Broadband price rises

[PuzzledObserver]

I’m on a 24 month BT contract till July next year. When I signed up I did notice something about an inflation price rise each year. I’ve just had the letter - it is going up by CPI + 3.9%.

Just seen an advert for Virgin broadband - the small print says price increase of CPI + 3.9%. Seems to be normal.

So, what does that mean? If you stay with your provider after your initial contract expires, you’re going to be hit with an above-inflation increase year on year on year. The only way to prevent that happening is to switch providers every year or two. Or have I got that wrong?

Most providers go up annually so I suppose you could keep changing every year in March, but you would still be getting an increase of some sort

Mobile phone providers do the same

I don’t mind an increase of some sort. I do mind an above inflation increase every year as that means the service is getting progressively more expensive in real terms. Electronics is one of those things which is still getting relatively cheaper….. although I suppose they’ve got their energy costs to consider.

Mobile bills don’t necessarily go up every year. I’m on giffgaff - they haven’t increased the cost of their goody bags, in fact they’ve added more data to some of them which enabled me to switch to a cheaper one.