Did you know you may still have ongoing charges for the cost of your handset - Even though you were sure you’d paid it all off?

This is the newest scandal in the UK Mobile Market, where customers who should only be paying for data, texts & calls were also being charged monthly for the cost of their handset - With some cases seeing £22.00 extra being paid a month (That’s on top of the monthly charge for calls, texts and data!)

A typical Phone contract nowadays will charge you upwards of £20 if you want sufficient data which will last you the entire month. What’s most shocking about 4G data is that it can be eaten up so easily if you’re not careful.

Here’s a few examples in case you’re running over your allowance regularly:

• Download a song from Spotify : 4MB
• One Hour of Web Browsing : 10-25MB
• One our Surfing Facebook : 20MB
• Stream one Hour of Music : 150MB
• 30 Minutes of YouTube Videos : 175MB
• Average Film Download : 4GB

Some are heavier than others, but it’s always better to know than to act carelessly - and then when the month ends, not wondering why you’re running £11.00 over your monthly bill!

Going back to the overcharged contracts -

Most people will buy into a 2-Year Contract, which when this ends, customers have the option to either renew their contract, move to a SIM-Only deal, or end their contract and switch providers. If they forget to act, the charges will just keep coming, and the average ongoing handset bills come out to around £22.00 a month from then on. Ultimately it comes down to reading the contracts - Leading Mobile Providers are going to ensure they can milk the profits with these terms.

Over the last 6 Months or so, Ofcom the UK’s Communications Regulator has been working to address the problems, the 3 Main Culprits found were EE Three and Vodafone. Those who were caught out most were older people. This group of customers were seeing the potential of paying £264 extra a year without any need to.

Remember it’s always a quick tool to check when your contract rolls over - It may save you hundreds of pounds in the future! __

Ofcom say they are looking to ensure Providers separate the charges into two, one contract for the Handset itself and a separate billing for data usage and calls/texts.

Written by Harrison Jones

References : (https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/millions-overcharged-mobile-phone-contracts-15171439) (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45561044)