Peak Pre Pay Phone Rates

Cork

don't believe that people realise - how much the are being charged for peak calls on mobile prepay calls.

People ring offices on these phones and are put on hold for maybe 7 or eight minutes.

I switched to ealy bird on Friday and I will use a meteor sim in the evenings.

But - I feel mobile phone companies don't regurally remind those users on price.

Meteor has a *#101# feature that will give both call cost and call duration.

-Wheeler-

Pre-paid mobile call rates in this country are ridiculously high. In my opinion you get more value for money being on pay monthly (bill). Rates are lower, you've a certain number of free minutes every month, and you'll never get caught short not being able to make a call or send a text due to lack of credit.

Most people on pre-paid phones, think that they are somehow saving money and its a cheap way of running a mobile. This maybe the case for a very light user, but most people just have this thing in their head that bill phones are only for heavy/business users. It is quite easy to keep your montlhy bill to around €40, my typical bill is around this figure give or take. That equates to approx €10/week. The average/moderate pre-paid phone user will buy at least that much credit each week, so many would get better value and a better service by switching to bill.

Just my 2 cents.............

PS. I do not work for any mobile phone company - I know lots of friends who spend about €10/week on credit but wouldn't for a second consider going bill because they think pre-paid is cheaper. Stupid !

BigCon

It's not that we think that prepaid is cheaper, it's the fact that we know we can't run up huge bills. My experience is that people will use their phones much more if they know their on a bill instead of prepay (IMO).

-Wheeler-

You're right, in that there is nothing to stop you running up a high bill, but from my experience once you switch to bill you are just as careful, if not more careful than you were on pre-paid to keep an eye on your phone usage because you know there's a bill coming at the end of the month.

It's just that Vodafone et al, don't give pre-paid customers the same value for money that they give bill-pay customers. I'd be pretty annoyed if I felt that I wasn't getting the best value for money that was on offer.

I'm not trying to convert anyone, just giving my opinion.

Wheeler_1028.

sunbeam

For the heavy user postpay is definitely the way to go.

I've reduced my mobile usage drastically over the past few months and reckon I'd now be as well off on prepay as the Vodafone Light option. Definitely find I tend to use the phone that bit more then necessary because if I don't I'll lose the minutes I pay for, then I end up going over my allocation...

-Wheeler-

Be careful about switching back to pre-paid - if you do and it doesn't work out for you, you usually can't go back on bill for a few months. This is to stop customers continually switching between both payment options. The moral of the story is be absolutely sure you want to switch back........I learned the hard way. Like yourself, was on bill, thought I could save money by going back to pre-paid, then realised how much I was being ripped off by the rates (like making a 5 min call in the afternoon costing almost €4). Rang Vodafone, said this isn't working out can I change back - they said NO. After several calls later and threatening to change to O2 and keep my 087 number they eventually switched me back. BTW I had also been entilted to an upgrade which I hadn't availed of when I went back to pre-paid, when I finally got switched back to bill they informed me that I had lost my upgrade and that it would take about another 12 months of paying bills to build it up again. So you lose everything, and it's messy getting switched back. So think about it before you do it !

Wheeler_1028.

sunbeam

Yeah, a potential upgrade is one of the reasons I'd consider staying on postpay and I've a few months left on my contract before I need to decide.

I kept my old prepay sim 'just in case' and still use it an odd time when I need to be sure of controlling costs, especially for data calls which were my main vice. I used to spend so much that they're putting me through to business customer care these days.

I'm very surprised they were reluctant to let you switch back though-surely more postpaid customers=more revenue for them.

carrotcake

unless you're a heavy user, there's little advantage now to being an o2 bill-payer. cheaper calls and texts on prepaid in some instances