what really grinds my gears

MediumRoastSteam I’m on payg with Three. A tenner a month for 4G of data, unlimited voice and texts also when roaming - I used data all the time whist in France, but didn’t make calls.

Now, 4G of data for some is a lot. I’ll need to look at the smarty plan!

1. If you are out of contract with VM, all you need to do is pick up the phone and you will get a better deal. No need to haggle or argue, just ask what they can offer. Last time I did this the price went down 30% and they doubled the broadband speed as well (currently paying £36 for 200 Mbps). This price includes a landline that I never use, but oddly enough broadband was cheaper with a landline than without it.
2. Do you still get free roaming on Three? We had 5 phones from them. On four of them they forced us to move to a new plan with no roaming - gave us no choice to keep the roaming. I therefore moved those four contracts to O2, who are currently the only network that offers free roaming in Europe. I expect Three to cancel roaming on the last line I have, and then I will move that one as well (unless O2 also stops free roaming, which won’t surprise me).
3. When I moved from Three to O2, for the same price I got 5GB of Data vs. 4GB from Three. In addition, when you have both VM + O2, you get Volt: your mobile data allowance is doubled (so we get 10GB instead of 5GB) and your home broadband speed is upgraded (so we get 400Mbps instead of 200Mbps).
4. Having said that, don’t overestimate what you need. Even my teenage and grown-up children only use a fraction of their 10GB data allowance. I regularly use less than 1GB per month (so more than 9GB per month are just wasted on me).
   As for broadband, we were in a holiday house this week. I asked the children what they thought about the internet speed and they said it was just fine. A speed test revealed it was 17 Mbps (and at home we have 400 Mbps…).

Meldrew Will it be an excuse to privatise the NHS section by section. The excuse being that they cannot cope and are failing the public. I dare not ask if this would go to anyone associated with any of our parliament, just like the PPE did. Call me cynical.

No, privatisation. Unfortunately, that’s the direction one party has taken and is taking the pride of our country. The reality is they can’t cope, not for reasons of skills, dedication, hard work and sacrifices of the NHS staff. The crunch and the associated risks are the by product of forgetting what it actually stood for, let alone focusing on enabling vital resources — financial and human - to ensure the system and the people making our lives safer are well protected - all types of wellness.

The last thing they needed is calling them unethical and unprofessional!

Well we made our choice and decided to stay with BT. It may not be the cheapest deal available, but we have been happy with BT up till now. I might also change my mobile over where I can get 8gb data unlimited texts and calls for £8 a month and 20% discount on another phone, so could move the wife over if the Bt/ EE network is ok.
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