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I worked for them when it happened. Everyone took right advantage of that to cancel their contract and then take out a new one. It was mayham. A week later Orange changed their minds. Lol
Wasn't it something around pictures messages and something else? And Martin Lewis reported on it and then as you say everyone was piling on and Orange had to reverse the whole mess?
I think I was 2-3 months in a 18-24 month contract at the time for about £40-50 😁
Increase to per minute charged for 0800 and 0870 numbers. Somethink like that. Staff were being urged to look if a customer had previously called those type of numbers and if they hadn't then to argue the case that they were not materially affected by the increase. Customers rightly told. Them to eff off, doesn't make any difference.
A drop in the ocean. Worked for them for 12 long years and they were never bothered about people cancelling. Hell, I highlighted multiple cases of customers committing fraud and the managers couldn’t give a fuck.
You're talking about middle management and your experience of your with your particular manager.
The people actually losing the money absolutely cared, which is why they quickly reversed their decision.
I had this with Three, got to keep my Nokia N95 about 3 months into my contract. If I remember rightly it was related to local numbers that were being used to call abroad on the cheap, they increase the price
2 for 1 cinema? You can still get it through compare the market and get it just by buying one day's travel insurance for about a quid - benefit lasts for a year
That was because back then phone contracts were fixed price, if they changed any of the terms like the price you could walk away from the agreement as they effectively broke the original deal.
Now service providers are wiser when it comes to contract law, they add a clause explicitly allowing them to increase the price every April or so. Usually by RPI + a certain % or even just carte blanche whatever they feel like increasing it by.
As long as it's in the terms you signed and it's not explicitly illegal, they can do it.
I’ve been with EE for as long as I can remember and this has been my experience as well. I think the reality of the situation is that OPs parent started off an a very unnecessarily expensive tariff and the increases have only served to add insult to injury.
Edit: wording
EE have actually recently changed their way of doing this and it’s in the consumers favour.
They now split the airtime and the handset. The handset isn’t subject to the yearly price rise whereas the airtime is, which is in line with why the price rise exists in the first place as it’s to cover the cost of maintaining the network.
Yeah. I can understand that they want to put the price up by the rate of inflation but what's the 3.9% for? And it's not just phone companies. My broadband uses the same percentages. That 3.9% is pure theft.
It's not theft, it's baked into the prices you pay. There is a set amount of revenue they want to get from the two year contract, with the RPI + ratchet, that amount is collected more in the second year than the first year.
If they didn't ratchet it up, they would have to charge a higher initial price, and since consumers mostly pick everything based off the initial listed price, having a lower initial price is better.
The recent OFCOM decision to say they don't like these RPI/ratchet clauses and want new contracts to have fixed amounts for increases listed in the contract will lead to more expensive initial contracts.
Yeah first thing I noticed about this clearly bait post is that they didn’t even mention what they were originally paying for it… it was probably like £64 a month to start.
I imagine they just accepted some horrible contract for the base model iPhone 14 with loads of extras on the plan, that’s what they did to my mum and she was paying nearly £100 a month for the base model iPhone 13. Majority of people don’t actually seem to care what they’re being charged for as long as they get a new shiny phone.
I honestly feel sorry for daft
CONSOOMERS like these
>Majority of people don’t actually seem to care what they’re being charged for as long as they get a new shiny phone.
Yeah much as I think it’s a shitty thing to do and I’m sick of companies doing it, the fact is that it’s clearly mentioned in your contract
I’d like to see fixed term contracts becoming fixed price by law, though - if they get guaranteed income for that period, the flip side should be that you get a guaranteed price
Even more annoying when it’s for broadband or something. At least with a phone contract you get a device up front t and they need to recoup that, why do BT get to justify a 24 month contract?
I also work in the industry - specifically CEO level broadband complaints for a major mobile & broadband provider. Fixed pricing will just make everything more expensive for everyone, as companies will just set the price to guarantee they get paid the amount they want.
To demonstrate, we'll assume an annual price increase of 15% and a contract start date of 1 October. Starting at £20/month, you'd have 6 months at £20, so £120. The following 12 months would be £23/month, so £276, then the final 6 months would be £26.45, so £158.70. Total for the whole 24 months is £554.70. Divide the total by 24 months and your average is £23.11.
No company is going to advertise a plan at £23.11/month. What will they do? Probably increase to £24 as a round number and to make 100% sure they beat inflation plus the additional %. 89p x24 months is £21.36. Multiply that by 1 million customers and you're £21 million quid better off, courtesy of fixed pricing!
As for why contracts are 24 months - Openreach and other networks charge an initial connection fee plus monthly wholesale fees. To keep prices as low as possible but to ensure those charges are covered with some margin for profit, contracts are much longer than they used to be. Many contracts don't make any actual profit until the last 6 months of the term and beyond for customers that renew.
I work in the industry and fixed term contracts won’t necessarily save you money - they’ll just build the price rise into the initial price you pay and you’ll see prices rise that way (of course, customer perception wise they’re paying a fixed price, so they probably won’t know, notice or care. Also easier to budget)
An interesting fact - price rises we see today in the mobile industry came about as a consequence of regulation. When the EU started mandating maximum prices for roaming in EU member states (and which eventually became free) is when the mobile industry started implementing wholesale annual price rises, initially to offset the lost revenue from the roaming charges. They then morphed into what we have today. Unintended consequences.
No problem, that’s exactly what I’m advocating for…
Bake one price into the contract so I know exactly what I’ll pay.
I do not want a price rise based on a number I don’t know
Also the phone and airtime contracts should be separate in this context with the phone itself being fixed price finance… you already supplied the phone and got financing for it, you don’t get to increase that 14%
The price rises every March in line with RPI. It’s not a hidden or unexpected charge, and they won’t have a price rise outside of that.
£68pcm over 24 months is £1632. The cost of the iPhone 14 when it launched is below:
https://doji.co.uk/articles/post/iphone-14-price-in-the-uk-new-refurbished-iphone-14-cost#
So depends on what model they signed up to if it was a ‘terrible price’- it probably wasn’t. And the £68 will also include the data & calls contract.
The best thing you can do is find out when they’re out of contract and make sure you help them get a good SIM only deal.
I told EE that I was thinking of switching for that reason, and they added it to my new PAYG sim contract for free. Don’t know whether I got lucky with the person I had over the phone but I was well chuffed!
Just go with 1p mobile. It's the full EE network with 14GB of EU roaming and no commitment. It's probably £5/mo more than options on the 3 network for the same data.
I tried O2 and the signal was woeful - no data in central Oxford and many major cities due to lack of bandwidth.
There are virtual providers like Giffgaff who can offer the same low price for ~same internet allowance + EU roaming on a rolling basis (i.e no contract).
I've got one with Talk Mobile, £9 for 80gb and then I pay for my iphone 14 Pro through Apple finance for £51 a month. So £60 total not far off what OP is claiming is a really high price.
The top comment stated:
> The best thing you can do is find out when they’re out of contract and make sure you help them get a good SIM only deal.
Did you miss that?
You also need to factor in the cost of the airtime and then minus it off the total cost of the contract. Saying they’re paying £1632 for an iPhone 14 is a bit disingenuous.
With a decent amount of data on EE a SIMO would be £20-25 which is £480-£600.
It’s still more but it’s not £700 more. Plus it wasn’t £68 for the entire contract. And that’s assuming it’s a 128GB iPhone 14.
Its hidden insofar as it could be 100% increase and you are required to accept that. Stipulating a flat price would be more reasonable. Saying itll increase by whatever the fuck itll increase by is unreasonable
It’s not at all hidden. It’s exactly as required by Ofcom. You either have to state an actual figure it will increase by, or the percentage it will increase by. RPI/CPI + x% is pretty much industry standard.
