Friday, August 14, 2009

Mobile phone tarifs, 0800 numbers and blue tooth radio.

I have recently needed to review my mobile phone tariffs, mainly because of the kind of use in the business and the T mobile contract on one of our phones, has come to an end.
To clarify we have three phones all used in the business with one being Virgin network monthly contract at £10.00.
We run an accountancy business, "Barrie Ingram Accounts Ltd"and a Taxi (private hire) "Barries car Service" commonly known as "Barries taxi" as an additional income stream. The virgin mobile phone is used for the divert via a 0800 number and one of the T mobile numbers is used a s direct divert for the Accountancy 0800 number.
I will talk about the 0800 numbers later as there is a useful money saving trick here, but for now lets stick to the mobile rates I have discovered, that work for me.

Initially when a new phone was needed for the taxi cab, I kept an eye out for all the mobile deals but when Virgin networks placed an add on the bottom of their bill for the TV and Broadband monthly invoice, that we would get £10.00 of our Bill for the Tv and Broadband if we signed up for the mobile SIM only deal for £10.00, that seemed a NO Brainer for me. It was £10.00 for a monthly contract with 200 minutes and 100 texts per month. in summary a free use of phone for the Taxi.
I would like to talk about the 0800 number now, as it seems the right place based on the fact that the phone calls recieved all get diverted from a know advertised taxi number to a mobile which is usually an expensive ordeal. But one day, shortly after the new virgin SIM was up and running I received one of those random sales calls asking me if I had a o800 number for my taxi firm. I said no, but then his great skill in selling, converted my need into a sale. I liked the idea that much I bought two 0800 numbers of him.
His idea was that by attaching the virtual 0800 number to a mobile number directly, which can be changed at any time with no extra cost, I can divert my landline calls to it at no cost to me. i thought that was bloomin marvellous, divert calls for nothing thats the best thing I had herd for a long time.
I bought two numbers of him for 149 pounds each with loaded minutes of 700 a month, which again can be upgraded at any time, with a small price to negotiate. One 0800 was used for the taxi phone the other was used for the Accountancy business. so now i have no divert bills when seting all my calls to divert. Really usefull when you are out and about with the taxi and dont want to miss a call. After all calls mean money in the taxi business.
Now back to the mobile tarrifs. Found that the T mobile signal in the office was a little week so i was looking to change the service provider. After tapping in Google "mobile phone signal" I found that a web site gave me the best signals for my area under my postal code.
I chose Orange and searched for a deal and just like before a sales call came and I decided to talk through my needs. Initially the offers were for 3 phones at £30 amonth 24 months contract. I was interested in the Blackberry as they provided an email and easy text solutions and I was interested in the free phone to phone communication and that email could be cheep solution to providing jobs to a prospective driver in the cab.
Anyway the end product was I would keep the phones I have albeit slightly old but worked fine and get a new SIM only deal from Orange shop down the town. the deal was £15 rolling month for 200 mins and unlimmited texts. great deal for me cos thinking of the taxi job texts i was intending to utilise the service for along with the improved signal, great! Also, the fact that it was a monthly contract i was able to try out for a month the new signal. i could effectively cancel 30 days notice one day after i had taken the contract out so only have the contract 31 days. So all was good.
Seeing that my T Mobile monthly bill on my run out contract was £29.50 the change to Orange sim only has given me a saving of £14.50 (£29.50-15.00= 14.50). the other t mobile phone has been extended for a dsicout to £8.50 to a 18 month contract. So you can see that keeping old phones and extending can give a good deal which is almost like sim only deal, but i was already with T mobile. Orange have suggested that 36 montyh contrcat could be offered for £10.00 for similar provided mins and texts but i quite like the rolling month contract for the moment.

As an additional comment I bought a Sony MEXBT2500 car radio, that takes your telephone calls via blue tooth and you can hgear iot over the speakers. best ever way to receive calls - look out for the next blogg to talk ablouth efun i have when calls come through for taxis when i have pasengers aboard. this sony only cost about £ 100 but its brilliant.

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