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Network O2 has decided it’s time to start whacking up its monthly contract costs, with the UK mobile provider adding 3.2 per cent to all monthly tariffs from next February. Regardless of what you signed up for.
The changes only affect those paying monthly line rental fees, so those on PAYG deals who pay by the minute, message or megabyte won’t see any changes.
To be fair to poor old O2, it sounds devastated about having — HAVING — to do this. On its price change page the network says: “To date, we’ve held off putting our tariff prices up for as long as possible. Even when our competitors raised theirs. But now, because of inflation, we need to change the price of your tariff. From 28 February 2013, your line rental will go up by 3.2%. That’s in line with the current rate of inflation as at December 2012 when we made the announcement.”
So if you’re on a £26 a month tariff, that’ll increase to £26.83 from next February, while those paying £36 at the moment will see their bills rise to £37.15. There’s a checker tool on O2′s site that does the maths for you, and it doesn’t even have the common courtesy to display a sad-face emoticon when it breaks the news.
And, as you can see from the image above, O2 is heading off any potential complaints by pointing out the small print in the agreement you didn’t bother reading that said it’s allowed to raise prices whenever it wants. [O2 via Cnet]
I’ll just leave this right here then. Hint hint.
http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/mikeogg
giff gaff just did pretty much the same thing tho tard!
Charming.
Actually they haven’t. All they did was re-jig their goodybags to add a new level.
so you get less for the same amount or pay mare for what i was on!
In the case of the £10 bag its gone up %20 ffs.
Still the best and most flexible out there.
Agree on that.
nice bit of affiliate spam there.
The most unreliable service from giffgaff! Its always shutting off or loosing internet services! They use to be cheap and is now just the same as everyone else! Rubbish!
And shameful plug from your affiliate scheme
1. They’re not better or worse than O2 (or others) whose network they sit on. If O2 have problems then so do GG. It’s not ‘always’ losing service – somewhat of an exaggeration on your part.
2. They are cheaper that anyone else. I used to pay 45 quid plus a month with O2. Now I’m rarely over 20 quid.
3. Shameless? Me? Never!
They are worse! Perhaps you were lucky and problem free.
If O2′s network get problems, the first thing they do is boot giffgaff so the networks not strained so theres less disruption to O2 customers!
I was at the Olympics for three months with a giffgaff sim in my iPad and there were three occasions where I had no 3g for more than 24 hrs
My daughter is on giffgaff and she has had problems on her phone throughout the summer and again in October and November! Oh and lets not forget the huge outage in March! So I wouldnt call that an exaggeration considering on my O2 phone Ive not had one loss of service!
And regarding the price, giffgaff were cheap until the 20% increase, the idea of giffgaff was a no thrills service and the cost was reflected accordingly, now they are a no thrills service which is about the same as the competitors which for me makes them totally pointless!
I’ve been using Giffgaff for a few months now and I gotta say I’m kinda disappointed with their service area. Three has generally better service on my commute. THREE.
Internet will randomly drop out or go down to GPRS (which is either a lot slower than I remember or just doesn’t move along at all) Internet speed is definitely slower too compared to Three, Quite surprising seeing as they ride on O2.
Might jump ship again to Virgin, They ride on EE (well Orange/Tmob) service, right?
Which is why I like Three monthly rolling contract which any could end in 30 days notice!
ps. Three as network 3
Yeah, 30-day contracts are looking more and more appealing
Can’t remember the last time I saw a price rise from my mobile company. Can we put them in charge of public transport please
insert money grabbing comment here
According to the BBC, O2 owner Telefonica made a net profit of 5.4bn euros (£4.6bn) in 2011, down from 10.1bn euros in 2010!
Oh no, my bill is going to increase by 67p. I’m sorry kids, but christmas is cancelled so we can afford to eat in the new year. Hang on, I don’t have kids… phew. I’ll still be able to afford both my phone and food. Christmas is back on!
Just wait until you want to buy a Mars Bar and can’t because the cost was added to your O2 bill!
This wouldn’t be so bad if O2′s network was reliable but It tends to take up to 30 seconds to even start dialling a call! This is on multiple phones as well so its not a phone issue!
I’ve never experienced that call problem, could just be an issue in your local area. Even if I took that 67p off my bill i’d still be 3p short for a Mars Bar at my local shop.
