Millions of pounds wasted paying for mobiles people already own

[Michael Browne]

Which? found nearly half of people (46%) who came to the end of their mobile contract did not switch immediately, collectively overpaying by a total of £355 million per year – an average of an extra £92 each towards handsets they had already paid for.

 

Most contracts combine the cost of the tariff and the handset over the minimum term, usually 24 months. But this is not always split out, so people don’t know how much each element costs or when they have finished paying for their phone. Six in 10 (60%) people we surveyed told us that having a provider who separates its bill so you can clearly see the tariff and handset costs was important to them when switching.

 

O2, Virgin Media, Tesco Mobile and Utility Warehouse have tariffs where the handset and airtime costs are separate while giffgaff have never bundled the handset in. Customers on Vodafone, EE and Three still continue to be charged one bundled price.

 

For example, a contract with O2 Refresh for an iPhone 6 costs £49 a month for 5GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts. Of this, O2 is clear that the handset part of the bill is £25, so when the contract is over you only pay £24 per month. On a similar plan with Vodafone (4GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts) it costs £48.50 a month – but that price doesn’t change once you come to the end of your contract and have finished paying off the cost of the handset.

 

Which? says "All mobile phone operators should separate out the cost of the handset so people don’t continue to pay after the contract comes to an end."

 

http://press.which.co.uk/whichpressreleases/millions-of-pounds-wasted-paying-for-mobiles-people-already-own/

[justicetothepeople]

Well, what about the O2 contract before the " O2 refresh", I think they should refund years of paying extra oney after the mb given was paid off...