As featured in Baycorp Advantage’s consumer newsletter ‘The CreditLine’.

Check out a dodgy eighties movie where the characters walk around on their ‘mobile’ phones the size of bricks show me just how far we’ve come. Thankfully fashion has evolved from the hair gel, shoulder pads, and skinny tie look, and mobiles have moved mainstream.

Personally, my mobile is my contact with the outside world. I‘ve ditched the fixed line phone as I’m a typical generation Xer that’s lived in more places than a Mormon missionary. I couldn’t imagine life without my mobile – and in the past I’ve had the bills to prove it.

Mobile phone bills are a bit like being on a diet, in that they both involve a fair amount of denial. Just like the dieter telling themselves that they’ll start watching what they eat after that last Big Mac, most people say the same thing when faced with another crippling monthly phone bill. For most of us it never happens.

It’s time to face the facts. You have a life, you have friends, and as a consequence you make calls – but it shouldn’t cost you a fortune. If you’re on a $40 a month plan, and your monthly bills are consistently around $100, it’s time to face reality. By moving to a higher fixed monthly call plan your call costs may come down substantially.

Before you go shopping for a new mobile deal it’s important to spend some time analysing your needs to get the best deal you can. Take out the last three months of phone bills and look at how you use your phone. If you’re like most people there will be a few people that make up the bulk of your bill. Most carriers will offer cheap deals if you’re calling people on the same network.

As a guy in my twenties I’m naturally weary of the ‘C’ word. I’m particularly cautious of committing to a plan that lasts longer than many relationships I’ve had. There’s no such thing as a free lunch – or a free phone for that matter. A snazzy phone typically costs around a thousand dollars. Regardless of how a phone company tries to dress up the offer, the end game is that you have to pay for the phone. The best way to negotiate is to focus on the total cost over the contracted period.

Mobile phones are not far removed from a credit card, unless you go pre-paid, you can talk to your hearts content racking up a huge bill that you don’t get until the end of the month. Mix one part ‘Why doesn’t he like me?’ with a fully charged battery and you have a recipe for disaster.

Failure to manage mobile phone debt has been attributed to the surge in young people declaring bankruptcy - one in five people in Australia are under the age of twenty four. Taking a few moments to analyse your situation will help avert the mobile bill blues.

Tread your own path!

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