By far the biggest cost for any household per month is the cost of renting a landline and the mobile phone bill.
Another seemingly small item is the cost of directory enquiries. Ever found you’re being charged close to €2 for a query on your mobile?
But shop around and you will save hundreds every year.
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RTÉ.ie Tip:
Play the mobile phone companies off each other. Check if it’s cheaper to get your broadband and phone from the same company. Most broadband companies are now throwing in free calls to landlines and mobiles.
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Mobile phones
Do you ever feel like you’ve been tied up in knots by your phone company with their almost indecipherable tariffs. It makes it difficult for the customer to work out how to make savings. In the old days you just used the phone less.
And if you’re watching your budget, saving a tenner or twenty quid a month on your phone bill adds up to a nice tidy sum.
But you will be able to save money. Look at your bill and analyse where you big costs are.
And cross-check costs for:
Phoning mobiles on the same network
Phoning mobiles on other networks
Roaming
Texting
Texting overseas
Calling overseas
Data (the internet)
How can you save money?
1. Check your broadband account
Virtually all the broadband packages now offer free landline off-peak calls. Some throw in free calls to landlines any time. The mobile phone companies will throw in calls to their mobile phone network and at least one company, Vodafone, offers free calls to the UK if you have broadband and mobile contracts with them.
So review your broadband options before you review your mobile package. It might be that you will save lots if you stop using your mobile at home and start using the landline. Invest in a wireless handset if you like moving round the house while you talk.
2. Use Skype
This is a service that allows you to make phone calls over the internet. It’s not the only provider, but it’s the most popular. If you don’t use it already, just go to www.skype.com and download the programme to run it on your computer.
The instructions are easy to follow and to start using it just you plug in a special phone with USB lead (they cost about €20 in computer shops) or if you’ve got a laptop or computer that’s less than two years old it’s likely to have an inbuilt microphone that you just talk in to.
If you have a smart phone, even better – download the Skype app and start using it.
Use Skype for your international calls and you can literally talk for hours for free if the person you’re calling is also a Skype user. And you can also phone landlines or mobiles for next to nothing.
Calls within Ireland and 29 other countries including all of the Eurozone costs just 2.2 cents a minute. Calls to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US are also dead cheap – again just 2.2 cent a second.
The quality of the lines are generally just as good as a landline.
Also consider using Skype for your international texts which can tip you over your monthly tariff easily. They cost just 9 cent compared to mobile texts which cost 11c to 15c.
3. Don't forget your free texts
Texts can send your mobile phone bills soaring. Mobile phone companies know how easy it is to get sucked into a game of text ping-pong. So make sure to use up what freebies they do offer: Vodafone offer 600 free web texts each month; Meteor offer 300 free web texts; O2 offer 250; and 3 offer 333 web texts (to an Irish phone only).
4. Be familiar with roaming charges
Roaming rates across the EU are being aligned, resulting in new rates. From 1 July 2010, roaming rates throughout the EU have been capped at 47c for making calls within the European Union and back to Ireland, 18c for receiving a call within the EU from anywhere in the world, and 13c to send an SMS within the EU and back to Ireland.
International roaming charges can by crucifying, but there are lots of ways of reducing your costs. Make sure you ring your provider before you go away to get the cheapest option.
For example, Vodafone has a Password scheme. Register on that for free and then pay just 79 cent to receive the call and pay nothing for an hour of talk time per phone call after that. However the average calls abroad tend to be short – one and a half minutes. So that works out at about 40 cents a minute. Quite dear.
The second option is to buy a local sim card if you are likely to be away for a long time. However if you end up making international calls (to friends or family on holiday with you making arrangements to meet etc can quickly tot up), and you’ll see your credit drain away pretty quickly.
5. Phone insurance - ask yourself is insurance really worth it. Many companies actually offer a mobile phone upgrade every 12 months anyway.
More information
Broadband guide: We shop for you - all the operators
Broadband guide: not in a broadband area - your options
Broadband guide: alternatives to landline broadband
Broadband guide: the cost of basic packages
