Does RPI increase allow me to cancel?

Berkshire_2

We have an O2 contract via Virgin Media. The contract with O2 is now going up due to the RPI increase on the line rental. Does this trigger my right to cancel the contract within 30 days of the change in price? Or is this something that I would have missed in the T&Cs when signing up? 

eDicky

The latter...

DE_612183

I think you need to check the T&Cs but it normally has to be considered excessive - i.e. RPI+5%

simax

It’s probably CPI/RPI + 4%, hence why all the companies use 3.9% 🤣

DullGreyGuy

Berkshire_2 said:

We have an O2 contract via Virgin Media. The contract with O2 is now going up due to the RPI increase on the line rental. Does this trigger my right to cancel the contract within 30 days of the change in price? Or is this something that I would have missed in the T&Cs when signing up? 

Easiest way to answer is to reread the contract. 

Most contracts state they can increase by up to something like RPI + 5% and it's only if they want to go above this that it triggers a right to cancel. Obviously your contract may be different hence only you or VM can answer the question.

matelodave

You need to check the T&C's that were in force when you signed up (check the actual date of the T&C's that were relevant to your contract), but generally most companies have had the 3.9% plus CPI/RPI clause for the past couple of years.

However its worth checking the relevant CPI/RPI date that is being used for the uplift and whether they are using CPI or RPI

You might have to have a trawl of their website to see if you can find their historical ones if the current ones don't cover the date you took out your contract..

I know Vodafone, have had six different sets of T&C's since August 2020, so the date can be significant but they are all easy to find and compare and they changed the uplift date which can make a difference.

Berkshire_2

Thanks for all the replies.

I have found my contract and in the T&Cs is states that this is something I've agreed to, which is annoying, but the good news is that I've only got 6 months left on the contract. 

Neil49

Berkshire_2 said:

Thanks for all the replies.

I have found my contract and in the T&Cs is states that this is something I've agreed to, which is annoying, but the good news is that I've only got 6 months left on the contract. 

O2 allows you to "upgrade" mid term, so if you can find a suitable cheap sim only tariff via someone like Uswitch or MSE (such as 15gb for £7.99 which is currently on offer) you can replace your current tariff with a new lower priced one. This will be a new contract which will start with your next months payment for 12 months.

Select the tariff you want and Uswitch (or whoever) will direct you to the O2 website automatically selecting that offer. I can't remember the precise order of events but basically you will be asked if you are an existing customer (answer Yes) and do you want to retain your number (Yes) or require a new sim (No). Ignore the comment that they will post you a new sim. 

You will get a number of messages including asking you to read the contract (and accept it) before the process is finalised. 

I found this information and a cheap deal on the Hotukdeals website. Some people had an error message asking them to call O2 (on 202) and were offered the same time deal or better over the phone).

Hope this helps.