Dude, Where’s My Phone?

This translation was generated automatically.

Pro tip: don’t ask your relatives what they pay for their mobile contracts. 😱 — Timo Hetzel, December 26, 2016

Over the holidays, someone told me this story. Here’s the short version:

Mr. S. lost his smartphone in early December. He called his provider’s hotline to block the SIM. He also asked whether he could get a new smartphone on his 20-month-old contract, which he had actually been about to cancel. Unfortunately, he accepted this offer:

• New phone early: €15 per month, a €60 fee.
• A two-year-old Samsung Galaxy S6, currently €400 new, for €150.
• A contract extension on a €50 plan with 1 GB of data.

That comes to about €1,400 over two years.

For €1,100, he could have bought a brand-new Galaxy S7 and the same expensive plan. Or a Pixel XL, or an iPhone 7.

If he had instead gone to the nearest shop from the same provider and bought a prepaid SIM and the same Galaxy S6, it would have cost €760.

If he’d asked me, I could have found him a decent smartphone and prepaid SIM for less than €400 over two years.

Whichever way you look at it, that one call in the “Oh no, where’s my phone?” panic cost him €300 to €1,000 too much—money he can’t afford—mostly for a bit of WhatsApp and Facebook on an old phone model. It was already too late to cancel.

Don’t make the same mistake. Warn your relatives: if their phone is lost or stolen, don’t let the hotline talk them into extending their contract, especially if money is tight. If necessary, Aldi has smartphone-like devices in the display case for less than €100.