Are you a loyal lapdog to your mobile provider?

You may have read about the death of my “brick” Nokia mobile – it coincided with my desire to purchase a pricey smartphone. The question was, should I stick with my current mobile provider (O2) or scurry off to a new one. The answer? Whatever would get me the best deal. Sadly, not everyone thinks this way.

Brits aren’t switching

A Which? survey found that nearly half of British mobile owners have never switched provider – that’s almost 20 million of us.

It’s nice to feel comfortable and happy with your provider, but you could be paying over the odds when there are new tariffs launched almost every other day.

And most of the time, it’s just for the sake of convenience. I know what it’s like – I was with O2 for around eight years. I felt like I was getting a good sim-only deal – £10 a month for 300 texts, which O2 later upped to “unlimited” texts. However, looking back, that offer was definitely well past its sell-by date – I was just too lazy to move on.

What’s stopping you?

My desire to buy my way into the 21st Century with a smartphone purchase meant I had to find the cheapest (and shortest) contract. Yet, once I’d found the best deal I still didn’t want to turn back on my old mate O2. And as a loyal customer I felt I might be able to get them to match or beat the offer I’d tracked down.

I rang them up, explained how long I’d been with them and how much I’d spent over the past eight years. Could they match the offer I’d found? Nope, they weren’t interested – in their own words ‘we don’t give better deals to loyal customers than new ones’.

In a way they did me a favour – I bought my phone outright and got myself a Sim from GiffGaff – and let’s just say this deal is miles ahead of my legacy O2 offer.

So, I get more bang for my buck, and according to Which? Mobile’s research, 5.3 million Brits also think they spend less on their mobiles after switching. I just wish I’d done it sooner.