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Time for a new mobile phone subscription? Now is the time to go mobile bargain hunting and save money.
Anyone who has tried to find your way in the forest of mobile subscriptions before will know that you will soon lose sight of the wood for the trees. There are dozens of telecom providers that together offer hundreds of different call and internet bundles. Choosing the right bundle can easily save you 100 euros or more per year. But how do you choose it?
What do you need?
Is your current smartphone still usable after the end of your subscription and do you not need another one? Then you can immediately ignore all those subscriptions with the latest smartphone. Do you almost always use the internet at home and do you mainly use your smartphone on the road for emergencies? Then an economical call bundle is more than enough.
Before you try to make a choice, it is a good idea to take a look at your mobile calling and internet behavior for yourself. Approximately how many minutes do you call per month? How often do you surf the internet without WiFi and with 3G/4G? How many text messages do you send? This data is kept by your telecom provider. So just check these overviews via your online account with your provider.
Subscription
Limiting your calling and internet costs starts with the choice of the mobile calling method: subscription, sim only or prepaid. With a subscription you pay a monthly fee for which you can call a certain number of minutes, send as many text messages and use a maximum amount of megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB) of internet traffic. If you exceed your limit, it will cost you – often considerably – extra. So: if you opt for a subscription, don’t take it too tight.
A new phone also comes with a subscription. For the payment of this you pay monthly costs that are on top of the costs of the calling bundle. Some subscriptions come with a certain smartphone as standard, while others allow you to choose from different devices.
You usually take out a subscription for two years. That can be a disadvantage if you prefer not to be tied to a contract for so long. Subscriptions are especially interesting for people who like to regularly switch to a new smartphone.
SIM only
Sim only is also a subscription, but without a phone. Instead, you will only receive the SIM card. This is the card that you insert into your mobile and contains your subscription information, such as your telephone number. This type of subscription can only be used if you already have a smartphone and do not want a new one. Or if you can get a mobile cheaply yourself, for example from an acquaintance who has a spare smartphone. This phone must be SIM-free.
That simply means that you can insert another SIM card and use it. There is a lot of competition among the providers of SIM only, so there are very favorable call and internet bundles in between. Moreover, you are a lot cheaper than with a subscription, because you save the costs for a new smartphone.
prepaid
The third option is to use prepaid. You do not pay a monthly amount, but only directly for the costs incurred via a call credit. You can top up this call credit every time, for example via your smartphone or the website of the telecom provider.
If you call and use the internet quite a lot, then a subscription is often the cheapest option, at least if you don’t already have your own mobile phone that you can use without SIM lock. In that case, a SIM-only subscription is a cheaper alternative. If you only call and use the internet a little, prepaid can be the cheapest option.
Reduce costs
In addition to the choice for a subscription, sim only or prepaid, there are a number of other options that allow you to reduce your mobile costs. One of these is taking into account the costs for calling and using the internet if you exceed the limits of your calling bundle.
This will quickly cost you at least three times as much. This is no problem with prepaid: you cannot spend more than you have in credit. But with subscriptions in whatever form it is always cheaper to take a bundle that is a bit too large. For large users, a subscription without limit (unlimited) is recommended.
Also keep in mind that calling minutes are rounded up for many bundles. For example, if you call for three quarters of a minute, that will be counted as a full minute. On average, you therefore need a quarter more calling minutes than you actually use. Keep this in mind when looking for a new subscription.
If you already have a subscription with a device, you pay the price of the phone every month. It is a shame to continue to pay when your mobile has already been paid off. It is therefore best to switch to a SIM-only subscription immediately after the subscription period has ended. That can sometimes save you half of the monthly costs.
Alternatives
In addition to the three major providers that manage the mobile networks in the Netherlands (Vodafone, T-Mobile and KPN), there are also other providers that offer mobile telephony. You have the subsidiaries of the big three, such as Telfort and Simyo (KPN) and Ben (T-Mobile).
Others are so-called MVNOs: independent mobile providers without their own network. They buy their mobile services from the big three. Well-known examples: Tele2, Simpel and Robin Mobile. Both the subsidiaries and MVNOs often offer cheaper calling and internet access than the big three providers. So it is definitely worth giving these providers a try.
Given the often limited size of internet bundles and the growing amount of mega and gigabytes that are being downloaded from the internet – think of photos, videos and music – it is a good idea to use the internet as little as possible via the 3G/4G network of your mobile. Instead, use Wi-Fi as much as possible. This is almost standard at home, but free Wi-Fi is now also available in many places outside the home. That saves you in your calling bundle.
keep your number
When you switch, you can keep your mobile number as long as you indicate it in time. You can read more about it on www.belen.com/mobiel/nummerbehoud.
Decision aid
There is a huge range of subscriptions, calling bundles and telephones. It is almost impossible to compare all those possibilities yourself. That is why comparison websites are a godsend. They calculate on the basis of your (expected) use and wishes which bundles suit you best. Sorted by monthly or annual costs. There are several comparison sites, but one of the oldest and still the best is www.belen.com.
When you get to the site, you can immediately enter your data for an easy comparison in the Start your comparison box. Enter your desired number of calling minutes and MB data for internet. Indicate whether you want a phone with it and click the Compare button. If you do not choose a phone, you will get an overview with only the SIM-only subscriptions. You can see the provider, network, type of bundle and costs neatly in a row. You can set filters to the left of the overview. Handy if, for example, you want a contract of no longer than one year. If you like an offer, you can order it directly via the View this deal button. To see a comparison of prepaid bundles, use the menu option Subscriptions > Compare prepaid.
Sources):
- Plus Magazine