Monthly mobile hone bills

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My friend pays £9 a months with EE for unlimited texts and call time and some Internet usage. He's only ever gone over his spend, once! And even then it cost him an extra £11 (he was in New York over Christmas so that explains it). He leaves his mobile Internet on constantly. He reads the paper, follows BBC sport and that's about it.

I pay £35 a month for more or less the same. I read the paper, WhatsApp, MN and that's about it.

I have often gone over and was paying £60 a month! I now switch my mobile Internet off as much as possible during the day when out and about and rely on wifi as much as I can. Where on earth am I going wrong?

I pay £12 to Giff gaff for unlimited texts, some phone calls and some internet usage. With wifi, I never need more. However, I could upgrade for not much more and get more internet allowance. Try looking at the giff gaff website. I think they're really good. Also, my daughters have giff gaff sims and all phone calls/texts between giff gaff users are free.

Well, why do you pay £35 per month?

I pay £19 a months for an unlimited everything pay monthly rolling contract so I don't have to overpay anything, unless I'm abroad.

Find cheaper deals. Go to Carphone Warehouse (for example) and let them find you a cheaper deal. Careful with certain networks as not all work well everywhere. Maybe ask your friends what they have.
I'm on O2 Simplicity.

Btw giff gaff runs off O2 also.

maybe they have a sim only deal and have paid for the phone outright whereas your monthly charge includes phone and sim? We bought our handsets and pay about £15 a month for our sim deal with EE

Just change to a better deal.

I pay £7.50 a month with giffgaff, and use the internet all the time. There is so much wifi around these days that you hardly ever have to use your mobile allowance.

That's true are you paying for a fancy phone?

What are the details of your contract? Are you paying over the odds because its a handset deal (is, new iPhone or similar).
For comparison, I have an S4 mini, unlimited calls / texts and 1 GB data for £12/ month.
Its always worth scouting for deals and telling your current provider you are leaving so they offer retention deals.

It's an iPhone 4s. I'm tied in for another year I think. Apparently, my Internet usage was massive because I left my mobile Internet on all the time and apps were being updated constantly. So I have turned my locations services off, and the mobile Internet is rarely on now.

A big chunk of what you're paying will be for the phone. In a few cases, there are phone + airtime deals which are below 15 quid (but typically on Three they include 100 or 200 minutes of calls), whereas unlimited calls usually start at 10.00 as a "retention deal" if someone has been with a network for a year or more and then says they are moving to another network.

I currently have SIM only deals using
TPO (The People's Operator) - 3 GB data, unlimited calls, unlimited texts, £15 (first 3 months 3.99 and then up to 5 months free if I can encourage friends/ anyone else to join them).

Three "One Plan" which is £15 (has also been £20 and £25, but I bought it when price had been reduced) giving 2000 minutes, 5000 texts, 5000 minutes to other Three customers and unlimited internet use (with the ability to share the connection with my laptops, NowTV box, etc) I often use 30-70 GB a month.

I also have a phone + airtime contract:

Three £12 (for a Blackberry phone, 24 month contract, 100 minutes, 5000 texts a month, Blackberry services and unlimited internet traffic). Typically use 20-40 GB a month.

A lot depends on the phone you may have chosen, whether your data is 3G or 4G (some networks were charging a lot more, initially, for 4G), and whether you happened to get a good deal when you decided to sign a contract.

There are often great deals spotted on HotUKdeals.com and some networks pay out when you sign up, so check Quidco.com and TopCashBack for deals.

I had £101 cashback when I signed for a 12 month SIM only deal on a cut-price T-Mobile "Full Monty" account in 2013. It was £16/month (down from £31) and after a few weeks my £101 cam to my bank account from TopCashBack. Soon after that, T-Mobile masts were being switched to EE 4G so I could get no signal. I complained and around the 6 months time, I cancelled without penalty (as their technical changes were causing no signal). It cost me effectively nothing to use them for 6 months.

Be aware that most comparison sites will happily get £10 to £150 commission when you sign for something, but don't pass on the cash.