Mobile and internet bills

[ouch321]

Is everyone else having alerts that their broadband and mobile charges are going up? Yesterday my broadband provider said my bill is going up by £2.25 /month. Today I had an email from my mobile provider saying they are upping by £1.50. Two hikes in the space of 24 hours. Eek.

They both blame costs rising but seems as though it's a vicious circle. Providers put their prices up, meaning people need to earn more putting pressure on employers to up wages who in turn then need to charge more for services to other businesses etc.

Vodafone put my phone bill up every year in April, it says so in my contract so I am expecting it. £3.00 increase last year, going up another £3.00 this April.

I knew they were going to do it, but dismissed it with a 'meh, it's only a quid a month extra' then inflation took off and our broadband will be going up by more like a fiver a month probably.

If you're in a contract and the increase is in line with the mid term increase specified in the contract (CPI+3.9% usually, so around 15%) then there's nothing you can do.

Most people don't bother to read the T&Cs that they agree to, so they can hide all sorts in there. Dave Gorman did a great piece about it once. He told his audience they'd agreed to swap their first born for a tiger cub or something similarly ludicrous. He didn't enforce it of course, but it showed how easy it was as no-one ever looks at what it says.

I got an email from O2 last week which said they are increasing phone plan charges by the inflation rate of 13.6% AND a further 3.6% ! I can't remember the figures they quoted but the example was like "So, if you're paying £36 you will now be paying £42" - that's a sizeable chunk. My phone bill is £60-odd quid so its adding a tenner or so to my bill every month.

Also, my Sky broadband is going up. And my NOW TV! It really does feel like one step forward, two steps back.

Pisses me off that no matter who you go with, they say annual increases are RPI + 3.9%.

As we all knew, this years increase are huge. But it also means going forward that the next increase will be on an already hugely increased sum even if RPI is much lower.

The bastards aren't even apologetic!

Tesco mobile don't put the bill up but our BT broadband will be going up by the full amount they are allowed.