Most people in the UK have a mobile phone, in fact there are more mobiles in the UK than there are people with over 75 million handsets but less than 62 million people.
Mobile communication is important to us and therefore the networks have great market control with charges for calls, contracts, text messages, internet use and a million and one other ways to extract our hard earned cash.
Being of the bargain hunting persona I was less than impressed when my 2 year old mobile phone began with a series of strange glitches which rendered it useless, so the great bargain phone hunt began.
The most important thing is to determine what kind of user you are before anything else. I actually don’t use my mobile that much, a few calls here and there and a few more texts. There’s little point in buying a package which gives you 500 free minutes if you are a text fanatic, or something with 100 free minutes and endless free texts if you are a prolific caller.
My monthly use on a pay as you go sim card was between £5 and £10 a month. I was determined still not to exceed that and maintain my outgoings, if I couldn’t reduce them.

So, the first thing is to find a suitable network and check the tariffs. In the ever evolving market you can choose from Vodafone, 3, T-Mobile, Orange and O2. Then there are virtual networks, like Tesco and T-Mobile, who each actually go through the primary networks, T-Mobile and O2 respectively.

You can choose from PAYG, a contract or a SIM only contract, so you really need to analyse your phone use to decide what might work out for you. If you already have one or another, check out the alternatives and weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each. If you are on PAYG, check the charges packages to be sure you’re on the one which suits you best and consider ‘bolt ons’ to make best use of your money.

I searched the internet for the best deal I could get to suit my use. I needed a new handset and since I have text mad friends I thought it might be an idea to find a way to access unlimited texts. Eventually I found a deal on Quidco which would enable me to go through their site and buy a SIM only deal at £10 per month but with £60 cashback if bought online. The deal includes 500 free texts per month and 100 free call minutes, exceeding my use requirements but staying within my financial rein. In fact, using Quidco I’m saving money as the cash back means the actual outgoing is £5 per month for a year rather than £10.

You might like to take the opportunity to join Orange and make use of the cinema deal on Wednesdays, all at the price of a text.

Since I needed a new phone too I made a similar search for phone deals. After some searching I found an LG KS 360 which suited my needs and was on long term offers with Argos, Carphone Warehouse and Orange. I’d already decided I wanted to use Vodafone and bought my SIM pack, I engaged in a little legwork to play the three companies off against each other, checking who would give me the best offer. Both offers with Orange and Argos were tied into Orange so eventually I chose to buy the phone via Carphone Warehouse, therefore entirely unlocked to all networks and available to put my new card in immediately. It even came with £10 credit on a T-Mobile SIM card.

So, I can text myself silly on my new phone and I never run out, all my calls come into my 100 minutes and all for £5 per month, not a bad deal at all!
Check out the local offers on BView to make the most of your shopping opportunities.

Tags: 3, call costs, mobile phones, o2, orange, saving money, tariffs, tmobile, vodafone