Online service promises savings on phone contracts

Cape Town – A new online service aims to help South Africans attain a lower cost option when it comes to cellphone contracts.

Tariffic, which to date has served the corporate market, on Tuesday announced that it was offering its cellphone contract reduction service to the general public.

To access the service, you have to choose a device and input your current monthly spend on voice calls, data and SMS. The online platform will then search through mobile operators and return a cheaper deal.

“We believe in the ‘freemium’ model and will always look to offer some value to our customers free of charge. Tariffic’s proprietary software can save cellphone users up to 40% of their bill and help them find their perfect package,” chief executive Antony Seef told Fin24.

For March 2016, the service which usually costs R149, is free as long as consumers share it on Facebook and Twitter.

Expansion plans

While consumers don’t have mobile contracts directly with Tariffic, Seef said that the firm has big plans for expansion.

“There’s a lot of value in what we offer and so we will either be charging for some aspect of the service or selling other relevant services (such as cellphone contracts) to our users in the future. More details will be unveiled in due course.”

A condition of using the service is that you have to enter personal details such as your current cellphone number and email address.

“We will never sell personal information to third parties without our customers’ permission. If a customer clicks that they are interested in purchasing a new contract on our website, we will help them to purchase their contract which may mean passing their information on to one of our partners to fulfil. This will be done with the user’s full knowledge and consent,” said Seef.

If you do not want to change your device, the platform also offers SIM-only deals. Tariffic’s corporate clients save 30% to 40% on their cellphone contracts.

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