Is Your Unlimited Mobile Data Plan Really Unlimited? Things To Check Before Buying

Thanks to the sneaky and manipulative way that new mobile phones are marketed and advertised, many people often find themselves tied down to phone contracts that they cannot really afford just so they can boast the latest handset when they are out with their friends. If you enjoy living beyond your means and consider debt collectors and bailiffs to be a routine part of daily life, then signing up to a mobile phone contract without making sure you will be able to use your new smartphone in the places you frequent the most should be fine. Luckily, for the rest of us, there are ways to check coverage, which phones are worth buying and what the best contracts to sign up to are, depending on your needs and your budget. We call them price comparison websites. A price comparison site gives you the chance to browse all the contracts, pay as you go and SIM-only deals that are available on the market. If you have a limit to your monthly spend, you can select deals that charge the maximum you can afford and then browse them. You can also read through reviews submitted by customers already on the deals you are browsing. These are useful as they cut through the sales-speak and business jargon associated with the industry. If you use a lot of mobile internet services, you should focus your search on deals with enviable data plans. Be wary though, as many deals advertised with unlimited mobile data plans do actually cap excessive mobile data usage. Only deals that explicitly state they are genuinely unlimited (like T-Mobile's Full Monty package) should be considered legitimately unlimited. To find out what each mobile network considers to be excessive mobile data usage, search for each provider's 'fair use' policy and familiarise yourself with it. Knowing what your limit is can really help you avoid extra fees when you get your bill through the post or in your inbox. It is also worth checking what the signal strength is in the places you spend most of your time in. You can do this by visiting a price comparison site that holds links to every available coverage map. To find out how strong coverage is at your home address, your place of work and any other area you spend a lot of time in, simply enter a postcode and the strength of the coverage in that area will be displayed. Most networks post one colour for 2G signal- the bandwidth that covers voice calls and text messaging- and another for 3G signal- the bandwidth that mobile broadband services work on. Make sure you are certain which colour represents which signal when performing your check. Whenever you need a new mobile phone or are due an upgrade, a visit to a price comparison site should be at the top of your list.