Martin Lewis says 'it shouldn't be allowed' as he urges people to send free text
The Martin Lewis show returned for another episode of tips and hacks on Monday. One segment of the show covered phone bills and the best way to slash prices with many hidden extra costs you may not know about.
The money saving guru highlighted the rising costs of bills for mobile phones. Looking at the price hikes, he said: "If you're an existing mobile phone user, you have mid contract price hikes often of 18% a couple of years ago and 8% last year. Prices have been going up and up. At the same time the cost of new customer sim deals have been plummeting."
Sharing an example on the screen for viewers and the studio audience to look at, it showed that for 50g of data two years ago you would be paying £9 for unlimited minutes and unlimited texts. Now you can get it as cheap as around £3 a month for 50GB.
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Offering three helpful steps to cut costs, Martin has urged every mobile phone user who has a contract to send one free text. In a staggering announcement the 52-year-old revealed that 14 million people are out of contract on their mobile phone bill, which means those people are free to switch."
According to Martin, the easiest way of checking you contract status is to text INFO for free to 85075. If you are on Three (iD Mobile, Smarty) you will need to confirm this by entering your date of birth once they respond. If you are still on a contract you will have to pay a termination fee to get out of the agreement.
Those who don't have a contract are a 'free agent', according to the money guru. These people can 'cut' their costs and browse for cheaper deals. As a rule of thumb, Martin advises if you have been on the same deal for about two years then you are likely out of contract.
After coming out of a contact, Martin suggests doing a 'cheap' sim comparison, the price you get will depend on the comparison site One of the biggest concerns people have when trying to cut costs is signal worries. Martin said there are only four signals in the UK, the rest piggyback off those signals.
Martin said "at the end of the two years the phone is paid off. But if you do nothing, they don't drop the price". You will still be paying the price as if you are paying off the handset itself. Martin slammed this by saying "that is a massive rip off. It shouldn't be allowed."
He said: "If you're getting a phone on a contract, the day you have paid your phone off you need to be getting a new tariff or going to the same firm and saying you want to pay less. Martin said not many people notice.