Millions of pay-monthly mobile customers face mid-contract price rises - MSE News

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Former_MSE_Naomi
Former_MSE_Naomi Posts: 519 Forumite
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in Mobiles
O2, Three and Vodafone are set to increase prices for their pay-monthly customers, after EE confirmed it would be hiking prices by 2.7%...
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'Millions of pay-monthly mobile customers face mid-contract price rises'
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  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,287 Forumite
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    On past experience, if you're out of contract this usually provides a suitable opportunity to renegotiate a reduced price!
  • Frozen_up_north
    Frozen_up_north Posts: 2,420 Forumite
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    Why is this news? It is stated in the contract T&Cs. The word “hike” means a sharp increase, which an increase by RPI is not.

    FWIW, Three SIM only contracts have not previously increased annually. Now these contracts include a reference to an RPI increase in May each year...
  • pmduk
    pmduk Posts: 10,655 Forumite
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    Frozen_up_north wrote: »
    Why is this news? It is stated in the contract T&Cs. The word “hike” means a sharp increase, which an increase by RPI is not.

    Exactly, MSE has just recycled the news story they always produce this time of year. I can't see anything new this year.
  • VT82
    VT82 Posts: 1,079 Forumite
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    I actually think MSE should campaign against this being applicable for customers who haven't been with their provider for a year.


    I've just switched to Plusnet, and read in this news story that they will probably be increasing my bill by the 'inflation' figure (i.e. a figure calculated on a YEAR'S WORTH of price rises) in March, when I will only have been a customer of theirs for a SINGLE MONTH. Whatever the Ts and Cs say, this is clearly unjustified, and the regulator and MSE should do something about it.


    Contracts are normally only a year anyway, so mobile companies never have to wait too long before being able to adjust prices in line with their costs. Mid-contract price rises are an abomination, however small they might be, especially when linking them to RPI/CPI which might have no relevance at all to the cost of providing the service.
  • mobilejunkie
    mobilejunkie Posts: 8,460 Forumite
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    VT82 wrote: »
    I actually think MSE should campaign against this being applicable for customers who haven't been with their provider for a year.


    I've just switched to Plusnet, and read in this news story that they will probably be increasing my bill by the 'inflation' figure (i.e. a figure calculated on a YEAR'S WORTH of price rises) in March, when I will only have been a customer of theirs for a SINGLE MONTH. Whatever the Ts and Cs say, this is clearly unjustified, and the regulator and MSE should do something about it.


    Contracts are normally only a year anyway, so mobile companies never have to wait too long before being able to adjust prices in line with their costs. Mid-contract price rises are an abomination, however small they might be, especially when linking them to RPI/CPI which might have no relevance at all to the cost of providing the service.


    I completely agree. Unfortunately it is what it is. Vodafone had a handful of years when they (unlike everyone else) didn't increase annually. Their only redeeming feature, now long gone.
  • pmduk
    pmduk Posts: 10,655 Forumite
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    VT82 wrote: »
    Contracts are normally only a year anyway, so mobile companies never have to wait too long before being able to adjust prices in line with their costs.

    The mid-contract price rises seemed to appear with the rise of 18-24 month contracts, in turn coming from sky-high handset prices.
  • VT82
    VT82 Posts: 1,079 Forumite
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    pmduk wrote: »
    The mid-contract price rises seemed to appear with the rise of 18-24 month contracts, in turn coming from sky-high handset prices.
    And this begs another question - when someone is paying £50 per month for the phone and contract, the provider paid for the cost of their phone at the start of the contract. So why should they be able to charge the customer an extra 2% (£1.00) per month when their cost of providing the service won't be increasing by any more than it would for the cost of providing the service to someone paying £10 per month SIM only (who will only be charged an extra 20p per month)?


    Anything where a cost increase is linked to RPI for something already in the basket of goods that forms RPI is already a real wind up to me (Excel circular reference warning, hello!), but when you combine it with unjustifiable mid-contract price rises, it really boils my p!5s...
  • VT82
    VT82 Posts: 1,079 Forumite
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    mobilejunkie wrote: »
    I completely agree. Unfortunately it is what it is.
    Until a regulator with a brain and some teeth says it shouldn't be...
  • mobilejunkie
    mobilejunkie Posts: 8,460 Forumite
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    Regulator's more likely to get Alzheimer's before they get round to that.
  • pmduk
    pmduk Posts: 10,655 Forumite
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    VT82 wrote: »
    Until a regulator with a brain and some teeth says it shouldn't be...

    The regulator has some very sharp teeth on the rare occasions it chooses to use them.

    What we do have in this country is a system that prefers to take a hands-off approach to big-business encouraging them to do the right thing, only using enforcement as a last resort, (usually, IMHO, belatedly).
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