What should I pay for a mobile phone contract?

Gosh. I pay 7.99 a month with Tesco. About 5000 texts, loads of minutes or something. More than I ever use anyway.

I did up the data when I was homeless for six minutes nth sand didn’t have a landline. Then it was 10.00. I never went over.

months.

£8.00 per month and rarely go over.

I must get onto a different tariff/server/ something urgently. I am being ripped off.
I do like being able to see and speak to my DC and DGC the other side of the world though. I couldn't do that could I on the £8 a month contract.

Just £5 a month for unlimited phone calls and texts with Smarty.
Just the best!
It goes up to £7 if you use the internet outside your home!
Smarty

Do you WhatsApp from home? If you use your home broadband it doesn't eat into your mobile allowance at all.
If you WhatsApp when out you may need a larger data allowance. Even then you shouldn't be paying more than around £15 a month.
I suspect a large chunk of your payment was to pay for the phone. EE don't lower your bill once it's paid for.
Check out Money saving expert for advice.

2Gb and more texts and calls than I'll ever need for £7.50 (Tesco). That's SIM only though. I'm assuming you have a phone included for £50 a month, Grammaretto?

With Smarty you have to put some cash into your phone and pay for calls abroad. It's 10p a minute for Australia for instance. There are better ways of calling abroad. Will get back to you.....

SIM only contract with Three gives me 8gb data (that’s a lot), unlimited calls and texts for £9 a month. I found Compare the Market had access to good deals and also cinema and food deals for a year. If you’re worried about data use because of the overseas calls via your data allowance then search for unlimited data. Unless a lot of your monthly charge is for your phone you’re definitely paying much too much. It’s easy to change provider, go for it.

I’m with Plusnet for my mobile (sim only). £5.25 per month for 1Gbit of data, 250 minutes of calls and 500 texts. My husband pays the same but he was lucky and joined with a better deal, about double what I get.
We aren’t tied into a contract and Plusnet uses EE network.

I always buy my iPhone and have a SIM only contract of £9 with Virgin with unlimited texts, 1500 minutes and 6 Gbites of data.
I think it works out cheaper than a contract to buy, especially if you buy say a iphone 6 or 7 model as you can get them at really good prices.

Tesco for me too. £10 per month. Use WhatsApp to speak to children abroad and lots of data/ texts and minutes. Cannot remember exact figures for these

Sim only with Giffgaff and I pay £6 a month. I don’t have a contract.

It rather sounds like yo are paying for a package from EE that includes the supply of a phone. My son in law has one of these which icludes an i-phone and unlimited minutes, texts and internet. At the end of the 2yr contract he can either go onto a sim only deal which is much cheaper, and continue to use his old phone, or take out another new contract including a brand new phone. He then sells the old phone on and makes a fair bit of money towards the cost of running his brand new phone. Hence the £50 per month price tag. I went for a more basic smart phone package and pay around £23 a month for mine, without the phone on a sim only deal it would have been around £17.50, and that includes unlimited texts and minutes, and 10gb of internet per month which l never use up as l also have Broadband wi-fi.

EE don't lower your bill once it's paid for.

I don’t understand that! I’m with EE and, as soon as my phone was paid for, the monthly payment dropped to about £11.00. EE texted me to advise that my phone was paid for and that I could just pay for calls, texts etc.

I pay £9 a month.

Ah, as I understand it using WhatsApp to phone or video call abroad is an internet call and doesn't come off the phone network?
That means that Smarty (£5 a month unlimited UK calls and texts) is fine because you're phoning abroad through WhatsApp.

I have EE sim only, and my bill is £20 a month.
Unlimited texts, more call time than I use, and I think its 60g of data.

Occasionally I go over, but £24 has been my biggest bill.

Well thank you everyone. I was a bit afraid of admitting the high cost but if I can reduce it, it will be thanks to you.

Just to add, with Smarty they send you a SIM card but you can keep your current phone and phone number, so you will literally just pay £5 a month.

I'm with EE. I pay just over £12 a month. Unlimited calls, unlimited text and 5GB data but a do get a loyalty discount of £1 a month.

Grammaretto, check your current usage so that you know what package you require. No point paying for what you're never going to use.

Chestnut, that's what I understand too. WhatsApp uses the broadband wifi. But if you are out and about and use Whatsapp without a wifi connection, it uses up your data allowance.

You have to get the PAC code of your phone from your current network (just ask for it) and then use that to register your new SIM card (it's all on the Smarty website).

Thanks SpringyChicken. If you make your WhatsApp overseas calls from home it comes from your own broadband allowance, but when you're out then it uses up your phone's data allowance. I shall have to try phoning someone abroad!