Mobile Phone Cost Summary

Contract Tariffs:

By paying a monthly line rental charge you will be given a ‘free’ allowance of minutes and texts each month (or in some cases, daily). These inclusive calls are usually only to fixed line numbers in the UK, or to other mobiles on the same network, but some networks and tariffs allow calls to other mobile networks as part of your inclusive minutes deal. Any calls that are not listed under your inclusive deal will be charged at high rates, even if you have inclusive minutes remaining.

Some tariffs only provide you with off-peak (generally 6pm – 6am ) inclusive calls, therefore all calls made during peak time are charged for.

Also remember to go for a contract plan that includes text messages, as they can be very useful and help to cut down call costs.

The general trend with contract tariff’s is that the more you pay for line rental each month, the more inclusive minutes and texts you receive, and you may pay less per minute for paid-for calls.

Don't make the mistake of choosing a tariff that covers all your calls with inclusive minutes. It's probably cheaper to be on a lower tariff and pay for some of your calls. Some tariffs such as T-Mobile, allow you to ‘roll over’ unused minutes to the next billing period.

Costs start at around £17.50 for a monthly tariff that offers roughly 60 minutes of inclusive calls (or 300 minutes of off-peak calls) per month, with extra calls at around 15p per minute peak and 5p to 10p per minute off-peak.

Prepay Tariffs:

There are several different pre-pay tariffs. Some offer good value, while others can be expensive. They can be ‘topped up’ by several methods, which include swipe cards, debit/credit cards, vouchers or in some cases using cash machines.

Costs can vary between 5p and 40p per minute for calls, with no inclusive call allowance, and no line rental included. Lower charges can be gained by paying a daily or monthly line rental on some PAYG phones.

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	Special needs