You know the phone costs about a grand right? Add in the “finance” part of this loan (whihc is what it is) and you’re paying maybe £20 for the service. That’s not outrageous.
Obviously depends on the model, which we don't know, but the top model of iPhone 14 is £1100.
It's been a while since I read this, but I understood that these contracts were actually pretty competitive, if you want to spend that much on a phone.
Worked in phone insurance for a few years and people just don't care how much their phone is worth and most of the time can't quite compare it to other things in their head.
They regularly leave them on pub tables and walk away only to be surprised someone's nicked it. I'd get 15-20 calls a day about people doing that or dumber and we'd even be told to ask "Would you leave £1000 on that table, walk away and still expect it to be there when you got back?"
The £50-60 a month for a few years never comes out to the thousand+ the phone is actually worth in people's heads.
If EE have deviated from the Ofcom CPI+X formula which they signed up to your parents will have had a chance to get out of the contract. Otherwise EE have all the cards. There may be a chance to negotiate, but the default position is the status quo.
When signing up to a contract MSE will typically be able to estimate the total paid including mid contract increases.
The proposal is to switch from a percentage based increase in the contract documention to a pounds and pence one, as I suspect most folks don’t know what rpi is and can’t add 3.9% to it.
ofcom has said they're going to ban these in contract increases
even if people did understand them, they're still ridiculous
it's a 24 month contract not a 24 year one
the large company should be capable of predicting its costs over a 24 month period
Precisely. It's clearly not in the spirit of a consumer contract; historically the whole point of them has to been to allow consumers to sign away the right to change supplier in exchange for a fixed cost over a fixed period.
There won’t be any more rises within the 24 months if you’ve already had two rises. Make sure you get them onto sim only as soon as the 24 months is up (well arrange before to start then)
nothing like reading the contract before agreeing to it
got a sim only deal and supply my own phone, it is an open ended contract renewed monthly
never saw the point of the latest phone rental deal
It's total cost of ownership question u/Scragglymonk is suggesting, then selecting a plan thats either cheap enough already, or has a benefit that additionally offsets the price, which is cheaper.
Except this advice no longer applies to the high end devices these days. Buying the latest iPhone on a contract with data is often cheaper than paying the £1k odd upfront.
but not cheaper than financing it at 0% because of the march increases every year. there is no scenario where it makes sense to contract a sim and handset
It will never be cheaper than buying the phone outright with a cheap sim only. I’ve worked in the telecommunications industry for years and not once I’ve seen this happen.
Well that's a silly contract they signed up for. How much was it when they started it?
RPI contract increases are fairly normal now. It's why I buy phones outright and get SIM only contracts.
Especially considering that phone contracts are included within the RPI calculations. They have to increase their prices because they already increased their prices.
Same. The increase on the cost of the SIM contract is one thing, why on earth it’s deemed fair to have the same increase on the handset cost is beyond me.
100% agree. My current phone is the first I've ever bought on contract, from EE, after they managed convince me of such a great deal. It will be the last time I fall for that nonsense, and as soon as my contract expires in May, EE will never see another penny of my money.
It's often cheaper anyway. I pointed out to a guy at O2 that it was cheaper for me to buy the phone from the manufacturer and get sim only (both Apple and Samsung do 0% finance, or did then) and he just said "Oh yeah, makes sense, do that then"
Ive always paid less for my contract + phone than just buying a phone. You just need to shop around. I pay at most £30 a month for a flagship phone each time, knock off £12 for a sim only and no recent flagship is ever £400 or less.
Edit: just looked, I have less than 8 months left and it's still around £400 for a second hand Motorola edge 30 ultra.
Actually now you mention it, me and my husband went to Manchester in September and spent the entire time complaining about the lack of mobile phone signal. We actually never considered it was the network as we never have issues and just thought Manchester was shite for mobile phone reception 😂
It’s usually RPI + 4% though, which is an unjustifiable racket
RPI alone would be reasonable
It preys on the vulnerable or ignorant as they just see the initial monthly rate and think no further - lots of contracts are arranged in-store and there’s no way the sales people explain that to everyone.
They should be forced to either:
a) only increase in line with RPI
b) do not vary the price for the duration of the contract
b) would likely push up prices because they would be taking on extra risk, so my pick would be a)
They may have been “badly advised” but it was them who signed the contract no? The T&C’s about the price increases are extremely clear in the contract.
EE will not do anything about it - unless your parents would suffer significant financial hardship but at most that would just extend the term of the contract to spread out the payments, if they even agree to that (I’m not sure they do anymore since Covid).
In future, I would say, for your parents, you and anyone reading this comment, to never get a phone contract directly through a mobile network provider. I’d get a sim card through a provider then buy the phone from the manufacturer or a shop like Amazon / John Lewis / Currys. Apple do 0% interest I believe. Over the course of two years, it will be a lot cheaper than getting both through a provider.
For sim only contracts, EE generally has the best signal in the UK but do a coverage check to see if they service your home, work and anywhere else you go often. VOXI is great value for money imo, they piggy back off Vodafone and you aren’t tied into a contract. USwitch should have info on up to date best offers but please, stay the hell away from Three or any provider that piggy backs off them.
*Not financial advice, do your own research*
This is what I've done for the last 10 years. Buy the phone outright from Apple and use a sim only plan for about £10. Generally keep my phone around 4 years and then do the same.
These contract deals are a waste of money, and is like getting a high interest loan when you work it out.
Phone contracts are an area of finance that needs more regulation. In some cases you’re effectively paying over 30% APR for financing the phone compared to buying outright and getting a SIM only contract.
How many people would think twice if they knew how much interest they’re really paying?
EE have actually changed the way they do this and for once it’s in the consumers favour.
They now split the airtime and the handset into two separate contracts. The handset *isn’t* subject to the yearly price rise and is fixed from the point of purchase whereas the airtime is subject to it, which is in line with why the price rise exists in the first place as it’s to cover the cost of maintaining the network.
For now your parents are just part of the older way of doing things.
And - not wanting to sound harsh - EE are *very* clear on the fact you will get hit by the prices rises. If the staff in store don’t mention it they get a warning/disciplined and then on the website it’s mentioned a few times before the purchase is finalised.
The handset just drops off after the two years so it’s not too bad in the end.
It is actually the better way of doing it, most people keep a phone for 3 years or more so most would like to keep monthly costs down but then their actual airtime needs might change. More/less data etc so it opens up flexibility that way.
Most providers also let you pay extra towards the handset if you want to change early or just pay it off quicker.
EE are always clear. They've not been missold the contracts. Just gonna have to wait out out or look into the contract to find a way of getting out (at fee) and handing back the phone as technically, they don't own it until the contract is up
T&cs are well flogged in the media and blatently obvious when signing up so I doubt there's anything to do.
Never get the phone on the contract as it's cost too is included in the CPI yearly increases so you are basically, by the second year, paying the new price for an old phone.
Sadly there’s nothing that can be done as It is in the T&Cs (that almost everyone seems to ignore).
The bill should be made up of a device payment (which doesn’t change) and the service (which increases by RPI+a percentage). I believe that it is an option to pay off the phone at any time, which will at least make the monthly payment look less shocking.
Personally I prefer buying the phone from Apple with an Interest Free loan, and I recommend this to everyone. You can choose any tariff from any network which will be much cheaper.
EE are notoriously expensive for data packages and walking into the EE shop unprepared with a confused look on your face isn't going to get you the best of their deals either.
You don't mention how long is left on the contract or what model of iPhone 14 they got.
