Money saving expert Martin Lewis has detailed how sending two text messages could potentially save you hundreds of pounds a year. Some major mobile phone networks and broadband providers are set to introduce price rises in the spring, with Martin telling viewers on his Tuesday night show, January 31, that makes it vital to act now.
He told fans there are two numbers everybody with a mobile phone can contact to potentially shave money off your monthly bills, Yorkshire Live reports. The first text tells you whether you're in contract and how much it would cost to leave, the second allows you to take your number with you to move to a different network.
Martin told his ITV1 audience: "Last week I told you broadband and mobile bills are going up 14% in April for most of the big firms. What I want you to do first is I want you to check if you're out of contract. Over 9 million of you are and are overpaying.
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"What you need to do in most cases is text INFO to 85075 on your current phone. And that should tell you whether you have termination fees to leave your contract."
He said people who do have fees that you probably can't save money right now, so you will have to bide your time instead.
But he added: "If you're out of contract there are actually some of you - outrageously and this should not be allowed - who got a contract with a handset and once you paid the handset off, they keep the price at the same level so you're still paying the with-handset price even if you're no longer using it."
Martin said that right now, there's an unlimited minutes and texts with 5GB of data deal for £3.40 a month. For 15GB you can get £4 a month. Most people are paying so much more than that. If you want to keep your number, text PAC to 65075 on your old phone, they will send you your PAC code and you use this with your new provider as a way to keep your old number.
"Of course you could use this as a way to haggle with your existing provider."
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