MILLIONS of households could be wasting nearly £900 a year on rip-off mobile phone and broadband deals.
Phone users who stick with the same provider after they have paid off their handset could be spending up to £335 a year over the odds, says comparison site Uswitch.
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And internet customers who don’t shop around are spending up to £227 more than necessary, comparison site Broadband Genie found.
So a family paying for two mobile contracts as well as home broadband could be spending £897 in extra costs if they fail to chop and change suppliers when each deal ends.
Here Leah Milner investigates the biggest telecoms rip-offs and reveals how you can beat them . . .
OVERCHARGING FOR HANDSETS
NEARLY a third of mobile customers on pay-monthly deals are out of contract and free to switch, according to data from industry regulator Ofcom.
Many providers continue to charge customers an inflated monthly price long after the cost of the handset has been covered.
Virgin Media O2, which has committed to reducing bills once gadgets have been paid off, claims that rival firms are making as much as £500million a year from the practice.
Greg Marsh, founder of Nous.co, an online tool to help cut the cost of household bills, says: “The regulator needs to clamp down much harder on these dodgy tactics.
“We recently saved two customers a total of £700 a year — one was still being charged for an Apple Watch bundle and the other a smartphone that they had already paid off.”
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RAMPING UP PRICEY DATA ALLOWANCES
MORE than 70 per cent of customers are paying for more data than they need at a total cost of around £800million a year, research by charity Citizens Advice has found.
“It’s easy to get drawn in by dazzling new deals offering unlimited data,” says James Francis of Mozillion, an online marketplace for buying and selling phones.
“The reality is you probably use much less than you think.”
The average mobile customer uses around 6GB of data each month, according to Ofcom. Ask your supplier what you use.
Some unlimited data deals cost more than £40 a month.
But you could pay just £6.90 a month for 12GB of data, plus unlimited calls and texts, with one of the cheapest deals around from Lebara – saving around £397 a year.
But if you just use your phone for calls, emails and checking Facebook, you can get a 5GB-a-month deal with the same supplier for £1.99 a month for six months, then £4.90 thereafter.
HIDING SOCIAL TARIFFS
FOUR million broadband customers on Universal Credit and other low-income benefits are missing out on savings of hundreds of pounds per year.
All the major internet suppliers now offer social tariffs, which are discounted deals for hard-up families. Costs start at £12 a month.
Yet only five per cent of those who qualify are signed up to these, according to Ofcom.
But some social tariffs are much better value than others.
Sky and Now Broadband offer speeds of 36MBs for £20 a month, while smaller firms which operate in specific regions, like Hyperoptic and G.Network, offer speeds of up to 50MBs for £15 a month.
Job hunters can get six months’ free broadband from TalkTalk or you might qualify for free mobile data if you are on Universal Credit through the National Databank scheme. Visit onlinecentresnetwork.org.
MAKING IT HARD TO LEAVE
YOU need to switch regularly to find a good deal but some suppliers make it hard to leave.
Ofcom is investigating whether Virgin Media has broken rules after customers complained they found it tough to cancel because they couldn’t get through on the phone, were kept on hold or their requests were ignored.
Retired business owner Mike Vaughan, 74, from Halesowen, West Mids, received an email in March from Virgin saying his monthly bills would rise from £32 to £39.
The contract was due to run until February 2024, but he was given the option to cancel by March 31.
He says: “I tried to cancel via the online chatbot but Virgin kept billing me.
“I was charged a further £117 over the three months after I’d tried to cancel, plus another £273 penalty for leaving the contract.”
After Sun Money’s consumer champion Laura Purkess intervened, Virgin agreed to refund Mike the £390.
A spokesperson says: “We apologise for the shortfall in service.”
He adds that complaints about “difficulties leaving” have halved and it continues to work with Ofcom on improvements.
‘By negotiating we have cut our annual bill by £816…and we also get loads of free TV’
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MUM-of-two Kimberley Tyler has recently given up work in a funeral home to study theology, and as she will now no longer be earning she sat down to see if she could make some savings.
The family pay four mobile bills – one for Kimberley, another for her husband, Phil, 38, who works in manufacturing, and one each for their daughters Ruby, 14, and Lottie, 11.
Until this week they were paying £100 a month, even though all their handsets were paid off.
But when they compared costs online, the Tylers realised they were paying far more than necessary and phoned their provider O2 to haggle.
They have now cut their bills to a total of £32 a month for the entire family and increased each of their data allowances from 4GB to 30GB a month.
Plus each of their contracts comes with three months’ free subscription to their choice of streaming service from Disney+, Amazon Prime, Apple Music or Audible.
Kimberley, 38, said: “I couldn’t believe it when I realised we were overpaying by so much.
“But by negotiating we have cut our annual bills by £816. And we can also get loads of free TV and music which is fantastic for the girls – and it’s a massive increase in data so they can play all the games they like without me fretting.
“It will make a huge difference to our monthly budget.”
‘Providers seem to hide social tariff deals… it’s underhand’
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TEACHING assistant Tori Gabriel, 40, had no idea her family could get cheaper broadband because they receive Universal Credit.
“It should be explained when you go on benefits,” says Tori, who lives in Kirton, Lincs with retail worker husband Steve, 48, and their daughters Jessica, nine, and Lexi, eight.
“The way providers seem to be hiding these deals away is underhand – it’s awful.”
The family pay £26 a month for Now Broadband, but Sun Money found they could cut this to £15 a month by switching to BT’s Home Essentials tariff.
“It’s insane these tariffs aren’t better publicised to families who are struggling with living costs,” says Tori.