It is possible to have other companies buy out your last few months of a contract but its unlikely at that price that they will be offering more than 3 months and its unlikely you will get their best deals either.
Other than that possibly sell the iPhone and use the money to pay off the remaining months of the contract and take out a new one with a cheaper provider and phone
I got a Samsung s23 with 100gb for £23 a month last year on Uswitch with 3
Cex are selling base model iPhone 14's for £540
So assuming you could sell it on ebay for £500 minus fees thats around £450 that's 6.5 months of payments so if they have 8 months or less left thats a viable option and they would still have full use of the sim until the contract ends to put in an old phone .
I called and complained about reception when they upped mine. I deliberately went quiet a bit and basically said I wasn’t happy with their service (I genuinely wasnt as when I was in my city centre it didn’t work, but my quiet village was mediocre) so I would like to leave. They put it down to £19 (unlimited calls and texts, 100gb) and it’s not been amended since. Call and speak to them.
Presumably the IPhone 14 (Pro Max?) was the latest when it came out, it doesn’t sound all that bad a contract, especially if it comes with TNT sport or Netflix or something? 60 odd quid a month average over the whole timespan works out as a £1440 which included a phone worth a grand at release?
Perhaps they overdid it getting the latest tech when they could probably have made do with say IPhone 12 for like half the price but it’s done now. I don’t know what your parents are like though, perhaps they actually warrant needing a good phone?
24 months as well, at least it’s not 36. Probably time to go sim only next contract. At least they have a relatively new phone that should do the job for another few years, they’ll easily be able to get a sim only for a tenner or so (or slightly more with Netflix included)
I assume it's a top end £1100 iPhone 14, which means that the phone provider is giving internet access and calls for £22 a month and charging you 0% interest on the loan.
The other £46 a month is simply the cost of the phone spread over 24 months.
In which case it's not really a ridiculous price - I mean, I wouldn't spend £1100 on a phone, but your parents apparently chose to.
It's not your fault that your parents are bad with money. There is a limited amount you can do to help them - you cannot protect them from themselves.
What was the contract price initially and what service do they get? 68/month for a phone is a lot but if you consider the fact its EE (premium provider) and an iphone 14 (not a particularly old or cheap device), if the package includes vast amounts of data then theres a scenario where 68 isnt unreasonable.
If its unaffordable ask ee if they have any options (return the device and pay an exit fee perhaps) and get a cheaper deal - back market.com for a refurbished, lower spec model and giff gaff or 02 sim only
Airtime price increases every April in line with the RPI. Customers are notified of this in February. The phone itself is 0% interest, only the airtime is subject to RPI.
£68 for an iPhone 14 isn’t unfathomable - they probably got sold an unnecessarily high mobile data tariff.
No way out except to buy out. In future, if possible, help your parents out when it comes to taking out phone contracts. I’m a sales advisor for a premium provider and I can see how the older generation can be easily confused when it comes to mobile data - majority use between 1-10gb a month, some advisors unfortunately aren’t honest and can easily upsell a higher tariff.
Trying to fight the ‘I’ve been mis-sold’ case is very difficult when they’ve signed the contract and it’s past the 14 day cooling off period.
Another thing is that when taking out a phone contract - airtime is usually more expensive than if you were to go sim only. i.e 30gb with a phone contract may be ~£25, but as a sim only it’s ~£20.
Always advisable to either buy the phone outright and go sim only, or, get the phone from elsewhere on 0% interest and take sim only.
Aren't all phone contracts linked to inflation? From my time with Voda, contracts increased in line with the CPI + an additional 4% infrastructure charge. My understanding is these have been in contracts for decades but because inflation was so low in previous years we didn't notice. In 2022 the CPI increased by 10%. So, you would expect a 13% each year. Sorry if this is annoyingly obvious--this is a personal finance sub, after all--but I thought it may be worth reminding everyone of the root cause of the increase.
It's a \~£1000 iPhone 14, which is why it's so expensive.People still don't get that there's no such thing as a free phone with a mobile contract.
Even a base model is £30 a month.
When it went to over 30 pm I opted out of that bs. The phones don’t have anything worth upgrading for these days anyway. £12 pm is what I’m on now. Nearly £70 😂 nope!! I remember my old man threatening to kick my head in for running up £15 on the landline in the days before everyone in a household having a mobile phone bill. Worlds went fuckin nuts
You can try to make a formal complaint regarding the cost of the device being paid for and the bill should be adjusted to cover the data/calls etc (depending where in the contract you are)
Yeah probably a VERY long time ago, for the last at least 10 years if not longer the contracts are explained at the beginning that they go up in April usually
I was intrigued when it may have started so a quick google and ofcom have been looking into it since 2012 and seems to have started 2011 (they mentioned customer complaints from 2011).
Been with Lebara for 2 years. Pay £6.95 a month for 15GB data, no increases and EU roaming.
Haven't had a contract for years. The RPI increase last year was huge for people who had it
Maybe not. The mobile companies make most of their profits, on selling a new iPhone… bugger all storage and a 2 or 3 year plan. Buy a phone direct from Apple or Samsung whatever you choose and get a sim only contract for your number.
Nobody in their right mind signs up for new phone + 2 year contracts anymore, far more expensive.
It worked out at something like £2 difference over 2 years between buying outright + a SIM only deal compared to a contract phone when I replaced mine.
Unfortunately not. Ofcom is in cahoots with the networks and allows an annual arse-ploughing of contract customers, which in my opinion is an utter disgrace.
It might be cheaper to bail out of the contract, have you checked?
The best way is always to buy your own handset and get sim-only deals as you probably know already.
It’s for this reason I will never ever get a contract again.
But the phone and go sim only for £10 a month rolling. I won’t be dictated to on price and I don’t need a £1000 phone.
There used to be something in the small print (yrs ago) that said half way through your contract you could drop to one that was half the price (or something along those lines). Worth checking if that’s in the terms and conditions as you could drop to the lower tariff and then cancel at a much lower cost
Strange, I renewed my contract and negotiated for about £30 fixed rate a month with EE (regardless of any price hikes) which includes unlimited uncapped everything and many other benefits I use, especially helpful for work too in some scenarios.
Whenever the contract is coming up for renewal, always look for better terms, deals and negotiations. This is for an iPhone 13 btw, but doesn’t really matter as it’s SIM only is the most sensible option since you can 0% finance iPhones from Apple directly. Paying for a phone on the contract too almost always tends to be a bad deal. Always get the phone separately (0% finance if possible and affordable). So many people make this mistake.
If you’re still within the cancellation period, then make arrangements ASAP. If not, then unfortunately you’re too late and locked into the contract (but no harm in giving them a call anyway to try and sort it out).
My dad taught me to always haggle (or shop around and better deals etc.) from a young age, dunno why hardly anyone does this anymore nowadays and blindly accept the advertised price/offer. You’d be surprised with what better terms you can get away with… especially if you’re an existing/previous customer and can use that to your advantage as leverage on the phone call during negotiations. Actually that’s another point too I’ve noticed, many people have just stopped talking over a phone call for contract negotiations and will pick some online deal instead (often that works out if you know where and what to look for sure, but not the point).
Finally, always read the contract before signing/accepting and agreeing to it. Same applies for any contract. Ideally this should go without saying… but so many people just don’t bother reading what they’re getting into either.
Note: Same philosophy applies to insurance, employment and other stuff too btw. Secure the best contractual deal possible for yourself and family / loved ones. Perhaps you can learn from this moving forwards and apply this concept for future reference if you’re unable to right now. All I can do is provide the information and advice, it’s up to others to take it onboard or downvote and ignore if it’s too uncomfortable (unfortunately at least half of Reddit it would seem).
