Martin Lewis has shared some essential money saving advice for mobile phone customers which could save people hundreds of pounds. The money saving expert gave the advice during a special edition of The Martin Lewis Money Show live in Liverpool on ITV1 where he criticised a range of price increases set to come in in April.
This ranged from water bills, broadband, and council tax, with some crucial advice given on how to slash mobile phone price increases. From April, phone bills could rise by up to 17 per cent.
He said: "Even if you are mid-contract, which is something that should be stopped, even including some of the big ones. So what do you do about it? Five steps."
Martin outlined five steps people need to know to be able to cut some of the cost.
He said: "First text INFO on 85075 on your current phone, it's free to do, to find out if you're out of contract and free to leave."
Martin went on to advise viewers to get cheap SIM-only deals via price comparison websites rather than go directly to providers as you can often get cheaper deals. The Money Saving Expert then told viewers that they can often find a low-price network that uses the same signal as the so-called better providers.
He said that in reality there are only four mobile networks in the UK and these are O2, EE, Vodafone and Three - and all the rest such as Sky just use another provider's signal. The only difference is that there may be perks such as 5G or wi-fi calling not offered on cut-price networks, but otherwise, if you get a signal on the parent network, you'll get a signal in your home on the cheap network that uses its signal.
Step four is to get your PAC code by texting "PAC" to 65075. If you have this code, you can request to move your current mobile number to the company you are wanting to switch to.
Finally, according to the Money Saving Expert, the benchmark for getting a cheap deal is to haggle. He told customers to ask to cancel when negotiating and get put through to customer retentions.
This team's specific job is to keep you with them and they will be able to offer you better deals in order to stay.
If you are unable to get a cheaper deal with them and they say they will have to disconnect you then you can then use, what Martin Lewis has coined the "wife trick". Martin added: "If they say to you 'I'm sorry we will disconnect you, you say 'I just need to check that with my husband, wife or parrot."
This will allow you time to decide whether you want to cancel and time to check out other deals you can get elsewhere.
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