O2 Forcing All Customers onto the New Price Rises

[Enlli]

O2 has confirmed to ISPreview that they’re also emailing existing mobile customers to forcibly move them to the new pricing policy, albeit with a right to exit their contract as a result. This is as opposed to the usual approach, where such changes only occur for new customers or via natural re-contracting at the end of a contract term. We don’t think VMO2 are going to win too many adoring fans with this one

Personally I hope for a mass exodus

[madasaf1sh]

@Enlli 

Im not sure there will be a mass exodus, as EE are putting up new customers who take a phone and airtime by £4 per month, so o2's £1.80 isnt as bad on refresh. 

What I dont like and would love to get hold of this email, and have a read is forcing people onto the new contract, it feels underhand, but I cant see it been too long till the others do the same... 

[jonsie]

We're writing to tell you about some changes that'll affect elements of the services you receive from us, such as out-of-bundle charges, and the way our price rises will work from 2025 onwards. Please make sure you read this information carefully and take the time to understand what it means for you.   From 9 January 2025, we’ll be moving you onto the latest version of our Pay Monthly mobile agreement terms and conditions including our recent changes to annual price rises from 2025. What’s Changing? We've outlined the changes to our terms and conditions below. Annual Price Rises

Following new regulation from Ofcom we are changing the way we do annual price rises, to provide more clarity and certainty for all customers. We’ll present any changes to your bill in precise pounds and pence, rather than using percentages or inflation measures. With this in mind, we want to let you know that from April 2025, the cost of your airtime plan will increase by £1.80 a month. We understand price rises are never ideal and want to reassure you this will only affect your airtime plan, with the cost of your device remaining frozen. We'll also contact you nearer the time to confirm this. Customer Discounts From 1 April 2025 any recurring discounts applied to your account will remain unchanged and will not increase in line with any annual price adjustments. Currently recurring discounts applied to your account would be increased every year at the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of inflation plus 3.9%.

Changes to your out-of-bundle costs

We're making pricing changes to some of our charges outside your monthly allowance, this covers things like SMS, MMS and voice calls outside of your usual allowance.

Information on these changes to out-of-bundle and additional service charges can be found in a table at the end of this document.

Additionally, some out-of-bundle charges will be subject to an annual 5% increase, effective every 1 April from April 2026. The full list of extra charges can be found here.

Roaming – Fair Usage Policy We're extending our permanent roaming fair usage policy, that we already have for Europe Zone, to include Rest of World roaming. Using the service for more than 63 days in a four-month period is considered unfair use. If this happens, you'll receive a notification via text, and continued overuse will result in surcharges. These surcharges are £3.50 per GB for data, 3.3p per minute for calls and 1p per text. The surcharges will appear on your next month’s bill. We’ll stop applying surcharges to your inclusive roaming usage once the majority of your usage over the previous four months has been in the UK. These charges only apply if you exceed the fair usage policy. Roaming in our Europe Zone up to 25GB, remains unchanged. International roaming rates are changing. Standard voice rates will increase from £2 per minute to £3 per minute, and SMS rates will rise from 50p to £1. What does this mean for me? There’s nothing you need to do, and these changes will be applied automatically from 9 January 2025.   However, because of these changes, you have the right to end your airtime plan in the next 30 days. If you decide to cancel your airtime plan, you’ll need to either continue paying your device plan in the agreed monthly instalments (you must call us to arrange this) or you can pay the remaining balance off in full. This is because your device plan is a separate loan agreement.  Thinking of leaving us? If you decide to leave us, you can cancel your contract any time in the next 30 days by calling 202, free from your O2 phone or on 0344 809 0202. If there’s an outstanding amount left on your device plan, this will still need to be paid off, either by continuing with the instalments already set up, or you can opt to pay it off in full, a member of the team will be able to help you. You can also reach out to us via webchat for assistance. If you want the instalment plan to continue you must call us and ask an agent to continue the device payments monthly for you, if you decide to leave without calling and arranging this first, your device instalment plan will end, and you’ll need to pay it off in full.

Out-of-bundle costs You can view the out-of-bundle prices that are changing below:

How do I know this is really from O2? Genuine O2 emails always show the last four digits of your mobile number at the top. If you get one that doesn't, please forward it to SPAM@o2.com so we can take a look. There's more about phishing here. This email is from Telefónica UK Limited, a registered company in England and Wales. Regarding consumer credit, Telefónica UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.  Registered office: 500 Brook Drive, Reading, RG2 6UU. Registered no: 1743099. Please don't reply to this email.

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[madasaf1sh]

Some very sneaky price increases in there.. 

83p/min for a standard call or an MMS and £3 per minute roaming calls is someone trying to pee off all customers... (out of bundle)

Or are they taking the chance to just raise all pricing.. and £10 more to reconnect you if you fail to pay your bills 

Not a good look o2, not a good look at all..

[jonsie]

Yes sneaky increases all round

Just watched a tv advert for O2 advertising amazing Black Friday deals. Interestingly the advert still states the annual increase as RPI + 3.9%

The increase for my £8 contract is double what it would have been using the RPI

So despite Ofco's intervention O2's profits will be good news for their shareholders

[Enlli]

All designed to put revenue in a good light before selling the whole thing off the Vulture Capitalists 

[PeteD]

I contacted O2 a while ago to request termination of my contract due to the email stating the new contract would see a 16.5% increase in my monthly bill, the lady I spoke to told me I'd have to pay a £75 early cancellation fee

[madasaf1sh]

@PeteD 

If it was a while ago, then that is correct, I would give it a day or two to contact o2 to cancel the contract. and if you have a device plan that still needs paying

[PeteD]

Sorry, by "a while ago" I meant 30mins before I posted, the day after I received the email

[Enlli]

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@PeteD wrote:

Sorry, by "a while ago" I meant 30mins before I posted, the day after I received the email

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Same as what happened to Virgin Customers when they were given similar terms