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40% of Brits go over their monthly phone allowance

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
22/08/2016

Paying for a handset as part of a contract costs 36% more on average

A staggering 40% of Brits go over their text, call and data allowance every month, according to a survey.

Only 60% manage to stay within their monthly contract limit, while more than half (52%) have no idea what their allowance is, research from mobile network giffgaff reveals.

Worryingly, half of those polled didn’t know their contract end date, suggesting many will be paying for their mobile phone contracts and handsets for longer than necessary.

The research also found those who pay for their handset as part of the contract spend 36% more on average.

Over the course of 24 months, those who bought their phone outright and had the flexibility of a rolling monthly deal paid around £474 in total, 27% less than those who took out a 24-month contract with a phone included – a saving of £173.

And as with banks and energy suppliers, Brits seem reluctant to shop around for their mobile provider even though 75% said value-for-money was the most important aspect of a contract.

Only 66% shopped around for their contract and 1 in 4 renewed an old contract, sticking with their current provider and not looking elsewhere at all.

Kim Faura, chief commercial officer at giffgaff, said: “It’s encouraging to see that, as a nation, we expect good value for money from our phone deals, although the data suggests that we don’t always give ourselves the opportunity to seek it out – a fact that might point towards the increasingly busy lives we lead.”