Virgin are introducing a 25p per minute charge for their helpline, from free. Can they do this and still hold me to my contract?

[ViciousSquirrelSpotter]

I signed up for a new contract with them in February on the basis of the old conditions and now they're introducing this charge. Do they have the right to do this and still hold me to my contract with them?

Depends exactly what the T&Cs say. Usually they have increases of a certain percentage built into the contract.

T-Mobile did something similiar some time ago when they introduced a charge for itemised billing. The contract % wasn't high enough and thousands of people used it as a 'get out of contract free' card

Hmm

Oh god how can I wade through the small print

I am too old to see it

they probably have something in the contrat that says prices are subject to change

Do you need their helpline a lot, and for what purposes, and is there an alternative to paying 25p for that, eg online support? I'm now a Virgin customer, was Telewest, but only really spent much time pursuing them on the phone 2 years ago when I first got their broadband and it went terribly wrong in the first month, a fix took a while and it took longer to work out how dp could hook up laptop but we've had very few problems since then.

Only the occasional prob tbh.

But when I do, it's 20 mins each time. So the thought of £5 phone bills, when it's mainly me being on hold, is not an attractive one. Even thinking about it is irritating me!