When your allowance doesn’t quite keep up

My Vodafone SIM-only plan has been absolutely perfect for my needs over the last few years. I don’t make many calls or send SMS texts, so when I originally took the deal, 500 minutes of calls was fine. I was never going to make 8 hours of calls per month.

This sort of deal isn’t exactly the “norm” any more. You’ll get so used to unlimited texts and calls in your package, however it’s worth reviewing your plan to see if you’ve got a limited amount of texts or calls because this is what tripped me up recently.

Due to my sudden and quite scary onset of cancer, I found myself in a hospital making a lot more phone calls than normal. If I’d been “on the money” then I would’ve perhaps used WhatsApp to keep in touch, but I wasn’t exactly “with it” and it cost me a lot extra.

The result then, and this isn’t something Vodafone can do anything about (as it’s classed as “valid use”) is that my usual £7-ish monthly bill now has £90+ of additional charges..

It’s a bit of a tricky one because I can’t really moan at Vodafone about it. I busted the 500 minutes in my plan and I’m paying the extra usage. At the same time, cancer and a load of extra phone calls wasn’t something I could’ve foreseen.

So, what I’d definitely recommend doing if you’re looking at a new mobile phone deal, is to ensure that you always plumb for Unlimited Texts and Calls in your plan. Just in case. You really never know when you might need it.

Sure, there’s the other option (which is to ensure that your plan doesn’t allow you to go over your allowances), but in this case I really did need those allowances to be exceeded.