According to John Woodward, CEO of Busy Bees Benefits, salary sacrifice schemes are the best way to reduce the cost of your mobile phone bill. Although the schemes are little known due to the hype that takes over on the high street, they are definitely worth investigating. Woodward explains the benefits below. High monthly costs + small tariff allowances = excess charges From the very minute Apple broke the news about the new iPhone, fans eagerly awaited for tariffs to appear online. As with any new handset, you can expect a large amount of time to be spent looking around for the best price.
However, even though Apple claims to have frozen the cost of the new iPhone 6s, prices for 24 month contracts on the high street are still as high as ever. Handset costs and expensive monthly payments are now combined with small data packages and limitations to text and minute bundles. This makes it even easier to receive excess charges on an already expensive contract. Salary sacrifice tariffs are deducted from your salary, meaning it's much easier to get more for your money thanks to tax and National Insurance savings.
Mobile phone schemes are also known to provide larger data packages – so for a lower price, you will actually get more in return. As the price is reduced, you can remove those barriers to text and minute bundles and as for small data packages – well, they can now be a thing of the past. For example, all of Busy Bees Benefits packages include unlimited texts, unlimited minutes and up to 32GB of data as standard. Other providers' tariffs will vary.
Is the high street price really worth it? Put it this way – if somebody offered you £1,800 to spend on whatever you like, would your first choice be a mobile phone contract? If you were presented with this figure first hand, we presume you would be thinking more along the lines of a holiday or perhaps towards savings for that big property deposit. But because high street prices are often disguised with handset costs and other fees, many of us don't realise the full amount we're actually spending when taking out a mobile phone contract. On scouring the high street for prices on the 128GB iPhone 6s Plus, the total cost of a 24 month contract can reach anywhere up to £1,800.
Savings can be as high as 42% when purchasing via salary sacrifice, so that £1,800 cost would actually cost you no more than £1,044* – a significant difference. When considering the salary sacrifice option, it's worth noting that not all salary sacrifice providers are the same. Advise your employer to stay away from any mobile phone scheme that requests handset charges as this will be better for uptake of the scheme and your own wallet. The best offerings will provide equal benefits for both employers and employees. Don't be afraid to ask your boss – they'll love the savings just as much!
There are many employers currently offering a mobile phone salary sacrifice scheme and many people purchasing their phones this way at the moment. However, if your employer doesn't currently have a scheme in place, setting one up is extremely easy and can also help save the business money in National Insurance contributions – so don't be afraid to ask! As stated above, prices from different employee benefit providers will always vary, but salary sacrifice prices are likely to be much cheaper than the high street, particularly at a time when a new handset launches.
We've become extremely reliant on smartphones these days and although we all feel the need to upgrade as soon as our contracts are up, most of us will still be working to a budget when it comes to our favourite piece of technology. So there you have it – the secret is out! If you want the latest smartphone, but you find the thought of paying nearly £2,000 frightening, now is a great time to speak to your employer about offering a scheme.
You might find that the next time you experience FoMo at the launch of a new handset; it'll be accompanied with a sigh of relief rather than the usual panic of extortionate prices. For more information on tariffs or business savings, please contact mobile@busybeesbenefit.com or call their customer services line on 0330 333 9100 between 8am and 6pm.