ISP Plusnet Prep Price Increases for UK Broadband and Phone UPDATE

Customers of budget UK ISP Plusnet have informed us that they’ve been notified of an annual price increase on their broadband and phone line rental services, but the good news is that the cost will only be going up by 1.5% in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of inflation (as published by the ONS for April 2020).

The increase is significantly smaller than last year because at that time they hadn’t yet linked such rises to inflation (this mirrors the approach taken by parent operator BT). The catch is that this year’s price rise is being introduced from 7th October 2020, but last year’s only came into effect from 3rd December 2019.

The impact of this will of course vary, depending upon how much you pay for your package today, but a customer paying £10.99 a month for just the broadband side of their connection will see this hit £11.15 a month from October 2020. Similarly, phone line rental will increase from £19.99 to £20.29 a month and annual pre-paid Line Rental Saver (LRS) will go up to £213.03 (increased from £209.88, equivalent of £17.49 a month).

However, it’s worth pointing out that Plusnet now offer fixed price contracts, which means that if you’re still within your minimum term on 7th October then these changes won’t apply to you on this date (i.e. until your contract ends). As a result, new or upgrading customers could lock-in a lower price now to delay the increase by re-contracting or haggling for a lower price.

Plusnet Statement

You’ll see the price changes appear on your first bill from 7th October 2020. Unless your bill date happens to be the 7th each month, your first bill after 7th October may look a little different for one month, as it will include an additional pro-rata charge to cover the increase in price between 7th October and your bill date.

If you’re not happy with any of these changes and decide to leave us, you won’t have to pay an early termination charge.

You’ll need to give 14 days’ notice and you’ll continue to pay for your broadband and line rental during the notice period. If you need to call us, you can do so on 0800 587 1960.

On the other hand, we note that the timing for next year’s planned 2021 increase, which is still due to be based off the April CPI rate, will see future price rises being introduced from June (i.e. June 2021) instead of October. Sadly, plenty of big ISPs have used this crafty tactic in the past, where price rises become a little earlier each year (i.e. you effectively pay more than if it were a truly annual increase).

Price rises are rarely popular, although they’re common among all of the largest providers because they’re frequently adding all sorts of new services, running big first year discounts, adapting to new rules (e.g. automatic compensation), developing new systems and consumers are also gobbling significantly more data. Generally aligning price rises to CPI is still an improvement on the old method, which often saw prices go up by as much as 4-6% each year (well above inflation).

UPDATE 24th July 2020

We have Plusnet’s official comment on this.

A Plusnet Spokesperson said:

“Like many other providers, we are changing our prices in line with Consumer Price Index this year, meaning customers will see their broadband and line rental monthly price increase by an average of 40p per month. We’re constantly investing in our products and packages to give our customers the best value and service, and we’ve recently been named as Uswitch’s Best Provider of Customer Service – so we know we’re getting it right.

We are currently letting our out of contract customers know about this change, taking effect from 7th October 2020. We will also be contacting our Fixed Price Contract customers as part of their end of contract account review.”

One caveat above is around the use of “many other providers,” since at present only a few of the big boys have announced an alignment of pricing to CPI. But this market contains hundreds of smaller providers and most of those have not stated such a policy, yet. Indeed this may be a moot point since very few smaller providers increase their prices like the big boys do.