Martin Lewis tells anyone with mobile ‘text this four letter word now’ | Personal Finance | Finance
Martin Lewis has urged people with a mobile phone to send a four digit text message. Speaking on the ITV The Martin Lewis Money Show last night the personal finance expert said millions of people continue paying sky-high prices on contracts which are no longer binding.
He said that in the UK around 14 million people are still paying too much – often for deals which got them a new handset – and can save hundreds. People were told to check their contract status by texting ‘INFO’ for free to 85075.
If the “Early Termination” or “Cancellation Charge” reads £0, meaning your contract has run out, the MoneySavingExpert founder said, “go to a cheap SIM comparison site”, where a selection of suppliers will offer the same SIM allowance for a fraction of the price.
“If you’re on a multiple-phone contract, you won’t be able to do this”, he added.
He has previously explained how the cost of getting a new SIM has plunged – meaning people could get the full service on their handset for a lot less. He said previously: “Prices have been going up and up. At the same time the cost of new customer sim deals have been plummeting. For 50gb two years ago you’d have been paying £9 .Now you can get it as cheap as about £3 a month.” Pointing to a diagram on screen Mr Lewis said: “Look at that dispersal – you’ve got existing customers going up and up and up and new customers going down and down and down.”
Mr Lewis went on to explain his three steps for mobile customers to cut costs. He said: “14 million people are out of contract on their mobile phone bill which means you are free to switch.” He said there is an ‘easy’ way to find out if you are one of those out of contract.
Mr Lewis explained: “You text ‘info’ for free to 85075 to check.” He added that people on Three would need to then enter their date of birth. He said that those in contract would still have to pay a termination fee, but otherwise people are free to switch: “You’re a free agent – you can go and get the cheapest deals, you can cut your costs.”
He explained that people on multiple phone family deals won’t get an answer but said his simple rule of thumb was if you’ve not changed in two years, you’re likely to be out of contract. He added: “Next you do a cheap sim comparison. Most of the deals are not available direct from the mobile phone companies because then they might have to give them to existing customers and are only on comparison sites and they tend to be short-lived.”
He added that once people decide to switch if they want to keep their number all they have to do is text PAC (Porting Authorisation Code) to 85075 and give that code to your new provider which will than be able to take the number. According to the MSE founder, the best deals aren’t found by going directly to the big operators – instead he said that if someone is out of contract they should go to comparison sites. He added: “Now I know what you’re probably saying to me. You’re going, Yeah, but I like my signal. I don’t want to change. Well, if you do remember, there are only four mobile networks in the UK.
“Every other one is piggybacking off one of those four. So you want to do a comparison that says, What’s the cheapest deal on the signal that I currently have? And if you go to the cheap mobile finder on my site, money saving expert.com, you can do that type of search and see what’s out there, see what’s available. I mean, you have to be careful.
“My main message. Do that text, see if you’re out of contract and check before prices go up. Whether you can save a shed load by switching hope that helps.”
