the best plan for the way in which they use their phone". She said they make "proactive outbound calls" daily to advise people about their options. "Customers' recent usage patterns are analysed, and if there is a price plan available that offers better value, they are informed." There was also a system in place to carry out "health checks" on customer accounts if - and this is an important if - customers go looking for it. The health check analyses customers' last three bills "and recommends the best plan for them based on this information".
A spokeswoman for Vodafone says that when customers make contact about their tariffs they are advised about the most suitable plan based on their usage over a three-month period.
Free calls at weekends and to designated numbers do lessen the impact of being on the wrong tariff, but keeping an eye on your bills and going for that health check regularly is still a smart move.
It's not just ill-advised bundles that can drive up mobile bills, but ill-advised data transfer, particularly if you are overseas. Mobiles and 3G modems can be used to access the web, but all this connectivity can come at a steep cost. "I got mobile broadband recently," writes one reader. "I visited the UK last month and used it briefly while I was there. The total amount on my bill was €217.37 for 34mb of data (about a half an hour online). Surely this can't be the going rate for data roaming." Another was surprised to be quoted €10 per megabyte he downloaded onto his phone.
The phenomenally high cost of such data transfer has recently attracted the attention of the European Commission. Last year it introduced a cap on mobile roaming charges, despite fierce lobbying against the move by mobile operators who were loathe to lose the cash cow. Roaming call charges have tumbled in recent months, thanks to this timely intervention, but there is still no cap on the cost of using other functions while abroad, such as sending SMS messages, checking e-mail on a Blackberry or accessing the web via a broadband modem. The good news is that the Telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding has commissioned a report into such charges and has promised to take action on lowering them before the year is out, unless the operators act first.