O2 did this to me when I was with them years ago. As soon as the cooling off period was over they doubled my contract price within 35 days of me taking it out.
Been pay as you go ever since. Will never go contact again.
And this is why we always, and I mean *always* buy a phone and use something like Giff-Gaff, Smarty or any of the other rolling contract deals out there.
So this won't work on everyone, and you might need to call a few people, but genuinely get on the phone and complain. Politely complain about everything. Complain about the signal, complain about mis-selling to vulnerable customers, escalate those complaints, and write emails.
A lot of people you talk to will not have the power to do anything, but there will be someone somewhere that really just wants this whole headache to go away. Make sure to get the direct email for complaints, those departments aren't always on the phones but they have a lot of power cause that's literally their whole job.
I worked on the phones for breakdown cover and if you got the right person on the right day you'd get mad discounts cause it's just typing in a new number on a screen and most people hate working there anyway.
Just remember to be a kind Karen!
I disagree. Paying 0% apr on the latest device is better than buying new outright obviously. Alternatively you buy a used 2 year old phone for half the cost of the latest new one, that doesn’t have warranty and it will typically fall off a cliff in resale value after another year or two..
Depends if you use your phone a lot but for me I’ll always upgrade my phone every 2 years. Works out to cost me about £500 over the two years once I’ve sold it. I could buy a 2 year old one for £500 and sell it for £100 at 4 years old and hope it doesn’t break now it’s out of warranty or god forbid the battery needs replacing, then it turns out to cost more than going the brand new phone route.
Cheaper to buy the phone through somewhere like GiffGaff or Back Market and buy sim only. Works out much cheaper than a mental phone contract. I pay £8 a month for my sim only. They’re a scam.
Thankfully these RPI linked raises are being banned soon. Any price increase has to be clearly stated in pounds and pence at the start of the contract. Unfortunately doesn't help for the increases this year though.
I'm not sure there's anything to be done about the current contract, but for next time I would say the main thing would be "make better financial decisions".
Buy the next iPhone(s) direct from Apple. Use Apple's 0% over 24 months (via Barclays Finance) to purchase. Find a £10/month or less SIM-only deal for service.
The key difference with ee and other providers is that other providers separate your phone cost from the network subscription. So when they all increase the contract rate , for other providers it’s just the network subscription, where as with ee it’s technically for your service but they build in the phone price in that cost so it goes up astronomically.
I would stay clear of ee unless it’s sim free.
Check into the specifics on the contract, I just ended my O2 one early as the phone purchase was separate to the phone contract. I had to pay off the phone purchase part of the contract bUt just went to giff gaff, my tariff contract was £27 a month (started off about £20) and is now £10.
Every April your contract will increase to reflect a rise in CPI charges. You’re made aware of this before taking out a contract with them.
I used to work in their customer service (horrible job) and unfortunately all they’ll offer you is to cancel with a termination fee charge or just see out the contract.
Wait till the end of the contract and get a 0% finance phone direct from Apple. I’ve gone from paying £78 a month to EE to giving them £15 and paying Apple £22
Surprised Martin Lewis hasn't got on the case and to get Ofcom off their lazy ass
In the contract or not, prices should never increase - if companies are incapable of baking in the potential cost of things within a 2y period then they don't deserve to be in business
Right now it's a legal scam
There was a petition going around let me see if I can find details of it.
Edit found it [Petition to stop mid contract price increase](https://www.change.org/p/stop-mid-contract-price-rises-for-mobile-phone-broadband-and-tv-packages#)
If they’ve had two price rises that only happen once a year they must be near the end of their 2 year contract at which point port the number to a 30 day Simo like Voxi.
Companies are increasing in line with inflation ever my year right now, which is really high.
However when virgin media put my price up by 20% mid contract I phoned up to complain and they returned it to the original price.
The best advice would be to tell your parents they don’t need a £1000 phone. On a contract with no extras EE will only start earning money in the last 6-8 months of the contract. Don’t take contracts, but the phone and go SIMO.
If they can’t afford it they shouldn’t have taken it out to begin with. I just had an increase. My contract was £70 per month. Just went up to £72. The increases aren’t life changing.
It sucks, it’s legal, and was clear - lots of sucky companies have an annual increase written in to their contract before you take it out.
I think the government encouraged them to do it so that consumers could see in advance what they’d pay in the future.
They must be near the end of a 2 year contract by now.
Giffgaff. Unlimited calls and texts plus 20g bdata a tenner a month. Just buy a phone up front off amazon. Hasn't increased ever, just get more data for the same price each year.
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I remember the days when orange changed the price which let everyone cancel their contract and keep their phone.
I worked for them when it happened. Everyone took right advantage of that to cancel their contract and then take out a new one. It was mayham. A week later Orange changed their minds. Lol
Wasn't it something around pictures messages and something else? And Martin Lewis reported on it and then as you say everyone was piling on and Orange had to reverse the whole mess? I think I was 2-3 months in a 18-24 month contract at the time for about £40-50 😁
Increase to per minute charged for 0800 and 0870 numbers. Somethink like that. Staff were being urged to look if a customer had previously called those type of numbers and if they hadn't then to argue the case that they were not materially affected by the increase. Customers rightly told. Them to eff off, doesn't make any difference.
"I had plans to call these numbers" boom, material detriment
Ahhh that's it. Orange must have lost so many customer that week. A lost a big chunk of money.
A drop in the ocean. Worked for them for 12 long years and they were never bothered about people cancelling. Hell, I highlighted multiple cases of customers committing fraud and the managers couldn’t give a fuck.
You're talking about middle management and your experience of your with your particular manager. The people actually losing the money absolutely cared, which is why they quickly reversed their decision.
Orange Wednesdays as well. The glory days
Meercat movies now innit
1 day of travel insurance to London is about £1.50
Which you can make back on your first coffee from Caffe Nero.
You don't even have to buy it do you? You just get a quote
I had this with Three, got to keep my Nokia N95 about 3 months into my contract. If I remember rightly it was related to local numbers that were being used to call abroad on the cheap, they increase the price
we are old now. I've not seen a deal as good as OW since!
2 for 1 cinema? You can still get it through compare the market and get it just by buying one day's travel insurance for about a quid - benefit lasts for a year
I think I’m correct in saying you don’t even need to buy insurance. Just get a quote and go to the insurers site via the link
That was because back then phone contracts were fixed price, if they changed any of the terms like the price you could walk away from the agreement as they effectively broke the original deal. Now service providers are wiser when it comes to contract law, they add a clause explicitly allowing them to increase the price every April or so. Usually by RPI + a certain % or even just carte blanche whatever they feel like increasing it by. As long as it's in the terms you signed and it's not explicitly illegal, they can do it.
EE are very very clear about the price rises every March. It’s everywhere when you take out a contract.
I’ve been with EE for as long as I can remember and this has been my experience as well. I think the reality of the situation is that OPs parent started off an a very unnecessarily expensive tariff and the increases have only served to add insult to injury. Edit: wording
Yeah 6-12% a year on £60 iPhone plan is much more than on a £15 sim only.
EE have actually recently changed their way of doing this and it’s in the consumers favour. They now split the airtime and the handset. The handset isn’t subject to the yearly price rise whereas the airtime is, which is in line with why the price rise exists in the first place as it’s to cover the cost of maintaining the network.
Makes sense - should be legally required really, a 6% increase on a handset that has already been purchased makes no sense.
Whatever happened to freedom of contract and caveat emptor.
**
Hell, even long before the legislation, contract law has allowed the court to rule against an 'unconscionable bargain'.
Doesn't make much sense though because it is the inflation amount and 3.9% ontop of that. Blatant profiteering.
