O2 recently announced that they would write mid contract price increases into the actual T&C of their contract. This meant that anyone who wanted to sign up to an O2 contract after January 23rd would have to explicitly agree that they wouldn't mind O2 increasing their contract in line with RPI every March. The first price increase took place last month and allowed O2 to increase all customers line rental by 2.7%.
Ofcom have taken steps to try and ban mid contract price increase by introducing new rules which allow customers to cancel their contracts free of charge if a network attempts to increase the contract price during the minimum term. Whilst networks such as Three and Tesco have followed Ofcom guidelines and promised to stop mid contract price increases, O2 (as described above) found a loophole and continue to increase prices whilst not allowing their customers to cancel.
EE have recently announced they will be following in O2's footsteps and any customer that signs up after March 26th will be subject to an RPI increase every March. This means if you buy a new contract with EE, you are explicitly agreeing for EE to screw you over every year and increase your price plan. There is nothing an EE customer can do about this, they cannot cancel without paying the early termination fee.
But don't think that if you signed up before March 26th that you're safe. If you signed up earlier then you can expect a 2.7% RPI increase in May of this year. So all EE customers are affected by this and will continue to be so every year. As an EE or O2 customer your price plan will continue to increase every year and there is nothing you can do apart from pay the extra money.
Will Vodafone follow in O2 and EE's footsteps? Maybe?
Should Ofcom do something to prevent this? Well they already have and a loophole has allowed O2 and EE to do exactly what Ofcom were trying to prevent.
It looks like mid contract price increases are here to stay. If you're against mid contract price increases then Three and Tesco are the best choices right now.
Ofcom have taken steps to try and ban mid contract price increase by introducing new rules which allow customers to cancel their contracts free of charge if a network attempts to increase the contract price during the minimum term. Whilst networks such as Three and Tesco have followed Ofcom guidelines and promised to stop mid contract price increases, O2 (as described above) found a loophole and continue to increase prices whilst not allowing their customers to cancel.
EE have recently announced they will be following in O2's footsteps and any customer that signs up after March 26th will be subject to an RPI increase every March. This means if you buy a new contract with EE, you are explicitly agreeing for EE to screw you over every year and increase your price plan. There is nothing an EE customer can do about this, they cannot cancel without paying the early termination fee.
But don't think that if you signed up before March 26th that you're safe. If you signed up earlier then you can expect a 2.7% RPI increase in May of this year. So all EE customers are affected by this and will continue to be so every year. As an EE or O2 customer your price plan will continue to increase every year and there is nothing you can do apart from pay the extra money.
Will Vodafone follow in O2 and EE's footsteps? Maybe?
Should Ofcom do something to prevent this? Well they already have and a loophole has allowed O2 and EE to do exactly what Ofcom were trying to prevent.
It looks like mid contract price increases are here to stay. If you're against mid contract price increases then Three and Tesco are the best choices right now.




I will be voting with my wallet and staying with Three. No mid-contract price rises and far superior 3G and 4G.