Martin Lewis: Can you slash your mobile bill to £2 a month? Three steps to try

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ITV's The Martin Lewis Money Show Live – Tuesday 18 March

From The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on Tuesday 18 March courtesy of ITV. All rights reserved. Watch the full episode on ITVX.

Transcript of what Martin said on the show

Martin Lewis: "Mobile contracts are rising, roughly 6% or about £2 a month depending. Now, this applies to broadband too. I've spoken before about how they banned mid-contract inflation-linked price hikes, but that is only for people on new contracts, depending on exactly when [you signed up]. If you got a new contract this year, that may be you, in which case they would have told you when you signed up in pounds and pence how much it was going to increase at that point.

"Yet many – probably most – people are on existing contracts, and if you're on an existing contract from before that time, you can still have the inflation-linked price hikes this year. So that's happening to many people. My big message – and this includes you Gary [a viewer who wrote in about his father's mobile price hike] – 14 million of you are out of contract: free to ditch, switch, move, or do whatever you like, or make them pay for your business."

Step 1: Check if you're out of contract

"First thing, text INFO for free to 85075 to check. If you‘re on Three, ID mobile, or Smarty, then it’ll reply back and you’ll need to confirm your date of birth. Don't worry about that, just do it.

"What it will then tell you is whether you have any early termination or cancellation charges. You need those to be £0. That means you're out of contract and you can ditch and switch for free."

Step 2: Use price comparison sites to find the best deals

"What should you do? Don't go direct to the mobile companies. They'll always charge you more. The best deals are always on comparison sites where they do short-term promo offers.

"I've put the equivalent prices in. Basically, that's where some have vouchers, some of them have bill credit. I factor all those in and average over a year.

"Look at these prices at the moment. Just look at these: [compared with] £24 a month, you've got a Lebara Sim on Vodafone’s signal, depending which site you go to, equivalent of between £2 or £5 a month over a year, and it's a one-month contract, you can break it. £24 a month [versus] £2 a month. Ridiculous.

"Smarty: unlimited minutes – they all have unlimited minutes [and] unlimited texts – unlimited data on Three signal as low as £10 a month.

"£24 a month, I bet that isn't unlimited – so most people are massively overpaying. Sim prices have gone down every year. Five years ago, a 50GB Sim was £13 a month. Now the cheapest are £3 a month. But every year you've got above-inflation price hikes if you're on a contract. Switchers get the best deals."

Want the same signal? You could get it for less

Jeanette Kwakye, Martin's co-host: "Before you go any further, Martin Lewis, have a look at this. Lisa says: 'How do I stay with the same mobile company but change to a Sim-only deal. I have mine and my daughter's phone on my account. Both are out of contract and we're currently paying £150 each month for both phones.'"

Martin: "Horrendous. Lisa, the question is: what do you mean stay on the same mobile? Do you want to stay with the same network? In which case you're probably going to need to haggle or look at what deals they've got for you. You're out of contract. They'll have cheaper deals than that, that's horrible.

"Or do you want the same signal? Important to remember, there are only four mobile phone companies [with their own networks] in the UK: EE, O2, Vodafone and Three. Every other one is piggybacking on their signal, like Lebara’s on Vodafone, or Smarty’s on Three.

"So what you can do on some of the good comparison sites is you can tell it what signal you want, and it will find you the cheapest provider on that specific signal.

"There may be other differences, but the signal will be coming from the same place. That's probably what you're worried about. You may be able to get it far cheaper."

Step 3: Switch and keep your current phone number

"Final thing, if you go back to Gary, I’m really going on this one... Gary, want to keep your number? Keeping your number is dead easy. Once you're ready to switch, text PAC to 65075, you'll get a code. You give that to your new provider and that way you keep your existing number.

"I should also note there will also often try and keep you and give you a decent deal to keep you to stay if you're looking to switch. And you can haggle – I'll talk more on how to do that in a moment – if you want to stick with your existing provider."

Jeanette: "Okay, we've got a success on just this. It’s come in from Steve: 'I was paying £71 a month. I took your advice and swapped to another provider on Sim-only paying 65p a month for nine months and then £9.90 for the last three, making it an average of £2.97 for 12 months. This will save me £861 a year. I'm a pensioner so thank you.'"

Martin: "That'll be a deal like this [pointing to earlier Lebara example]. That's a similar structure deal. Do you know why that happens? You sign up for a mobile phone with a handset. You're paying off the handset. You pay that off for two years, your handset’s paid off, and the mobile companies go, 'We're going to keep charging you the same thing until you notice, even though your handset is now paid off'.

"It should be banned. It isn't banned. That's why people get in those situations. Know when your handset is paid off on your contract and then you want that price to plummet."