EE price increases

Abby0x

I’ve just had the delightful news my phone bill is set to go up £104 a year with the “CPI” price increase with EE

i discussed with them for them to inform me that this happens to every customer in order to protect those who are experiencing financial hardship (i am
a bit confused by that statement as they’ve stated all customers receive this - I would expect that would include those who experience financial hardship)

i am unable to come out of contract as that would cost too (9 months left)

just wondered if anyone had any advice as I genuinely am unable to afford this


They also explain:

“This annual change helps us manage our increasing operating costs (many of which are increasing above inflation) as well as to cover the significant investments we need to continue giving better products and better value to our customers.

CPI+3.9% reflects the level of investment we need to make within our business to continue our major investments in Networks and Service, while also protecting vulnerable customers suffering from financial hardship or digital exclusion.

This means the price of all of their charges (including price plan charges) will increase each year from 31st March 2023 by the Consumer Price index (CPI) rate of inflation published in January that year plus 3.9%. This year that figure was 10.5%, giving a total increase of 14.4%”

eskbanker

Abby0x said:

I’ve just had the delightful news my phone bill is set to go up £104 a year with the “CPI” price increase with EE

[...]

This year that figure was 10.5%, giving a total increase of 14.4%”

If a 14.4% increase is £104/year, that suggests that you're paying about £60/month and that'll be going up to nearly £70/month, is that right?

I don't know what hardship-related concessions they'd be prepared to offer, but all you can do is ask:

https://ee.co.uk/help/help-new/billing-usage-and-top-up/paying-my-bill/what-should-i-do-if-i-cant-pay-my-bill

Abby0x

Hi, yeah - it’ll be £69.02 a month for me. Going up from £60.33
My actual contract was worth £69/m which I should have a 20% (£13.80) discount applied so it should have just been over £56. But due to the CPI increase it’s back to where we began 

born_again

The devil is in the detail of the T/C. So there is no out that way. 

You can ask, they do not have to help. maybe try to make a deal with lower usage levels, to bring cost down.

From looking at mobile section. Only one provider is not increasing prices this year. But that could still change.

Going forward look for sim free offers & source a phone yourself, rather than a contract with both phone & data etc.

Your headline annual figure is only £2 a week. So is less than one coffee a week. 🤷‍♀️

jon81uk

The time to check this sort of thing is before you take out the contract.
Many of the low cost networks don't increase the costs each year I'm told.

Gavin83

Abby0x said:

just wondered if anyone had any advice as I genuinely am unable to afford this

You can't afford an extra £8.60 a month?

Given the cost of the contract I assume it's a fairly decent phone. If things are that tight your best bet is to sell the phone, buy the cheapest handset you can to see out the rest of your contract and use the money from the phone sale to cover the extra cost, plus a bit extra for other expenses.

400ixl

Can you reduce the size of the service contract?

Many will allow you to drop down the contract size (as in if it ia a 160Gb contract, then drop it to a 20Gb) to reduce the cost. 

savergrant

Hi. Looking ahead you have nine months left on your contract. After that you should be able to find a suitable deal for a lot less sim only. Are there any economies you can make elsewhere? If your expenditure is above your income you may need to look at restructuring another debt.