Virgin Media UK’s New PAYG Mobile Pricing Causes Concern UPDATE
Some of Virgin Media’s mobile (EE MVNO) customers on their Pay-As-You-Go platform have expressed concern after the operator started notifying them of an unusual new charging structure. The change appears to penalise infrequent users of the service by effectively charging £2 for the first call or text on each new day.
The change, which is due to be introduced from 18th November 2019, means that “Every day, the first 200 minutes of calls you make will cost £2 total, and then 1p a minute after that. This includes calls to landlines including calls to the Channel Islands and Isle of Man (starting 01, 02 or 03), Virgin Mobile phones and other UK networks.” The approach is identical for text messages, while data will continue to cost £2 total for the first 200MB of data you use every day, and then £2 for the next 200MB after that.
On the one hand this could be good if you make longer calls and masses of texts in a single day, although many PAYG users choose such a plan precisely because they tend to only make infrequent use of their devices. Sadly for that group the change represents more of a problem since even brief calls or texts would suddenly attract a £2 charge.
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Quick Sample of Customer Feedback
Sample 1: “I have also received this message which in effect says it can cost £2.00 for a single text. I intend to go to another provider. The emails suggests I will be able to get a refund on my existing credit, but a call to 789 said the opposite! I tried to use the text service to get a definitive answer, but they insist upon my answering security questions on a webpage. This is not possible with my non internet connected phone and it is too long to copy to another device!”
Sample 2: “Hmmm. Sounds like my aged Nokia 1600 is going to fall into the recycle bin sometime soon.”
Sample 3: “Basically that’s £2 every time I make a call to my mum or send a text, since I only use it once or twice every other day or so. Ridiculous!”
By comparison Three UK and O2 both charge just 3p per min for a call, 2p for a text and 1p for a MegaByte (MB) of data on their PAYG plans. Meanwhile the parent network for Virgin Mobile, EE, tends to sell PAYG access in “packs” that expire every 30 days and these cost from £10 a pop (2GB of data, 100 mins and unlimited texts).
Vodafone have a similar approach to EE but with a more attractive entry-level allowance, although they also offer a classic “Pay As You Go 1” plan that charges 20p a minute, 20p a text and 20p for every 5MB of data. This might sound like a lot but once you’ve spent £1 in a day, you won’t be charged a penny more until midnight.
Suffice to say most of these seem to be more attractive that Virgin Mobile’s new approach but it depends upon how you use your mobile. We’ve dropped Virgin Media to ask why the change is being made.
UPDATE 16th October 2019
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We’ve had a response from Virgin Mobile.
A Virgin Media Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:
“We’re making adjustments to some of our Pay As You Go tariffs. Customers impacted by any changes will be notified of alterations to their mobile plan in a clear and timely way.”
Virgin suggested that customers who don’t like the new plan could move to a Pay Monthly tariff (obviously a pointless piece of advice for PAYG users) or consider one of their alternative “JAM packs” (e.g. they could get 250 mins, 250 texts and 250MB data for just £5 and the allowances last for up to 30 days). The packs are pretty good value but may not suit the sort of casual users who tend to adopt PAYG.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I was NOT notified of the Virgin PAYG changes and my airtime balance was zeroed. I kept putting money onto the account and the following day £20 or £10 had gone WHEN I HAD NOT USED THE PHONE and it had been OFF!I twice got the balance restored after long arguments with customer services offshore somewhere, finally they restored the last £10, told me to turn the phone off, check the wifi and mobile hot spot were OFF (they always are until I use deliberately)and turn on again I did this and they had already deducted the £2 daily charge when I had used nothing but their 789 number! When complaining about this they said it was an old SIM issue and sent me a new one – guess what, when I logged in with this to 789. my balance was again ZERO. None of these deductions had occurred in over 30 days, but seem to expire on a SET DATE so whatever you put onto your account is zeroed on the last calendar day of the month, so they take vast amounts of money and provide NO SERVICE. This is effectively theft and (as they probably want) I will be dumping VM for O2 or other provider for my second phone.