Which will cost me less?

CaptainWales

I have two options, but cant work out which is better from cost perspective? Both 24 month contract.

Option 1 - £24.99pcm. Annual prices rises every April, a % plus inflation. £75 cash giftcard after 28 days of taking out contract.

Option 2 - £22pcm. Annual prices rises every April, a % plus inflation. 

iniltous

Ofcom have outlawed the CPI+**% increases ( Jan 2025 the latest date to be implemented ) so by April 2025 your provider should have moved to the approved type of increase which is to state in ££’s and pence what the annual increase will be , as far as the rest of it , £2.99 a month cheaper over 24 months is £71.76 , …. £75 gift card is worth , £75 , not sure why you can’t work out which is better from a cost perspective, what is the ‘better’ deal is more complicated, you may prefer the lower monthly fee , but obviously £75 is more than £71.76 .

Jemma01

Do you have a needed purchase for the gift card? Or think it would be a great xmas present for someone?

If not, I'd rather the 22/m because I don't know what the percentage increase in April is going to be. If they offered cash, it'd be another story, but keeping the money within their store doesn't appeal to me unless I desperately need to buy something from them 🤔

CaptainWales

I didnt knoe OFCOM had outlawed this. Does the provider have to give this information within a certain timeframe?

The £75 card is a mastercard giftcard so as accepted in most places im treating like cash.

iniltous

Most ISP have already introduced the new policy , so ( for example ) may say £30 a month , increasing to £33 in April 2025 , £36 in April 2026  on a 24 month deal , ISP’s have till Jan 2025 to introduce this , presumably your ISP is waiting until the last minute and is using the soon to be unacceptable method,

In your  example it makes no difference, the inflation plus 3.9% ( or whatever the actual figure is ) will be the same for both , because they are sneaky in that the increase doesn’t apply to £22 , it will apply to the before discount price , so for example, if the ‘true’ price is £24.99 and they discount it to £22 ( so give you £2.99 off ) in April they apply the cpi +3.9% to the £24.99 then reapply the same discount of  £2.99 , the discount doesn’t increase by cpi+ 3.9 % , so the price goes up , the discount stays at £2.99, that’s the same for both deals .

Newbie_John

The one without gift card is imo better - sometimes it's hard to get rid of the last few pounds from that gift card, sometimes it's hard to get it, you can lose it/it expires etc. Also there will be two price increases during your contract - let's say 5% each - and that's around 15p difference a month, so financially they're very equal really.

Regarding the January changes, it sounds good, but may not be, now they say it will go up by % + inflation, from Jan they will say it will go up by £2 every April - so it may be the same or even worse.

Cisco001

The difference in overall cost could be small. 
But you also need to take into consideration with what router it provide or how good is the CS.

CaptainWales

I rang Plusnet to enquire about the change the annual change in price, first one being in April  2025. Got a bit of a waffle from the guy but essentially told me that if I take out a contract before January 2025 then I would be subject to %+CPI as the new regs would not be in force. But then when I have looked at their website then it says price will go up £3 on 31 March. No idea which is right.