A new report published by billmonitor.com, the Ofcom-accredited mobile price comparison site based on analysis of user’s actual bills, has found that three quarters (74%) of UK mobile subscribers are on the wrong mobile tariff, resulting in £6 billion being wasted annually – a figure that has increased by £1.1 billion since 2011.
Of those who are on the wrong tariff, 76% are on excessive tariffs, wasting an average £164 a year on allowances three times too large for them. The rapid uptake of smartphones has added to the complexity of choosing the right mobile tariff, as customers now need to choose not only a calling allowance, but also a data allowance.
The report finds that if Britons were to adopt a ‘Tariff Diet’ approach to their mobile phone contract, they can save £4.32 billion annually. Profiling UK mobile users, it matches each user profile to the right Tariff Diet. For example, Big Surfers – users who surf plenty but make only few calls – need to slim down their unused calling allowance, while Big Talkers save by slimming down their unused data allowance.
The report identifies the most effective Tariff Diets for consumers to save money by slimming down under-used parts of their tariff:
12m people can save £2.09bn by slimming down oversized calls & data allowances
8m people can save £1.14bn by slimming down oversized data allowance
6m people can save £1.09bn by slimming down oversized calls allowance
As well as those in need of a Tariff Diet, a further 8 million subscribers need the opposite – their tariffs are too small and they are wasting £1.66 billion that could be saved by fattening up their mobile plans.
For those locked into long-term contracts, billmonitor’s new Bill Check-up service lets UK mobile subscribers analyse their existing mobile tariffs to determine how to get the most out of their allowances. And as customers enter the last months of their contract, Bill Check-up also recommends new mobile tariffs that accurately match the way they use their phone.
The billmonitor.com report findings are based on an anonymised analysis of 69,831 mobile phone bills from UK customers who used the free bill analysis service at billmonitor.com.
Dr Stelios Koundouros, founder of billmonitor.com: “A Tariff Diet can save the UK billions. But at a personal level, the right solution for you depends on the precise mismatch between your usage and your tariff. billmonitor’s new free-to-use Bill Check-up service helps you find out exactly where the ‘waste’ in your contract is occurring and remedy that with a match to the right contract – whether you’re locked into a long-term contract or you’re free to switch to a new contract. By offering personalised, accurate insights into usage habits, billmonitor can help guide people towards much-needed savings on their mobile bills.”