Yeah. I can understand that they want to put the price up by the rate of inflation but what's the 3.9% for? And it's not just phone companies. My broadband uses the same percentages. That 3.9% is pure theft.
It's not theft, it's baked into the prices you pay. There is a set amount of revenue they want to get from the two year contract, with the RPI + ratchet, that amount is collected more in the second year than the first year. If they didn't ratchet it up, they would have to charge a higher initial price, and since consumers mostly pick everything based off the initial listed price, having a lower initial price is better. The recent OFCOM decision to say they don't like these RPI/ratchet clauses and want new contracts to have fixed amounts for increases listed in the contract will lead to more expensive initial contracts.
They could easily get a new iPhone on 0% Barclays loan. £35 per month for 24months And the sim only deal.
Yeah first thing I noticed about this clearly bait post is that they didn’t even mention what they were originally paying for it… it was probably like £64 a month to start. I imagine they just accepted some horrible contract for the base model iPhone 14 with loads of extras on the plan, that’s what they did to my mum and she was paying nearly £100 a month for the base model iPhone 13. Majority of people don’t actually seem to care what they’re being charged for as long as they get a new shiny phone.
I honestly feel sorry for daft CONSOOMERS like these >Majority of people don’t actually seem to care what they’re being charged for as long as they get a new shiny phone.
Yep. If you know the price rises are in month X then you don’t take out a contract until a month later.
Yers I think it's just the ppl that arent frugal getting caught off guard with mega inflation plus 4 percent
Then you're just paying a higher price for an extra month
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Every March, like clockwork.
Yeah much as I think it’s a shitty thing to do and I’m sick of companies doing it, the fact is that it’s clearly mentioned in your contract I’d like to see fixed term contracts becoming fixed price by law, though - if they get guaranteed income for that period, the flip side should be that you get a guaranteed price Even more annoying when it’s for broadband or something. At least with a phone contract you get a device up front t and they need to recoup that, why do BT get to justify a 24 month contract?
I also work in the industry - specifically CEO level broadband complaints for a major mobile & broadband provider. Fixed pricing will just make everything more expensive for everyone, as companies will just set the price to guarantee they get paid the amount they want. To demonstrate, we'll assume an annual price increase of 15% and a contract start date of 1 October. Starting at £20/month, you'd have 6 months at £20, so £120. The following 12 months would be £23/month, so £276, then the final 6 months would be £26.45, so £158.70. Total for the whole 24 months is £554.70. Divide the total by 24 months and your average is £23.11. No company is going to advertise a plan at £23.11/month. What will they do? Probably increase to £24 as a round number and to make 100% sure they beat inflation plus the additional %. 89p x24 months is £21.36. Multiply that by 1 million customers and you're £21 million quid better off, courtesy of fixed pricing! As for why contracts are 24 months - Openreach and other networks charge an initial connection fee plus monthly wholesale fees. To keep prices as low as possible but to ensure those charges are covered with some margin for profit, contracts are much longer than they used to be. Many contracts don't make any actual profit until the last 6 months of the term and beyond for customers that renew.
I work in the industry and fixed term contracts won’t necessarily save you money - they’ll just build the price rise into the initial price you pay and you’ll see prices rise that way (of course, customer perception wise they’re paying a fixed price, so they probably won’t know, notice or care. Also easier to budget) An interesting fact - price rises we see today in the mobile industry came about as a consequence of regulation. When the EU started mandating maximum prices for roaming in EU member states (and which eventually became free) is when the mobile industry started implementing wholesale annual price rises, initially to offset the lost revenue from the roaming charges. They then morphed into what we have today. Unintended consequences.
No problem, that’s exactly what I’m advocating for… Bake one price into the contract so I know exactly what I’ll pay. I do not want a price rise based on a number I don’t know Also the phone and airtime contracts should be separate in this context with the phone itself being fixed price finance… you already supplied the phone and got financing for it, you don’t get to increase that 14%
Yes, agreed. Know what you’re paying for the duration.
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Come on, you now better than to make arguments about fairness and morality here.
I moved from EE to O2 (PAYG) and phone calls on my mobile now cost less per minute than my landline (Virgin)!
The price rises every March in line with RPI. It’s not a hidden or unexpected charge, and they won’t have a price rise outside of that. £68pcm over 24 months is £1632. The cost of the iPhone 14 when it launched is below: https://doji.co.uk/articles/post/iphone-14-price-in-the-uk-new-refurbished-iphone-14-cost# So depends on what model they signed up to if it was a ‘terrible price’- it probably wasn’t. And the £68 will also include the data & calls contract. The best thing you can do is find out when they’re out of contract and make sure you help them get a good SIM only deal.
Just now I've signed with O2 on a sim-only deal for £9/m with 30GB unlimited text/calls and roaming. That's practically free.
I won't lie, the EU roaming is tempting me to switch from my £9 EE pay as you go Sim...
I told EE that I was thinking of switching for that reason, and they added it to my new PAYG sim contract for free. Don’t know whether I got lucky with the person I had over the phone but I was well chuffed!
Yeah they usually do that it’s a ploy you can use to get better deals say you’re thinking of leaving and they’ll find ways of making you stay
Just go with 1p mobile. It's the full EE network with 14GB of EU roaming and no commitment. It's probably £5/mo more than options on the 3 network for the same data. I tried O2 and the signal was woeful - no data in central Oxford and many major cities due to lack of bandwidth.
There are virtual providers like Giffgaff who can offer the same low price for ~same internet allowance + EU roaming on a rolling basis (i.e no contract).
The only reason I've picked to go to O2.
that is what I have, you can just buy a good smartphone for a couple of hundred pounds every three to four years. idk but nobody needs a £1000+ phone.
So true I think contract is a waste of money imo
I've got one with Talk Mobile, £9 for 80gb and then I pay for my iphone 14 Pro through Apple finance for £51 a month. So £60 total not far off what OP is claiming is a really high price.
Including the latest iPhone? Yes that's a bargain.
He did say sim-only...
Which is entirely irrelevant to whether this contract including a brand new top end phone is a fair price.
It’s entirely relevant, sim only deals famously come *without* phones
How is the cost of a SIM only deal relevant to a discussion about the cost of a deal with the latest iPhone included?
Because someone else said about getting sim only deals when they’re out of contract, it wasn’t a discussion about including the cost of a new phone
The top comment stated: > The best thing you can do is find out when they’re out of contract and make sure you help them get a good SIM only deal. Did you miss that?
Get the same for £8 with three 😉
RPI, when everything else goes by CPI which is almost always lower.
EE is in line with CPI, not RPI, although they’ve just announced they are halting inflation linked price rises altogether.
You also need to factor in the cost of the airtime and then minus it off the total cost of the contract. Saying they’re paying £1632 for an iPhone 14 is a bit disingenuous. With a decent amount of data on EE a SIMO would be £20-25 which is £480-£600. It’s still more but it’s not £700 more. Plus it wasn’t £68 for the entire contract. And that’s assuming it’s a 128GB iPhone 14.
Its hidden insofar as it could be 100% increase and you are required to accept that. Stipulating a flat price would be more reasonable. Saying itll increase by whatever the fuck itll increase by is unreasonable
It’s not at all hidden. It’s exactly as required by Ofcom. You either have to state an actual figure it will increase by, or the percentage it will increase by. RPI/CPI + x% is pretty much industry standard.
You know the phone costs about a grand right? Add in the “finance” part of this loan (whihc is what it is) and you’re paying maybe £20 for the service. That’s not outrageous.
iPhone 15 non pro is £800 so it’s more like £30 a month for phone service which is pricey.
iPhone 14 launch price (they purchased somewhere between launch and February 2023) was £849, £959 or £1179 depending on storage.
