Businesses found to be over-paying by 85% on their mobile tariffs, according to Billmonitor’s statistics

Stelios Koundouros, founder and director of Billmonitor, has recommended that Ofcom should establish an accreditation scheme for mobile tariff price comparison for businesses like the one that already exists for consumers.

The recommendation, which was delivered following an analysis of Billmonitor’s business and consumer client base, was informed by the finding that businesses are being exploited by the mobile networks – even more so than consumers.

Of the findings, Koundouros said: “According to Billmonitor’s statistics, consumers are paying about 60% more than they should, while businesses are over-paying by 85% on average. We strongly maintain that the proposed accreditation scheme for businesses would lead to increased transparency and, thus, higher savings.”

The disparity between businesses and consumers is driven by the fact that consumers can walk down the high-street and compare offers to find “the best deal”. Businesses can’t do that, as the networks don’t publish price lists for corporate contracts. This makes the process significantly less transparent, and much easier to exploit. 

Billmonitor’s statistics also show that savings potential gets bigger as the size of the SME increases. This is because the lack of transparency grows significantly as contracts get larger and more complex. The networks foster and exploit this situation as an opportunity to make more money.