Martin Lewis is urging mobile phone customers to text a six-digit number before April’s price rises to potentially slash money off your bill. In April, another round of price hikes are coming for various household bills, including mobile phone and broadband.
A rule change from regulator Ofcom which took effect in January banned mid-contract inflation-linked price rises, but this only applies to new contracts, so there are still many who are set to be stung with inflation based price hikes of 6% next month. Martin told his ITV1 viewers last night: “Mobile contracts are rising, roughly 6% or about £2 a month. Now, this applies to broadband too. I’ve spoken before about how they banned mid-contract inflation price hikes. But that is only for people on new contracts, if you got a new contract this year, that may be you, in which case they will have told you when you signed up, in pounds and pence how much it was going to increase at that point.
“Yet many, probably most people, are on existing contracts and if you’re on an existing contract from before that time, you could still have the inflation-linked price hikes this year, so that’s still happening to many people.”
Martin stressed that there are millions of mobile customers out there who are overpaying because they are out of contract and free to switch, with many having paid off their handset, but are still paying their network a high monthly amount when they could slash it down – and it starts by sending a text to a six-digit number.
Martin continued: “My big message is 14 million of you are out of contract – free to ditch, switch or do whatever you like and make them pay for your business.
“The first thing is text INFO for free to 85075 to check. If you’re on Three, iD Mobile or Smarty they’ll reply back and you’ll need to confirm your date of birth, don’t worry about that, just do it.
“What it will then tell you is whether you have any early termination or cancellation charges. You need those to be zero, that means you’re out of contract and you can ditch and switch for free.
“What should you do? Don’t go direct to the mobile phone companies, they’ll always charge you more, the best deals are always on comparison sites where they do short-term promo offers.”
Martin added that there are some stonking deals out there including Lebara 10GB SIM for just £2 to £5 per month over a year depending on where you get it.
Martin added: “Most people are massively overpaying. SIM prices have gone down… five years ago a 50GB SIM was £13 a month, now the cheapest is £3 a month, but every year you’ve got above inflation price hikes if you’re on a contract. Switchers get the best deals!”
Martin added that you can also text a second number in order to keep your phone number.
To do so, text PAC to 65075, and give the code to your new provider to allow them to switch your number from your old network.
The Martin Lewis Money Show Live is still available to watch via ITVX catch-up service.