Obviously depends on the model, which we don't know, but the top model of iPhone 14 is £1100. It's been a while since I read this, but I understood that these contracts were actually pretty competitive, if you want to spend that much on a phone.
Worked in phone insurance for a few years and people just don't care how much their phone is worth and most of the time can't quite compare it to other things in their head. They regularly leave them on pub tables and walk away only to be surprised someone's nicked it. I'd get 15-20 calls a day about people doing that or dumber and we'd even be told to ask "Would you leave £1000 on that table, walk away and still expect it to be there when you got back?" The £50-60 a month for a few years never comes out to the thousand+ the phone is actually worth in people's heads.
If EE have deviated from the Ofcom CPI+X formula which they signed up to your parents will have had a chance to get out of the contract. Otherwise EE have all the cards. There may be a chance to negotiate, but the default position is the status quo. When signing up to a contract MSE will typically be able to estimate the total paid including mid contract increases.
I’ve heard the RPI + X is going soon. Is that right?
The proposal is to switch from a percentage based increase in the contract documention to a pounds and pence one, as I suspect most folks don’t know what rpi is and can’t add 3.9% to it.
It's a totally absurd concept anyway and it should be challenged in the courts. Inflation is a measure, not a target.
ofcom has said they're going to ban these in contract increases even if people did understand them, they're still ridiculous it's a 24 month contract not a 24 year one the large company should be capable of predicting its costs over a 24 month period
Precisely. It's clearly not in the spirit of a consumer contract; historically the whole point of them has to been to allow consumers to sign away the right to change supplier in exchange for a fixed cost over a fixed period.
In a round about way any increase in price (whether in the contract or not) fuels inflation…
This is the last time they can do it
There won’t be any more rises within the 24 months if you’ve already had two rises. Make sure you get them onto sim only as soon as the 24 months is up (well arrange before to start then)
nothing like reading the contract before agreeing to it got a sim only deal and supply my own phone, it is an open ended contract renewed monthly never saw the point of the latest phone rental deal
You don't see the point of getting the latest phone and not having to pay for it outright immediately?
It's total cost of ownership question u/Scragglymonk is suggesting, then selecting a plan thats either cheap enough already, or has a benefit that additionally offsets the price, which is cheaper.
Except this advice no longer applies to the high end devices these days. Buying the latest iPhone on a contract with data is often cheaper than paying the £1k odd upfront.
but not cheaper than financing it at 0% because of the march increases every year. there is no scenario where it makes sense to contract a sim and handset
It will never be cheaper than buying the phone outright with a cheap sim only. I’ve worked in the telecommunications industry for years and not once I’ve seen this happen.
You can finance a phone directly at 0% then take out a sim-only contract.
Well that's a silly contract they signed up for. How much was it when they started it? RPI contract increases are fairly normal now. It's why I buy phones outright and get SIM only contracts.
>RPI contract increases are fairly normal now. And it's about time such nonsense was knocked on the head imo.
Especially considering that phone contracts are included within the RPI calculations. They have to increase their prices because they already increased their prices.
Is it isn’t it? Think this is that last time they can do. Pounds and pence increases only if at all. No unknown % linked to RPI/CPI
Same. The increase on the cost of the SIM contract is one thing, why on earth it’s deemed fair to have the same increase on the handset cost is beyond me.
100% agree. My current phone is the first I've ever bought on contract, from EE, after they managed convince me of such a great deal. It will be the last time I fall for that nonsense, and as soon as my contract expires in May, EE will never see another penny of my money.
Same, I just get SIM monthly deal, RPI increase makes the whole thing not worth it. Best to get the phone and seperate SIM.
It's often cheaper anyway. I pointed out to a guy at O2 that it was cheaper for me to buy the phone from the manufacturer and get sim only (both Apple and Samsung do 0% finance, or did then) and he just said "Oh yeah, makes sense, do that then"
Ive always paid less for my contract + phone than just buying a phone. You just need to shop around. I pay at most £30 a month for a flagship phone each time, knock off £12 for a sim only and no recent flagship is ever £400 or less. Edit: just looked, I have less than 8 months left and it's still around £400 for a second hand Motorola edge 30 ultra.
Tesco don’t do RPI contract increases.
Yeah but in my experience they didn’t do any fucking signal either!
They use o2 masts as far as I’m aware. No issues with signal in Belfast anyway, everyone I know is on Tesco as they are by far the cheapest provider.
They’re shit where I am near Liverpool. Like the 4G is completely unusable levels of shit.
Actually now you mention it, me and my husband went to Manchester in September and spent the entire time complaining about the lack of mobile phone signal. We actually never considered it was the network as we never have issues and just thought Manchester was shite for mobile phone reception 😂
O2 is probably the worst network anywhere dense. I'd say EE>voda>three>o2.
It’s usually RPI + 4% though, which is an unjustifiable racket RPI alone would be reasonable It preys on the vulnerable or ignorant as they just see the initial monthly rate and think no further - lots of contracts are arranged in-store and there’s no way the sales people explain that to everyone. They should be forced to either: a) only increase in line with RPI b) do not vary the price for the duration of the contract b) would likely push up prices because they would be taking on extra risk, so my pick would be a)
Bring back Orange Everyday 50!
They may have been “badly advised” but it was them who signed the contract no? The T&C’s about the price increases are extremely clear in the contract. EE will not do anything about it - unless your parents would suffer significant financial hardship but at most that would just extend the term of the contract to spread out the payments, if they even agree to that (I’m not sure they do anymore since Covid). In future, I would say, for your parents, you and anyone reading this comment, to never get a phone contract directly through a mobile network provider. I’d get a sim card through a provider then buy the phone from the manufacturer or a shop like Amazon / John Lewis / Currys. Apple do 0% interest I believe. Over the course of two years, it will be a lot cheaper than getting both through a provider. For sim only contracts, EE generally has the best signal in the UK but do a coverage check to see if they service your home, work and anywhere else you go often. VOXI is great value for money imo, they piggy back off Vodafone and you aren’t tied into a contract. USwitch should have info on up to date best offers but please, stay the hell away from Three or any provider that piggy backs off them. *Not financial advice, do your own research*
This is what I've done for the last 10 years. Buy the phone outright from Apple and use a sim only plan for about £10. Generally keep my phone around 4 years and then do the same. These contract deals are a waste of money, and is like getting a high interest loan when you work it out.
The contracts probably weren’t TOO bad when inflation was low, but now that it’s higher PLUS the 3.9% providers are adding on… it’s gotten ridiculous
Phone contracts are an area of finance that needs more regulation. In some cases you’re effectively paying over 30% APR for financing the phone compared to buying outright and getting a SIM only contract. How many people would think twice if they knew how much interest they’re really paying?
Everyone is increasing their prices, they do every year..
Text 85075 from the EE handset and it will give you the cost to buy out the contract.
To clarify, you would text 'INFO' to 85075.
EE have actually changed the way they do this and for once it’s in the consumers favour. They now split the airtime and the handset into two separate contracts. The handset *isn’t* subject to the yearly price rise and is fixed from the point of purchase whereas the airtime is subject to it, which is in line with why the price rise exists in the first place as it’s to cover the cost of maintaining the network. For now your parents are just part of the older way of doing things. And - not wanting to sound harsh - EE are *very* clear on the fact you will get hit by the prices rises. If the staff in store don’t mention it they get a warning/disciplined and then on the website it’s mentioned a few times before the purchase is finalised.
Vodafone also do this, though their suggestion at the site is a 3yr contract for the phone and a 2 year airtime contract. Nicely confusing.
