Mobile recharges are no fun! You recharge, only to realize you have lost a lot of money in the form of taxes. It is a monthly expense which actually brings you no cheer – well, not always! With a little careful planning, you can actually save upto 30%-40% on your recharge money in a month.
Here are some useful tips which will help you save on your mobile recharges.
1.Choose the Right Plan
Aircel – Plan Designer
Most of us are unaware of the vast range of plans available from service providers. We rely on the retailers to provide us information. More often than not, plans with higher charges are pushed on to us.
Choose the correct data plan based on your requirement.
For e.g.If you are prone to making a lot of STD calls, choose a plan with the best offers on STD. If you are heavy data users, choose a suitable plan with discounted tariff.
To give an added advantage to customers, service providers are helping them create their own plans based on requirement and usage.
- Aircel has a ‘Plan Designer’ on their website.
- Just design your own plan by entering details – local, STD, ISD calling, Roaming details, SMS and data usage. Based on this data, a best plan will be given to you.
- The Airtel site has a similar offer ’Mypack’ which helps you decide your own pack. All other service providers have such provisions which you can check in their respective websites.
BSNL STV
You may also opt for STV(Special Tariff Vouchers) offered by telecom operators. It will help you bring down monthly mobile recharges drastically. For example, if your maximum usage is to SMSes, you may opt for STVs offering discounted tariff for SMSs or more free SMSes.
2.Get Full Talk Time
Idea- full talk time Rs.220
Most of us recharge in low denominations like Rs.30, Rs.50 etc. And in the process, we lose out some money. However, the customer who buys more is always preferred, right? So to encourage customers to go for larger amounts, many service providers provide full talk time for higher recharges.
- Idea Cellular provides you full talk time vouchers starting from the denominations of Rs.200 all the way up to Rs.3000. You just have to open their website and search for ‘Full Talk Time Vouchers.’
- Vodafone offers its customers full talk time on recharges starting at Rs.350.
You can look up the website of the service provider you choose for details on Full Talktime.
3.Discounts and Cashbacks on Recharge Sites
Online recharge sites like Paytm, Mobikwik and PayUMoney are becoming extremely popular in India due to the big discounts and cash backs offered to customers each time you recharge your mobiles. Many people are lured by the attractive offers of such sites and choose them as it helps them save big time. You save up to 14%(starting April) on the service taxes compared to regular recharges. It is said that sites like Paytm are used by 70% of prepaid users.
- You get discounts as high as Rs.100 and sometimes 100% cashback facilities.
- Some other benefits are that sites like Freecharge also offer you shopping vouchers for recharges.
- You can also finish recharging within seconds.
Sites like Paytm come up with offers periodically where a new user gets cashback of Rs.50 if he recharges for Rs.50.
Some attractive offers you can find are
- Freecharge offers cashback of 100% if you recharge your mobile for Rs.50 and are a first time user.
- Telenor users can recharge through Mobikwik and avail up to 15% cashback and this offer is for not just the new users.
Don’t have a Mobikwik wallet account? You can create one right away and avail all recharge and payment discounts offered by them.
4.Recharge with Apps
It’s not just sites like Paytm, but even mobile service providers offer you cashbacks and discounts when you use their apps. They are also user friendly and highly optimized to help you with quick recharges. Realising that recharge companies are grabbing a chunk of customers to themselves, Airtel, Vodafone and the likes have come up with offers.
Use the Airtel App for getting 10% cashback on prepaid recharges.
There are apps like Bill Bachao which help you select top prepaid plans and recharge instantaneously.
5.Recharge with Banks
Banks have also entered the foray of providing prepaid recharge facilities. You have the safety of doing it right from the official websites of the banks providing sufficient security for your accounts.
- ICICI allows you to recharge through just an SMS and you get shopping vouchers worth up to Rs.5000. Alternately, if you use their wallet Pockets, you get Rs. 25 off on recharge of Rs.100. You can check the ICICI Bank website for more details under the ‘Payments’ section.
- Similarly, banks like Axis give you up to 25% cashback when you recharge through their debit/credit card from the comfort of your home. You can check out the website of your bank which will provide you complete details on all the offers you can avail.
Besides this, remember important things like using Wi-Fi wherever possible instead of mobile data. Choose unlimited plans and use apps like Google Hangouts for Voice Calling and saving on mobile bills.
Follow these tips and save up to 40% on recharges. After all, you can put this money to better use for your family.