There are literally thousands of mobile phone deals available at any one time, so how do you know which is the best deal for you?
Buying a new handset can be quite a daunting task for many people, with so many phones to choose from and pushy salesman on commission quite often people are led down the wrong path. So how do you get the right mobile phone deal for you?
Recommend Online Retailers
Before getting into the meat of the guide, I would like to recommend a few reputable online retailers that have some of the best mobile phone deals around. Remember, buying online will get you a much better deal with more minutes/texts for your money!
- Mobiles.co.uk – 15 years online owned by The Carphone Warehouse
- MobilePhonesDirect – One of the best online independent retailers
- E2Save – Trading for 11 years, also owned by The Carphone Warehouse
- BuyMobilePhones – Voted best online retailer in the Mobile Choice awards
Choosing Your Handset
The first thing you should consider is exactly which handset you would like. There are endless amounts to choose from but you should consider the below points-
Smartphone’s
Smartphone’s are basically like having a pocket sized computer. You can surf the web, watch videos on YouTube, update Facebook, install apps/games, and much more! However not everyone wants an all signing dancing phone and simply want to just be able to make calls and send texts.
Personally I believe Smartphone’s offer the best value for money, and let’s face it no matter what the problem is…….. ‘there’s an app for that’! One thing you should note though is that Smartphone’s often suffer from poor battery life and will need charging daily!
Touch Screens
The majority of handsets available now are touch screen based. I find touch screen mobiles a bit like Marmite; you either love them or hate them. Personally I hate touch screen handsets as I find it really frustrating to type on the screens and would much prefer to use actual keys to input text.
This really is a personal preference, some of my friends swear by their touch screens and they do offer some advantages such as bigger displays. However, it is possible to have the best of both worlds as some handsets offer both a hardware keyboard and a large touch screen.
Camera
Cameras on phones have come on leaps and bounds since they were first introduced, not only do they produce thousands of embarrassing photos every single day but they are now getting to the point they are just as good as having a dedicated digital camera.
You should also be aware that some Smartphone’s now offer full 720P HD video recording as well.
Some people swear by the camera on their phones and this alone can be the deciding factor for many.
Getting The Right Mobile Phone Deal For You
Now you have chosen your handset, you can start to look at the various deals that are available. This is a crucial step that so many people get wrong and end up paying a lot more than they need to.
Workout Your Current Usage
The first thing you need to do is work out your current calls and text usage. Most people have no idea how many minutes/texts they use and generally people over estimate that figure and end up signing up for much more expensive deal.
How To Work Out Your Usage
There are a couple of different ways you can work out your usage, and its not even that difficult to be honest!
If you have an existing mobile contract, you can ring your networks customer service team and simply ask them what the average usage is across the last 6 months of your contract. You should also find out what the maximum and minimum calls/texts used in any given month as well.
If you don’t have an existing contract then don’t worry! 99% of phones have these statistics built in, telling you the total duration of incoming/outgoing calls and the number of texts sent/received. Just reset these counters and use your phone as normal for a week. Then take those figures and multiply them by 4 to get an estimate of your monthly usage.
Do You Need Mobile Data?
Another important thing to consider is do you need mobile data? You might not use any at all at the moment, but if you got a new phone and started to use it for Facebook, streaming videos, navigation and so forth you will suddenly be using a good chunk of data!
Generally, if you’re buying a Smartphone you will need some kind of data allowance on your contract to avoid getting a hefty unexpected bill at the end of the month.
Choosing A Network
The next hurdle in searching through the thousands of mobile phone deals is picking a network. There are currently 5 major networks in the UK – Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, 3 and O2.
Although each of them generally have fantastic coverage all over the UK there are still some areas where you will struggle to get a good signal.
If you’re going to be using mobile data a lot, you should also consider whether or not the network has 3G coverage in your area as this will make mobile browsing an awful lot faster and more enjoyable. For example, where I lived previously all 5 networks had great coverage, but only T-mobile provided 3G coverage. For a techy nerd like myself, having 3G coverage was a necessity.
Coverage Checkers
To find out what the coverage is like in your area please use these handy links-
Also you should be aware that T-Mobile and Orange now share access to each other’s networks so if you’re on Orange and in a blackspot, it will switch to T-Mobile and vice versa.
Ready To Rock & Roll
You now have all of the information you need to get the right mobile phone deal for you! At this point you should know-
- Which handset you like
- How many minutes you use a month
- How many texts you use a month
- If you need mobile data
- Which network(s) offer the best coverage in your area
With this information in hand, you can now get the right mobile phone deal for you personally and not the deal that offers the in store salesman the most commission.
How To Get The Best Mobile Phone Deals
First of all, I would recommend that you get your handset from an online retailer as they have much better mobile phone deals available than any high street store or network.
You will get a better handset, more minutes/text/data for a lower price online.
High street stores do have one advantage though, and that is you can walk in and play with a handset to work out if you like it or not. Once you have done that, walk out the store and dodge every salesman on the way out!
Recommend Online Retailers
There are endless amounts of websites offering thousands of mobile phone deals, but I would recommend you stick with a reputable retailer-
Mobiles.co.uk
Mobiles.co.uk has been around since 1995 and are actually owned by The Carphone Warehouse. They have some of the best mobile phone deals on the web and often bundle free gifts such as games console and TV’s with their mobile phone deals.
Click Here To Visit Mobiles.co.uk
MobilePhonesDirect.co.uk
MobilePhonesDirect are one of the biggest independent dealers on the web. They have been trading since 1998 and have built a fantastic reputation for themselves over the years. I got my last handset from these guys as their customer service is second to none!
Click Here To Visit MobilePhonesDirect.co.uk
E2Save.com
E2Save have been online for just over 11 years now and like Mobiles.co.uk they are also owned by the Carphone Warehouse. They have a huge range of mobile phone deals and provide order updates via text message which is a nice touch!
Click Here To Visit E2Save.com
BuyMobilePhones.net
Another strong independent is BuyMobilePhones which won the Mobile Choice best online retailer award last year. They stock a wide range of handset and have some competitive mobile phone deals. As an added bonus they also offer free Saturday delivery!
Click Here To Visit BuyMobilePhones.net
Closing Words About Mobile Phone Deals
I hope that this guide has helped you make sense of all of the mobile phone deals out there so you can make an educated decision about which deal is right for your individual needs.
If you have any questions then please drop a comment below and I will personally help you out. Likewise if there are any subjects I haven’t covered in this article that you would like me to cover, just get in touch and I’ll update the article! As an extra tip you could you envirophone to recycle your old handset.
Here’s to getting the best mobile phone deals hooorah!
Thanks for all the info and links. I have only 1 question. Where can i get a Samsung Galaxy s11 deal, where i can get unlimited data, about 600 minutes voice and basically about 50 texts. There are some reasonable deals around, but for example 3g, i have to take 5000 texts as part of their deals, and i just dont use text.
Many thanks