LEE BOYCE: The over-65 mobile phone trap

A recent conversation with an older family member helped him save £20 per month on his mobile phone bill.

How? Well, he had been out of contract for a fair few months, had paid for his handset with the provider and was free to move to a cheaper SIM-only deal elsewhere.

He just didn’t know it was an option. He liked the phone and didn’t want to rock the boat.

But after telling me about an inflation-linked bill rise, we looked into it and he was delighted to move onto a cheaper offer swiftly and keep the handset.

Mobile phone bills: Three in five over-65s have contracts that expired more than a year ago, compared with just 13 per cent of those aged 18 to 24

This is how most phone contracts work: by the end of the term (typically two or three years), you’ll have paid for the handset in full.

From then on, you own it and are free to use it if you take out a cheaper SIM-only deal (covering your minutes, texts and data) with another provider.

Yet older customers are least likely to do this. One of the mobile giants crunched the figures for Money Mail and found three in five over-65s have contracts that expired more than a year ago, compared with just 13 per cent of those aged 18 to 24.

The survey of 5,000 people uncovered that nearly half of over-65s delay acting when a mobile contract finishes because they think it will be a hassle.

And 86 per cent of them feel ripped off once they learn about being able to swap to a far cheaper SIM-only deal.

This is one of the simplest tricks to cut your monthly outgoings, especially as many of us are happy to keep the same trusted handset rather than upgrade. Make sure you’re not being ripped off.

Internet block

Sticking to telecoms, from this week households were meant to be able to switch broadband provider with a simple ‘one-touch’ process, as ordered by watchdog Ofcom.

It would have been ideal timing with broadband costs soaring for millions, thanks to inflation-linked rises baked into contracts, and Virgin Media suffering widespread outages across the UK.

Too many internet users are worried about switching in case things go wrong — especially with more people working from home.

The rules mean that providers must compensate customers if problems arise with the switch and they are left without service for more than one working day.

Under Ofcom’s plans, households would also only have to contact their new provider to switch, rather than facing the rigmarole of calling up, cancelling, speaking to a new provider and getting all the ends to meet.

But lo and behold, the scheme has fallen behind schedule. Indeed, when I spoke to Ofcom about it, the watchdog seemed quite riled by a lack of action among broadband providers, given the plan was announced nearly two years ago.

A spokesman told me: ‘The industry had plenty of warning, plenty of time and plenty of support to get this done. It’s extremely disappointing and frustrating, and providers have let their customers down.’

Ofcom says it has launched ‘enforcement action’ to try to strong-arm companies into getting the service up and running as ‘quickly as possible’.

GPS gold

A week ago last Sunday I landed at Heathrow Terminal 5 on my return from a family holiday.

We flew with British Airways and, when we arrived at the baggage gate, we were warned of luggage delays. Those delays turned into a near three-hour wait.

But there was a silver lining. After about an hour of waiting, a baggage handler was cornered by a passenger on my flight, asking where her luggage was. He said it was just about to reach the belt.

But the handler was left red-faced when the passenger showed her phone, which displayed a dot on the runway. She had a GPS-linked tag in her case pinpointing its whereabouts.

Safe to say, I have now snapped up one of these GPS tags for £20 to put in my luggage — especially as I overheard someone on the bus to the long-stay parking complain that one of their bags had just been lost on a different flight…

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk