Vodafone Increases Out-Of-Contract Charges But Says Some Customers Can Leave

Vodafone is to increase the cost of some calls for its contract customers, but promises that anyone who is likely to see their monthly bill increase by more than ten percent will be able to exit their contract without penalty. The company has also reduced the cost of using a phone abroad in line with EU regulations on roaming.

The price hikes only affect calls outside a user’s monthly allowance, meaning standard tariff payments will not change, but the operator will estimate how much a customer’s bill will rise based on their last three months of use.

Vodafone blames rising costs for the increases, but anyone who it believes will be affected significantly by the changes will then have until 28 June to exercise their right to terminate their contract – the day that the new prices are implemented.

Vodafone price increases

“We really hope you decide to stay with us, but as these changes have increased your monthly bill by more than 10 percent, you can end your agreement without charge. If you decide to do this, please write to us before 28 June 2014,” says the operator.

Out-of-allowance calls are set to rise by 5p to 45p a minute, while texts will increase from 15p to 18p and picture messages will be 3p more expensive at 40p. Data is also going up with additional bundles of 250MB rising from £6 to £6.50.

Unlike Three, Vodafone still charges customers for calls to some 0800 numbers and these will also become more expensive to call. Calls to 0800, 0808 and 050 are now 20.4p a minute, as are calls to 0845 and 0870, while 0871, 0872, 0873 and 0874 are now 40p a minute. Additionally, the cost of calling some 118 telephone directory numbers will jump from £2.75 to £3.75.

Cheaper roaming

New Ofcom regulations allow any consumer to exit their mobile contract if the cost of their monthly tariff increases during the lifetime of their agreement.This latest Vodafone price increase is not covered by the regulations and nor are contracts signed before 24 January, but the operator recently promised not to increase anyone’s subscription during the lifetime of their contract.

Vodafone came to the decision after surveying its customers, who, funnily enough, were against such rises, and the company added that although Ofcom allows it to increase all contracts each year in line with inflation it felt such increases were against the “spirit” of the new regulations.

However, while it is more expensive to use your phone at home, it’s now cheaper to use it abroad, with the cost of making a call within the EU dropping from 24.5p a minute to 18.7p and the price of receiving calls falling from 7.1p to 4.9p. Texts are cheaper too, decreasing from 8.1p to 5.8p, while data is now more than half the price it previously was, at 19.8p per MB.

The new prices will apply from 1 July.

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