Britain’s mobile phone users are wasting up to £5 billion a year because they are on the wrong tariff for their needs and are unaware of the extra costs of their deal, a new study has found.
A survey carried out by Carphone Warehouse worryingly revealed that nearly half of smartphone owners in the UK are oblivious to the number of free minutes and texts on their contract, as well as their mobile data allowance.
As a result, they collectively waste around £5 billion each year, or an average of £194 per person. Of this figure, £173 million goes towards additional annual charges for accessing the web via mobiles, according to the research.
With an ever-increasing number of smartphones hitting the market, mobile phone users can now choose from more than 7 million deals currently on offer in the UK. However, many get easily confused about where they can save on their phone bill.
For example, the majority of respondents said they did not know that video-calling using the Skype app or having mobile apps for social network sites like Twitter and Facebook can use up data, even when they are not in use, resulting in extra costs.
The research also showed widespread ignorance of terminology, with customers unsure what ‘one megabyte’ meant in terms of sending emails and downloading data.
Andrew Harrison, Carphone Warehouse chief executive, said: “When the UK is facing one of the hardest financial times in living memory, it seems crazy that £5billion is being wasted on phone bills.”
“The cost of data charges is a growing issue and this is only going to increase as more people convert to smartphones .”