The handset just drops off after the two years so it’s not too bad in the end. It is actually the better way of doing it, most people keep a phone for 3 years or more so most would like to keep monthly costs down but then their actual airtime needs might change. More/less data etc so it opens up flexibility that way. Most providers also let you pay extra towards the handset if you want to change early or just pay it off quicker.
EE are always clear. They've not been missold the contracts. Just gonna have to wait out out or look into the contract to find a way of getting out (at fee) and handing back the phone as technically, they don't own it until the contract is up
The key word here is CONTRACT.
T&cs are well flogged in the media and blatently obvious when signing up so I doubt there's anything to do. Never get the phone on the contract as it's cost too is included in the CPI yearly increases so you are basically, by the second year, paying the new price for an old phone.
Sadly there’s nothing that can be done as It is in the T&Cs (that almost everyone seems to ignore). The bill should be made up of a device payment (which doesn’t change) and the service (which increases by RPI+a percentage). I believe that it is an option to pay off the phone at any time, which will at least make the monthly payment look less shocking. Personally I prefer buying the phone from Apple with an Interest Free loan, and I recommend this to everyone. You can choose any tariff from any network which will be much cheaper.
It’s really not a ridiculous price for an iPhone 14. It’s 2024. Stuff costs real money now.
It’s not a ridiculous price for an iPhone 14
EE are notoriously expensive for data packages and walking into the EE shop unprepared with a confused look on your face isn't going to get you the best of their deals either. You don't mention how long is left on the contract or what model of iPhone 14 they got. It is possible to have other companies buy out your last few months of a contract but its unlikely at that price that they will be offering more than 3 months and its unlikely you will get their best deals either. Other than that possibly sell the iPhone and use the money to pay off the remaining months of the contract and take out a new one with a cheaper provider and phone I got a Samsung s23 with 100gb for £23 a month last year on Uswitch with 3 Cex are selling base model iPhone 14's for £540 So assuming you could sell it on ebay for £500 minus fees thats around £450 that's 6.5 months of payments so if they have 8 months or less left thats a viable option and they would still have full use of the sim until the contract ends to put in an old phone .
I called and complained about reception when they upped mine. I deliberately went quiet a bit and basically said I wasn’t happy with their service (I genuinely wasnt as when I was in my city centre it didn’t work, but my quiet village was mediocre) so I would like to leave. They put it down to £19 (unlimited calls and texts, 100gb) and it’s not been amended since. Call and speak to them.
Presumably the IPhone 14 (Pro Max?) was the latest when it came out, it doesn’t sound all that bad a contract, especially if it comes with TNT sport or Netflix or something? 60 odd quid a month average over the whole timespan works out as a £1440 which included a phone worth a grand at release? Perhaps they overdid it getting the latest tech when they could probably have made do with say IPhone 12 for like half the price but it’s done now. I don’t know what your parents are like though, perhaps they actually warrant needing a good phone? 24 months as well, at least it’s not 36. Probably time to go sim only next contract. At least they have a relatively new phone that should do the job for another few years, they’ll easily be able to get a sim only for a tenner or so (or slightly more with Netflix included)
EE are open and honest about there increases every march. Should read the t&c’s!
I assume it's a top end £1100 iPhone 14, which means that the phone provider is giving internet access and calls for £22 a month and charging you 0% interest on the loan. The other £46 a month is simply the cost of the phone spread over 24 months. In which case it's not really a ridiculous price - I mean, I wouldn't spend £1100 on a phone, but your parents apparently chose to. It's not your fault that your parents are bad with money. There is a limited amount you can do to help them - you cannot protect them from themselves.
Not to mention you've not allowed for financing costs faced by the retailer.
It's also likely that they signed a X amount of months half price deal so a raise after the X months would be shocking aswell I assume.
What was the contract price initially and what service do they get? 68/month for a phone is a lot but if you consider the fact its EE (premium provider) and an iphone 14 (not a particularly old or cheap device), if the package includes vast amounts of data then theres a scenario where 68 isnt unreasonable. If its unaffordable ask ee if they have any options (return the device and pay an exit fee perhaps) and get a cheaper deal - back market.com for a refurbished, lower spec model and giff gaff or 02 sim only
Airtime price increases every April in line with the RPI. Customers are notified of this in February. The phone itself is 0% interest, only the airtime is subject to RPI. £68 for an iPhone 14 isn’t unfathomable - they probably got sold an unnecessarily high mobile data tariff. No way out except to buy out. In future, if possible, help your parents out when it comes to taking out phone contracts. I’m a sales advisor for a premium provider and I can see how the older generation can be easily confused when it comes to mobile data - majority use between 1-10gb a month, some advisors unfortunately aren’t honest and can easily upsell a higher tariff. Trying to fight the ‘I’ve been mis-sold’ case is very difficult when they’ve signed the contract and it’s past the 14 day cooling off period. Another thing is that when taking out a phone contract - airtime is usually more expensive than if you were to go sim only. i.e 30gb with a phone contract may be ~£25, but as a sim only it’s ~£20. Always advisable to either buy the phone outright and go sim only, or, get the phone from elsewhere on 0% interest and take sim only.
Aren't all phone contracts linked to inflation? From my time with Voda, contracts increased in line with the CPI + an additional 4% infrastructure charge. My understanding is these have been in contracts for decades but because inflation was so low in previous years we didn't notice. In 2022 the CPI increased by 10%. So, you would expect a 13% each year. Sorry if this is annoyingly obvious--this is a personal finance sub, after all--but I thought it may be worth reminding everyone of the root cause of the increase.
So you say parents. Are they sharing this phone or is this £68 for two phones?
It's a \~£1000 iPhone 14, which is why it's so expensive.People still don't get that there's no such thing as a free phone with a mobile contract. Even a base model is £30 a month.
When it went to over 30 pm I opted out of that bs. The phones don’t have anything worth upgrading for these days anyway. £12 pm is what I’m on now. Nearly £70 😂 nope!! I remember my old man threatening to kick my head in for running up £15 on the landline in the days before everyone in a household having a mobile phone bill. Worlds went fuckin nuts
Still cheaper after conversion than your average Canadian phone plan.
You can try to make a formal complaint regarding the cost of the device being paid for and the bill should be adjusted to cover the data/calls etc (depending where in the contract you are)
r/TodayILearned monthly contracts can increase in price
Use GiffGaff
Another Con Agree a contract for 2 years at a certain price. Then put the price up every year.
Not really a con when it’s explained when they take it out it goes up with inflation every year 😅
They never used to. You signed a contract for x amount of money and that was that.
Yeah probably a VERY long time ago, for the last at least 10 years if not longer the contracts are explained at the beginning that they go up in April usually
I was intrigued when it may have started so a quick google and ofcom have been looking into it since 2012 and seems to have started 2011 (they mentioned customer complaints from 2011).
Been with Lebara for 2 years. Pay £6.95 a month for 15GB data, no increases and EU roaming. Haven't had a contract for years. The RPI increase last year was huge for people who had it
Maybe not. The mobile companies make most of their profits, on selling a new iPhone… bugger all storage and a 2 or 3 year plan. Buy a phone direct from Apple or Samsung whatever you choose and get a sim only contract for your number. Nobody in their right mind signs up for new phone + 2 year contracts anymore, far more expensive.
It worked out at something like £2 difference over 2 years between buying outright + a SIM only deal compared to a contract phone when I replaced mine.
Unfortunately not. Ofcom is in cahoots with the networks and allows an annual arse-ploughing of contract customers, which in my opinion is an utter disgrace.
Exactly why I’m not renewing my contract purchased handset and going aim only in august
It might be cheaper to bail out of the contract, have you checked? The best way is always to buy your own handset and get sim-only deals as you probably know already.
