In 1776, nearly a full quarter of a century before he became president of the American republic, Thomas Jefferson wrote into the Declaration of Independence that all men ‘are created equal’.
It’s a phrase that has been routinely inverted since – all men are not created equal – to describe goods, service and people that may appear identical to similar goods, services, and people but which are, in fact, either superior or inferior to their competitors.
To this, in the context of the mobile telephony sector, we can also add billing platforms, which can vary in all manner of ways and are almost always the root cause of what is known as bill shock.
So, what is bill shock? Put simply, it’s what happens when you get a mobile phone bill that’s significantly higher than you expected because you’ve inadvertently used your phone in a way that isn’t covered by your contract.
A few years ago, the most common cause of bill shock was data roaming abroad as people used their mobile phones to access online services through partner network providers in the country they were visiting.
Until a pan-EU agreement to abolish them for all member states was introduced it wasn’t uncommon for additional data roaming charges to amount to hundreds of pounds.
Although the issue of data roaming has reared its head again as a result of the UK leaving the EU, the most likely cause of bill shock now is out of bundle usage right here in the UK.
In all likelihood, your contract with your network provider includes a monthly ‘bundle’ of allowances. Typically, these might be a fixed number of hours of free calls, a certain number of texts and a limit on how many gigabytes of data you can use via your network.
In an age when unlimited calls and texts and 100GB of data can make up a standard bundle, it’s hardly surprising that many people view their usage as being essentially ‘free’.
After all, it’s impossible to exceed an unlimited number of calls and texts, and even the most data-hungry user would have to work hard to exceed 100GB of data in a month. Unless, however, their mobile device is being used exclusively for work that requires a constant web connection.
But it’s the small things that can catch you out.
Take emojis, for example. Almost every text sent these days includes a smiley face, a vomiting face, a crying face, or any number of the other hundreds of emoticon and symbol options your SMS app offers.
The chances are that unless you’ve bought an add-on to cover your provider’s multimedia messaging service (MMS), you’ll pay up to 40p per emoji once any introductory offer has expired.
Ditto that for sending photos via text over your network and, depending on your provider and contract, long text-only messages of more than 160 characters are often converted to MMS before being sent.
The best way to avoid these charges is to keep your SMS messages to a text-only format of under 160 characters (this equates to about 25 words) and save your pics and emojis for WhatsApp.
You might also want to look to see if you can turn off MMS functionality in your settings. If you can, that will work as an automatic cap and you would then be able to re-enable it if you really needed to send an MMS message.
But there are also other areas where charges can be hidden – or, at least, aren’t specifically brought to the attention of the consumer. These include:
- Non-geographic telephone numbers – these include numbers starting 09, 118, 0844. 0845, 0870 and 0871, which are all more expensive to call whether from a landline or a mobile device and which are highly unlikely to feature in your call tariff
- Exceeding your data allowance – your tariff will include a maximum data allowance for using the network to go online. These have become increasingly generous – and most if not all companies allow you to set a cap that you can’t exceed. But if you do go over your allowance, you’ll get stung.
- Non-flexible tariff – if your provider can’t adapt your tariff to meet your needs – or is unable to find an effective way of warning you when you’re incurring non-contracted costs – you risk finding your bill is higher than you were expecting.
- Leased handsets – In most personal mobile phone contracts, your monthly payment covers the cost of your device so that when the contract ends, you own the phone. However, it’s also possible – particularly for businesses – to have a lease agreement. If you’re on a lease contract but you think you’re going to own your handsets at the end of the agreement, you’re going to be in for an unpleasant surprise
- Failure to meet minimum spend – though increasingly rare, some contracts can stipulate a minimum spend each month. If you don’t have a tariff that matches your needs, you could be hit by penalties
Bill shock is painful – both financially and in terms of the relationship customers have with the phone companies who provide them with their telephony service.
A recent YouGov poll discovered that nearly half of all mobile phone users have experienced bill shock, so this isn’t a problem that’s going to go away overnight.
It should hardly be surprising, then, to learn that transparency around billing is one of the key considerations for businesses looking for a telephony partner to supply their mobile infrastructure.
And this is where that notion of all billing systems not being created equal comes into play, because the reality is that some are far less transparent than others, meaning the risk of bill shock changes depending on who your supplier might be.
At Your Comms Group we operate a billing platform that ensures all our clients have as much visibility and control as possible of the costs they incur through their mobile strategy.
But if you’re with a supplier who doesn’t give you that peace of mind, what can you do to mitigate the risk of bill shock?
Be number savvy
Make sure you only use your smartphone to communicate with numbers included in your package. Typically, these will be all UK geographic numbers starting 01 or 02.
If you need to speak to a business that only offers a non-geographic contact number, go online to see if they provide a number for people from overseas to call (usually starting +44 1). This is probably a geographic number and will be included in your tariff.
If the call to a +44 1 number won’t connect, try the number again, but prefix it with 141, which will hide your location.
Get on the right tariff
Understanding how you use your phone will help you to get the right package. If you use your phone to be online, and you rarely use it to make calls, then having a generous data allowance may well be your priority.
Some providers now routinely offer 250GB of monthly data, and it’s often shareable between phones on linked accounts. You should also look to see whether you can roll unused data or unused minutes over from month to month.
Get a roaming pass
If you’re likely to be using your phone abroad, invest in a data pass. Depending on your provider, you’ll pay around a tenner for the privilege of being able to use your tariff minutes and data – but be careful not to exceed your contracted tariff or your next bill could be painful.
Be clear on leased and owned
If you want to own your handset or handsets at the end of the contract, then make sure you’re not entering into a lease-based contract – and obviously that works in reverse as well.
Discuss your needs
Talk to your supplier to establish what you really need from your contract. Depending on your requirements, it may be possible to bolt on or remove some options to ensure your tariff matches your usage.
At YCG, we don’t just sell mobile telephony to organisations. We see ourselves as a partner in our clients’ businesses and we offer a sales, customer care and after-care experience you’d expect from someone with your best interests at heart.
So, if you’re unsure about what you need, or you’re unhappy with your current supplier’s billing platform and are thinking about changing, come and talk to us to see how we can equip you with the right technology and tariffs to drive your business forward.
