TEXTING is a con. It can cost 10p to send 160 simple characters via old-fashioned text.

But there's only a tiny cost to sending and receiving data heavy emails, videos, pictures and music on most modern phones' mobile internet.

Whether you're on pay-as-you-go or contract, if you love text, this is my guide to doing it cheaper.

It's free via the web, it's cheaper with special sim cards, or you can even use a sneaky techie loophole to force texts through your mobile's internet.

ARE YOUR TEXTS REALLY FREE?

Those on monthly contracts thinking they get free texts anyway should think again. They're rarely truly free, instead they're inclusive. In other words, you pay more each month to get those texts. And that AIN'T free.

However, use roughly what your allowance is and it's pretty cost efficient. Yet regularly fall short and your monthly fee's too high. Go over and the extra texts aren't cheap. Ten full-price texts a day is a STONKING £350 a year.

If your contract's coming to an end, you can scythe down cost by threatening to leave the network if you don't get a much better deal. See www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles for a guide.

SEND FEWER SMS

There are two ways to send the same messages using fewer texts:

1. Send free on the web. Several websites let you wing texts to friends' mobiles at no cost, so if you're at work or close to a PC, ignore your handset and type in your friend's number on-screen.

The only mainstream site allowing UNLIMITED texts is www.cbfsms.com though sometimes texts send slowly when it's busy. Try others like www.fonetastic.com . Full list at www.moneysavingexpert.com/freetexts .

For overseas texts, www.sendsmsnow.com lets you send to countries including the USA, Canada, India and Poland for free. A real bonus as it can cost up to 50p per text from phones.

Remember your message often appears to friends as a strange number, so always sign off with your name and number to avoid confusion.

2. Lrn txt spk. Today's swish mobiles box clever and let you text way more than the typical 160 characters so it feels like you're sending just a single message - however, you're really paying to send two or three.

Cut back with txt spk to say less with fewer characters. It feels a bit teenage but is efficient. The www.lingo2word.com translator will help. Afterall u save £ ritN less.

BIG TEXT SAVINGS

For the really big savings, you'll need to change your text methods:

Text via the mobile's internet.

If you can email via your phone's internet, why not text this way too, to bypass your network's huge mark-up.

For both pay-as-you-go and contract this cuts text costs to 2p-3p each, far less than the network's standard charges.

You need a handset that downloads data by GPRS, and supports Java. Any phone which lets you download and play games will do it, meaning most bought over the last few years should be fine (although '3' mobiles don't allow third party software).

Simply download the free software on to your phone, open it, and it will look and FEEL like your normal text service - even sometimes using numbers stored in your mobile's address book. All texts appear in friends' inboxes under your number, so pals can easily reply.

Cheapest is www.FishText.com while www.vyke.com with Pro software is a little costlier but is more advanced. You pay the companies 2p-3p per text, but if the person you're texting has also downloaded the software, it's FREE.

However you must also pay your network for using the mobile internet; which is usually roughly ½p.

For regular users, the mobile will need to access the web to check for messages which can add 3p-6p a day. But compared to standard texts costs, this is cheap. A few pay-as-you-go tariffs, especially Vodafone and Orange do charge a daily data-use fee of £1-£2 which can ruin this, so check first. To be safe try it for a few days, you get 20p-50p start-up credit anyway, then shut it down until you get your monthly bill to double-check your data costs

Bag a special texting SIM card.

Some networks offer free Sim cards - the fingernail-sized chip in your phone that uniquely identifies it. Orange and T-Mobile occasionally have Sim card deals on their websites with offers like top up for a TENNER to get up to 1,000 free texts.

Do be aware that switching Sim means the phone number changes too. Plus some handsets are locked so can only use one network's Sim. Yet it's usually easy, legal and often free to unlock them. Sometimes all it takes is an internet code. See www.moneysavingexpert.com/unlock

Send me your questions for publication to notw@moneysavingexpert.com

TV Money Guru Martin Lewis is the creator of the Consumer Revenge website www.MoneySavingExpert.com which is packed with info on how to get more money in your pocket.

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