New survey claims loyalty to mobile operators costing UK people £9bn a year
A new Opinium survey of 2,000 UK people, which was commissioned by Lebara, has found that UK broadband providers (18%) lead the list of contracts consumers are reluctant to leave, followed by mobile networks (15%) and TV packages (14%). But the study estimates that staying loyal to major mobile networks could make consumers £9bn a year worse off.
According to the survey, 56% of respondents stay faithful to their mobile operator even when it’s to their own detriment, while around one in ten stay loyal even when it costs them. And while 11% know there are better deals out there, they’re unsure where to look and 25% don’t even know when their current plan expires. For those who do know they could switch, habit (29%) and laziness (28%) are among the biggest reasons for staying put, while 22% fear being hit with hidden charges when they switch.
Some 31% of mobile customers surveyed said they had stayed with the same network for more than 5 years, while 12% have never switched at all. Yet just 9% strongly feel their loyalty is rewarded, while almost half (45%) suspect major networks deliberately give their best deals to new customers (yes they do, that’s how the model works in a competitive market).
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Finally, some 19% said they continue to pay for subscriptions they rarely use and admit they keep unused memberships simply because cancelling “feels like effort.” However, it’s worth considering that Lebara has a clear vested interest here and their figure of £9bn is roughly based on the average saving that a mobile user can make by switching to Lebara itself, which is said to be £144 – perhaps not the most accurate approach to such a calculation.
Lest we forget that price isn’t the only consideration for consumers when considering a new mobile provider. Network coverage (availability), service performance (e.g. data speeds), support quality and other key features (e.g. does the plan include EU roaming support – if you travel a fair bit) can also play a significant role. As usual, opinion surveys like this should always be taken with a pinch of salt.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I have become a very agressive switcher of recent, practices such as using a “port mule sim” are becoming very common for me, allowing me to port-out and back into lebara SIMs to retain my number by using a sacrifical SIM from another network.
Staying on introductary offers and nomadically moving from SIM to SIM is becoming common for those looking to save every pound they can. Right now I am paying £1.50PM for 50GB with lebara.
Long-term I may port my number to a only-as-you-go and have a secondary sim to churn over with and catch the deals. This is as free SIMs with no-credit port-in are getting harder to find.
This type of surveys are assuming all services (let it be mobile or internet) are equal. Often, but not always, more expensive subscriptions are coming with extra services, better customer care, etc. In this case I’d say some of this £9bn a year is not wasted, but spent on better services.
I still keep recommending to everyone who asks me to switch providers at the first unresolved problem, or as soon as the out of contract pricing goes insane.