Cancel Airtime Plan Without Penalty - O2?

PeterTheBraveAgain

Just received an email from O2 regarding a change to the airtime plan from January 2025. As it happens this is actually a second phone and I never really needed the airtime plan. My contract is about a month old with 3 years remaining, if from what the email is saying true, can I cancel the airtime plan(not the device plan) without penalty or will I still have to pay the airtime plan ?

Here is what the email says :

We're writing to tell you about some changes that'll affect elements of the services you receive from us, such as out-of-bundle charges, and the way our price rises will work from 2025 onwards. Please make sure you read this information carefully and take the time to understand what it means for you.   From 9 January 2025, we’ll be moving you onto the latest version of our Pay Monthly mobile agreement terms and conditions including our recent changes to annual price rises from 2025. What’s Changing? We've outlined the changes to our terms and conditions below. Annual Price Rises

 

Following new regulation from Ofcom we are changing the way we do annual price rises, to provide more clarity and certainty for all customers. We’ll present any changes to your bill in precise pounds and pence, rather than using percentages or inflation measures. With this in mind, we want to let you know that from April 2025, the cost of your airtime plan will increase by £1.80 a month. We understand price rises are never ideal and want to reassure you this will only affect your airtime plan, with the cost of your device remaining frozen. We'll also contact you nearer the time to confirm this. Customer Discounts From 1 April 2025 any recurring discounts applied to your account will remain unchanged and will not increase in line with any annual price adjustments. Currently recurring discounts applied to your account would be increased every year at the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation plus 3.9%.

 

Changes to your out-of-bundle costs We're making pricing changes to some of our charges outside your monthly allowance, this covers things like SMS, MMS and voice calls outside of your usual allowance. Information on these changes to out-of-bundle and additional service charges can be found in a table at the end of this document. Additionally, some out-of-bundle charges will be subject to an annual 5% increase, effective every 1 April from April 2026. The full list of extra charges can be found here.

Roaming – Fair Usage Policy We're extending our permanent roaming fair usage policy, that we already have for Europe Zone, to include Rest of World roaming. Using the service for more than 63 days in a four-month period is considered unfair use. If this happens, you'll receive a notification via text, and continued overuse will result in surcharges. These surcharges are £3.50 per GB for data, 3.3p per minute for calls and 1p per text. The surcharges will appear on your next month’s bill. We’ll stop applying surcharges to your inclusive roaming usage once the majority of your usage over the previous four months has been in the UK. These charges only apply if you exceed the fair usage policy. Roaming in our Europe Zone up to 25GB, remains unchanged. International roaming rates are changing. Standard voice rates will increase from £2 per minute to £3 per minute, and SMS rates will rise from 50p to £1. What does this mean for me? There’s nothing you need to do, and these changes will be applied automatically from 9 January 2025.   However, because of these changes, you have the right to end your airtime plan in the next 30 days. If you decide to cancel your airtime plan, you’ll need to either continue paying your device plan in the agreed monthly instalments (you must call us to arrange this) or you can pay the remaining balance off in full. This is because your device plan is a separate loan agreement.  Thinking of leaving us? If you decide to leave us, you can cancel your contract any time in the next 30 days by calling 202, free from your O2 phone or on 0344 809 0202. If there’s an outstanding amount left on your device plan, this will still need to be paid off, either by continuing with the instalments already set up, or you can opt to pay it off in full, a member of the team will be able to help you. You can also reach out to us via webchat for assistance. If you want the instalment plan to continue you must call us and ask an agent to continue the device payments monthly for you, if you decide to leave without calling and arranging this first, your device instalment plan will end, and you’ll need to pay it off in full.

flaneurs_lobster

Seems pretty clear, if you end your airtime contract then you can either pay off your phone plan in one go or contact them to continue paying for your device by instalments.

What bit is causing confusion?

PeterTheBraveAgain

No real confusion. Was more wondering if it still applies if you are within your contract period.

As it happens I have already been in contact with O2 and got it cancelled without penalty. Will cancel in 30 days from today.

Was on my way here to update the post.

flaneurs_lobster

Ah, gotcha.

Normally (outside of any cooling-off period) there would be no opportunity to cancel penalty-free if the annual price increase(s) had been agreed to when the contract was signed.

What seems to be happening here is that OFCOM have decreed that the annual increase must henceforth be described as a monetary amount, rather than as a percentage ("CPI + x%"). Since this is a change to the contract currently in force the operator has offered a penalty-free exit.

That's my guess anyhoo. 

As an aside, what % increase would £1.80/month have been to your ex-contract?

PeterTheBraveAgain

Yes that seems to be the case. Thankfully I can cancel penalty free. Will save me quite a lot of money.

To answer your question it would have been a 6.21% increase

Doctorwho700

I also got this email, but I'm asking for a second opinion as apparently I can't cancel my airtime as it's been under 2 years?? But going by this, that is untrue as the email says otherwise. My sim p/m works out to around £27, this is a good shout to look for a new sim, getting what I currently get from O2, I can get a sim for half the price, it might be a minuscule saving for some, but a good one for myself.

flaneurs_lobster

Doctorwho700 said:

I also got this email, but I'm asking for a second opinion as apparently I can't cancel my airtime as it's been under 2 years?? But going by this, that is untrue as the email says otherwise. My sim p/m works out to around £27, this is a good shout to look for a new sim, getting what I currently get from O2, I can get a sim for half the price, it might be a minuscule saving for some, but a good one for myself.

Don't be too surprised if you get contradictory information from O2's customer service reps. A glance at the recent thread about trying to get a consistent answer from them about their O2 Classic product is typical.

If something does not exactly align with their support scripts then they will resort to improvising answers (or put you on hold until you give up).