Hello from the North West of England

[Alex Hurst 4UBus]

Hi everyone, Alex here in the sunny North West. I am a Sales Exec for 4U Business, therefore if you are within 3 months of ending your mobile phone contract you need to speak to me.... enough of the sales pitch...hope to hear from you all soon.

[Ian J]

Welcome to the forum and we hope that you can give us some useful advice at the appropriate times.

I don't think that I will make a good customer for you though as I am very old fashioned and hate mobile phones. I pay £11.99 rental per month for mine plus less than £1 for calls and they are mainly to retrieve messages from voicemail.

[Alex Hurst 4UBus]

Then I suggest Ian, and this is in all seriousness, when your contract comes to an end, buy a pay as you go sim card, you can keep your old number (if you want) and if you go on to T-Mobile (you may have to unlock your telephone for this, but a few shops will do it for you) you won't even pay for the costs of ringing your voicemail. The price of a sim card varies between £6 and £10 dependant upon which shop you go to. I would reckon a £10 voucher would probably last you about 6 months, although you do have to use the phone once every 3 or 4 months just to keep the line going. Anyone who has a contract phone and uses it like that should be on pay as you go...

[Ian J]

Thanks for that Alex. It was a "company phone" and when I left three years ago I took over the contract as I didn't want to lose the number not realising that there was an alternative.

I bought my wife a PAYG phone a couple of years ago (when she passed her driving test and had a car) and it came with £35 of call vouchers that she is still using. In that time I have paid over £300 for a phone that I hardly ever use.

[Alex Hurst 4UBus]

Isn't it amazing how the Status Quo always costs us money. I reckon you will be able to cancel the contract at any time now, giving them perhaps 4 weeks notice (as no doubt that is the frequency of the bills) and get a PAYG sim. Try a company such as Phones 4U or Carphone Warehouse and they will switch your number when you buy the sim, all achieved within about a fortnight. And save yourself some money...