Damn Inflation! taking Mars bars away from the nation! We used o2 nationwide with our engineers and the delay problem happened in more areas then not which makes me sad
Our company has swapped to EE and we have non of this trouble now 
shame my personal phone is stuck on o2… at least they have Sean Bean for the adverts!!
My tariff includes line rental and call time/text allowances.
What they are doing is putting up the tariff, not the line rental, therefore, there is an argument that they are being very naughty.
The O2 website says calls and text charges arent going up, just line rental!
Just another reason why i’m going to move network. Also noticed yesterday that they were pretty much the only major network not invited to Virgin’s Underground Wifi party.
Ok, Just to inform everybody, they CAN do something about this.
It is NOT legal.
Who cares if its written in a contract, if that contract is so biased that it’s not legal. Luckily in the UK we have a legal protection against unfair contract terms, it’s almost as if it was written with Phone providers in mind
Read about it here,
http://whatconsumer.co.uk/unfair-contract-terms/
Specifically I would like to highlight the following conditions that are considered unfair/biased.
The following are also taken into account when deciding whether a clause is ‘reasonable’ or not:
“Whether you were offered an inducement to agree to the term”
Did you get a “free” phone with your contract? That’s inducement.
“Making the arrangement legally binding on you, but not on the supplier.”
Like, You have to pay whatever we ask, but we can break service, change prices or details without you being able to do anything?
“Allowing the supplier to retain money in the event that you cancel, but not obliging the supplier to pay compensation in the event that they cancel.”
All phone contracts say “We reserve the right to cancel your contract at any time” in some way or another, with no mention of compensation to you.
“The requirement for you to pay cancellation charges which are disproportionately high.”
Like paying out the whole rest of the contract anyway making it pointless to cancel?
“Allowing the supplier to dissolve the contract on a discretionary basis, without giving you the same right.”
As again, all phone contracts do, read the small print.
It’s clear that phone contracts have been a load of bollox for years but nobody has actually had the time and money to challenge them in court.
Everybody feels they are powerless because they are “just one person”.
Well, there are a lot of us “one person”s around and if EVERYBODY stands up and say’s they won’t take this bull any longer the phone company will have to do something.
As the consumers WE have the power, nobody is forcing you to sign a contract and yet you blindly do and just accept that they can do whatever the hell they want because you signed a bit of paper you never read.
Don’t be a sheep, stand up for your legal rights.
That sounds lovely, however, me like you and everyone else all signed the contract! None of us had to sign it but we did, so we pay the consequences!
I shall just pull down my trousers and lean over that barrel and accept my 99p increase! Yes its not huge but I do think with Telefonica’s huge billions of profits its too much, but i signed that contract!
As I said, you signed a piece of worthless paper that they KNOW they wouldn’t get away with if it wasn’t for people like you who say “it’s only blah, so I won’t bother”.
The road to hell begins with one step. You boil a frog slowly and all that.
They say its freedom of choice, you don’t have to sign the contract if you don’t want to, but essentially that’s rubbish as all phone contracts are the same, so there IS no choice if you need a phone.
Why does nobody stand up for their rights till it’s too late?
How much do you want to let big business rape you before you realize it’s too much?
It’s a lot easier for a sheep to run away while being herded that it is for one to escape a fenced in area.
That exact attitude is the reason the world is going down the crapper, thanks for helping push.
There are cases with high priorities, giff gaff on my daughters phone got changed because of a 20% increase, O2 putting up 3% and its the first time I can remember a price rise in the 10 odd years Ive been with them..
It’t not about the amount.
It’s about selling a FIXED price contract that isn’t fixed, but only from their end.
The amount doesn’t matter, THEY set it at the start, all they have to do is stand by their 24 month commitment LIKE WE HAVE TO.
Except we don’t, because the contract is not valid but nobody with the resources to prove this has ever fought it in court.
Stop defending them with “It’s the only price rise in 10 years” BS.
If they can’t stick by the contract MAKE IT DIFFERENT, make it shorter, make it more flexible for BOTH sides, don’t just screw the consumer and act like its ok because they are big enough to get away with it.
I get what youre saying and you have a point, but we still signed and agreed the bit which says they can do what the f*ck you want..
Rip of Britain! Nothing new…