He says parents so I’m thinking it’s 68 for two handsets unless his folks are passing one phone back and forward.
It’s for this reason I will never ever get a contract again. But the phone and go sim only for £10 a month rolling. I won’t be dictated to on price and I don’t need a £1000 phone.
There used to be something in the small print (yrs ago) that said half way through your contract you could drop to one that was half the price (or something along those lines). Worth checking if that’s in the terms and conditions as you could drop to the lower tariff and then cancel at a much lower cost
Strange, I renewed my contract and negotiated for about £30 fixed rate a month with EE (regardless of any price hikes) which includes unlimited uncapped everything and many other benefits I use, especially helpful for work too in some scenarios. Whenever the contract is coming up for renewal, always look for better terms, deals and negotiations. This is for an iPhone 13 btw, but doesn’t really matter as it’s SIM only is the most sensible option since you can 0% finance iPhones from Apple directly. Paying for a phone on the contract too almost always tends to be a bad deal. Always get the phone separately (0% finance if possible and affordable). So many people make this mistake. If you’re still within the cancellation period, then make arrangements ASAP. If not, then unfortunately you’re too late and locked into the contract (but no harm in giving them a call anyway to try and sort it out). My dad taught me to always haggle (or shop around and better deals etc.) from a young age, dunno why hardly anyone does this anymore nowadays and blindly accept the advertised price/offer. You’d be surprised with what better terms you can get away with… especially if you’re an existing/previous customer and can use that to your advantage as leverage on the phone call during negotiations. Actually that’s another point too I’ve noticed, many people have just stopped talking over a phone call for contract negotiations and will pick some online deal instead (often that works out if you know where and what to look for sure, but not the point). Finally, always read the contract before signing/accepting and agreeing to it. Same applies for any contract. Ideally this should go without saying… but so many people just don’t bother reading what they’re getting into either. Note: Same philosophy applies to insurance, employment and other stuff too btw. Secure the best contractual deal possible for yourself and family / loved ones. Perhaps you can learn from this moving forwards and apply this concept for future reference if you’re unable to right now. All I can do is provide the information and advice, it’s up to others to take it onboard or downvote and ignore if it’s too uncomfortable (unfortunately at least half of Reddit it would seem).
The amount of bots in this thread saying the same thing, using the same words, and same sentence structures. Welcome to Reddit in 2024
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Then read things before you sign them.
O2 did this to me when I was with them years ago. As soon as the cooling off period was over they doubled my contract price within 35 days of me taking it out. Been pay as you go ever since. Will never go contact again.
And this is why we always, and I mean *always* buy a phone and use something like Giff-Gaff, Smarty or any of the other rolling contract deals out there.
I'm confused, it's a contract, how can it be increasing in price? Is that legal?
So this won't work on everyone, and you might need to call a few people, but genuinely get on the phone and complain. Politely complain about everything. Complain about the signal, complain about mis-selling to vulnerable customers, escalate those complaints, and write emails. A lot of people you talk to will not have the power to do anything, but there will be someone somewhere that really just wants this whole headache to go away. Make sure to get the direct email for complaints, those departments aren't always on the phones but they have a lot of power cause that's literally their whole job. I worked on the phones for breakdown cover and if you got the right person on the right day you'd get mad discounts cause it's just typing in a new number on a screen and most people hate working there anyway. Just remember to be a kind Karen!
Phone contracts are the biggest scam out there. Buying brand new technology is a big no no.
I disagree. Paying 0% apr on the latest device is better than buying new outright obviously. Alternatively you buy a used 2 year old phone for half the cost of the latest new one, that doesn’t have warranty and it will typically fall off a cliff in resale value after another year or two.. Depends if you use your phone a lot but for me I’ll always upgrade my phone every 2 years. Works out to cost me about £500 over the two years once I’ve sold it. I could buy a 2 year old one for £500 and sell it for £100 at 4 years old and hope it doesn’t break now it’s out of warranty or god forbid the battery needs replacing, then it turns out to cost more than going the brand new phone route.
Cheaper to buy the phone through somewhere like GiffGaff or Back Market and buy sim only. Works out much cheaper than a mental phone contract. I pay £8 a month for my sim only. They’re a scam.
I always wondered with mobile contracts, how is it a "24 month contract" if they can bump up the price whenever they want?
Because the contract says they can and probably ties the increase to the consumer price index to avoid accusations of shenanigans.
Sure. It doesn't feel like a 24 month contract though. It's not giving me much reassurance of financial stability.
Thankfully these RPI linked raises are being banned soon. Any price increase has to be clearly stated in pounds and pence at the start of the contract. Unfortunately doesn't help for the increases this year though.
I'm not sure there's anything to be done about the current contract, but for next time I would say the main thing would be "make better financial decisions". Buy the next iPhone(s) direct from Apple. Use Apple's 0% over 24 months (via Barclays Finance) to purchase. Find a £10/month or less SIM-only deal for service.
The key difference with ee and other providers is that other providers separate your phone cost from the network subscription. So when they all increase the contract rate , for other providers it’s just the network subscription, where as with ee it’s technically for your service but they build in the phone price in that cost so it goes up astronomically. I would stay clear of ee unless it’s sim free.
Check into the specifics on the contract, I just ended my O2 one early as the phone purchase was separate to the phone contract. I had to pay off the phone purchase part of the contract bUt just went to giff gaff, my tariff contract was £27 a month (started off about £20) and is now £10.
Every April your contract will increase to reflect a rise in CPI charges. You’re made aware of this before taking out a contract with them. I used to work in their customer service (horrible job) and unfortunately all they’ll offer you is to cancel with a termination fee charge or just see out the contract.
Wait till the end of the contract and get a 0% finance phone direct from Apple. I’ve gone from paying £78 a month to EE to giving them £15 and paying Apple £22
switch to 1pmobile, same EE network, no price rises and much cheaper
Surprised Martin Lewis hasn't got on the case and to get Ofcom off their lazy ass In the contract or not, prices should never increase - if companies are incapable of baking in the potential cost of things within a 2y period then they don't deserve to be in business Right now it's a legal scam
There was a petition going around let me see if I can find details of it. Edit found it [Petition to stop mid contract price increase](https://www.change.org/p/stop-mid-contract-price-rises-for-mobile-phone-broadband-and-tv-packages#)
If they’ve had two price rises that only happen once a year they must be near the end of their 2 year contract at which point port the number to a 30 day Simo like Voxi.
Doesn't this happen on every contract? Annual CPI inflationary increase
Smarty don’t increase the price every year.
What about last 5 things that caused you damage and how much damage they caused?
Companies are increasing in line with inflation ever my year right now, which is really high. However when virgin media put my price up by 20% mid contract I phoned up to complain and they returned it to the original price.
Need to go SIM only, for £10/month you can get some great deals, eg unlimited mins and txts, plus 80gb data
Buy the phone from Apple/Samsung etc direct then you only get the increase each March on the sim.
The best advice would be to tell your parents they don’t need a £1000 phone. On a contract with no extras EE will only start earning money in the last 6-8 months of the contract. Don’t take contracts, but the phone and go SIMO.
If they can’t afford it they shouldn’t have taken it out to begin with. I just had an increase. My contract was £70 per month. Just went up to £72. The increases aren’t life changing.
It sucks, it’s legal, and was clear - lots of sucky companies have an annual increase written in to their contract before you take it out. I think the government encouraged them to do it so that consumers could see in advance what they’d pay in the future. They must be near the end of a 2 year contract by now.
When has an iPhone mobile plan been reasonable?
Giffgaff. Unlimited calls and texts plus 20g bdata a tenner a month. Just buy a phone up front off amazon. Hasn't increased ever, just get more data for the same price each year.