I had a letter yesterday to say that the cost of my mobile service is going up by 2.5%. So I ran them.
I have 2 year contract which I am bound to complete and I agreed a price at the beginning of it. If I cannot leave, then they have a commitment to provide at the price I agreed. At least until the contract finishes and then I have the choice of accepting the cost or leaving.
I received a woolly answer from a guy who said that I should not have had the letter and that mine is not due to rise.

We'll see when the bill arrives

Check the small print on your contract - most allow the operator to raise the prices slightly sure the term of the contract.

Which is why OFCOM are running a campaign in which fixed means exactly that.

You'll notice EE and o2 mention in the clauses on their website and adverts that each year line rental will increase in line with RPI.

If the increase is above RPI then I *believe* you can terminate your contract, penalty free. I'm not fully clued up about that so cannot comment further.

AFAIK Three, Tesco Mobile and Vodafone have all stated they won't increase line rental for the duration of your contract.

The best thing you can do is vote with your feet the next time your contract is up. Get your PAC code and tell them you're leaving to join a competitor who has committed to keeping prices fixed for the duration of your next fixed term contract. This small print permitting price hikes in line with RPI would soon disappear from mobile contracts if enough people took a stand.

Yeah, then O2 and Vodafone put up the out of bundle rates up a lot, in many cases 30% plus for some numbers!

Anyway, I'm going off topic - the mid contract price rises detail from Ofcom is here

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2013/1...t-price-rises/

Have a read and it'll tell you the exact position you're in OP. In theory you can cancel without charge now OP.

interesting. i get their VIP sim for £10 a month so we'll have to see if that goes up.

got my letter this morning - going up by £1.50 a month.

assuming my discount still applies, i'll still be getting 'unlimited' everything for only £11.50 a month so i can't really complain i suppose.

might still give them a ring though and see if i can sweet talk retentions

It's worth a punt.... Noticed my loyalty discount was expiring on the 17th of this month (cable broadband only) so spoke to them via live chat and am downgrading to 100Mb only (instead of 125Mb) for £24.50/month for 12 months.

That's not bad. I'm actually debating on going to them for broadband only so maybe they'll do me an overall package deal. I've got two sim only contracts with them at the moment and do ideally want a third for my sister, so maybe they can work something out.

Let me know how you get on as I'm considering taking out a phone contract later on in the year. Cheers!

I did ring them in the end and the operator i spoke to said they couldn't discount my deal any further as they're not really allowed to discount VIP packages. She did offer me a credit equivalent to covering the price rise for 12 months though, which amounted to £18 quid so I accepted that.

It only means my next bill is paid for and the one after that will only be a couple of quid but it's better than nothing!

Not had a letter myself. I'm on a sim only tariff. 30-day contract, 250 minutes, unlimited texts, 1GB data for £10 a month.

Are they not increasing 30 day contracts, as people can just up and leave?

My contract is a sim only and that went up. my mum's is sim only and that didn't

Going to try this. Not been in contract for a while now.

That's if I can ever get on to love chat. Been 'no advisor available' for about an hour now. Maybe they're not on on a Sunday.

I only got mine about three months ago. Maybe recent sign ups don't get an increase?

It's probably more to do with my mum's being on the bottom end of the scale of sim only deals they offer - hers is the £5 a month one with 250 minutes (i think it's 250), unlimited texts and no data.

I got it about a week before i left VM last year so got it with the full customer discount and it's stayed like that ever since.

How did you get on with the "love" chat?

Haha. I didn't get through yet. Obviously it's unrequited!

Cheers for mentioning this. Just called and got the same deal for £22.50 for twelve months.

Excellent!

I got the same letter and likewise I get it for £10
While going up £1.50 don't sound a lot it actually works out at a 15% increase
£18 extra a year