Inflationary Mobile Price Rises for Three UK, EE, O2 and Vodafone

Mobile operators Three UK, EE, O2 and Vodafone have all confirmed that they’ll introduce mid-contract price rises for subscribers, which as usual will be conducted in line with inflation as measured via the Retail Price Index (RPI). The RPI figure for January 2018 was 4%.

On every EE contract the monthly price plan charge will generally be increased by RPI in March of each year and 2018 is no different, with the operator having confirmed that they intend to impose a 4.1% rise (based on the December 2017 RPI). The change won’t affect pay-as-you-go customers or those who joined the operator (or upgraded their plan) after 6th Feb 2018.

Meanwhile O2, Three UK and Vodafone have all confirmed plans for a similar increase to MSE. According to O2’s website, they will adopt an RPI increase of 4% from April 2018 (unless you joined / upgraded after 13th February 2018) and the prices for calls outside your monthly allowance or international calls may also change.

Vodafone have also said that they expect to do the same (keep an eye on this page for updates) but have not yet revealed what their increase will be; they usually announce it a little later than the others. Likewise Three UK are in the same boat and have not yet confirmed the level of increase, only that they will be following the same RPI approach.

Ordinarily Ofcom’s rule for mid-contract price rises might give you the ability to exit your contract penalty free but there is an exception for increases connected to inflation (so long as they include this in your contract). Increases linked to RPI are now fairly common among the major operators’, although it’s worth checking your plan because they might not apply to every tariff (e.g. PAYG may be excluded on some operators).

Likewise if you’re already out of contract then you can either try haggling or switch operator.