[Closed] phone contracts

Do any have penalty charges? Normally you just pay what you owe for the term remaining. The phone company's going to want their money for the phone back...

Was trying to cancel a contract with a year to go ..they want the full amount...
But they get to keep the minuets,data and texts .but ive still to pay for them

Robbing cuts......
O2 if your listening ...watch your windows..lol

But they get to keep the minuets,data and texts

what do they get to keep them in? 🙂

I cancelled my O2 contract and still had to pay what I had agreed to pay as part of my contract.

They even purchased my old phone off me and used that a a bill credit to pay it off.

They wrapped them in my little bundle of fivers

Got the text from O2 today saying they're putting my bill up by 2.7% even though it is fixed. They've taken on board what Ofcom have said and now they say it up front to the customer before signing the contract that it will happen so that's OK. Previous contracts, well, that's already there, so they'll continue.

I've got 12 months with O2 left then I'm out of there like a bullet. Three seem to do a decent month-based contract for £9.90 with a load of data. If it is still there in 12 months I'll most probably go for that.

That's contracts for you. Did you expect a half price phone?

FWIW, O2 don't do that nay more. They've separated out the costs for phone and talk plan, so if you want to cancel they'll drop the line costs so long as you pay for the phone.

No, didn't expect a half-price phone, especially with the contract I signed.

But it was somewhat remiss of me to think that if I agreed to pay £X per month over 24 months then that's what I'd pay, not more when they feel like it.

EDIT: oo, I'll take a look at that thing about leaving. May save me money.

Was trying to cancel a contract with a year to go ..they want the full amount...
But they get to keep the minuets,data and texts .but ive still to pay for them

What would you expect them to do...?

A recent Ofcom ruling has banned mobile phone companies from the practice of putting in clauses that allow them to increase pricing mid-contract without allowing customers to cancel without penalty.

However currently this only applies to new contracts so all the mobile companies seem to be doing a merry round of fleecing existing customers already on such contracts.

O2 will be getting an email from me advising they can either stuff the increase or let me cancel without penalty otherwise I will see them in the small claims court for issuing an unfair contract.

But it was somewhat remiss of me to think that if I agreed to pay £X per month over 24 months then that's what I'd pay, [b]not more when they feel like it.[/b]

Not really. Once a year only, and only by a max of the RPI inflation rate. As allowed by OFCOM regulations

It's hardly a massive change. And it will all be in the contract you signed but didn't read 😉

O2 will be getting an email from me advising they can either stuff the increase or let me cancel without penalty otherwise I will see them in the small claims court for issuing an unfair contract.

Over the remaining year of my contract, the increase will cost me just over a tenner in total

Hardly life changing.

I think I will leave the small claims court for another time 😯

For me it is not so much the quantity of money but the principle. I've put a note in my calendar ready for when the contract ends to tell them to go stuff themselves. I hardly use any minutes anyway so a PAYG would most probably suit me better.

Actually Ofcom doesn't seem to say anything about RPI: [url= http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/price-rises-fixed-contracts/statement ]here[/url].

My mistake. It wasn't OFCOM that linked the maximum price rise to the RPI.

It was the contract that everyone with O2 signed.

You agreed to it in advance.

Little point moaning about it afterwards 😉

Customers who signed up pre-23rd January 2014
Ofcom's guidance only applies to contracts made from the 23rd January onwards. For customers who joined or upgraded before this date, [b]our terms and conditions at the time you signed up stated that we are entitled to increase your monthly subscription charge by no more than RPI [/b]and no more often than every 12 months and are compliant with the body of general consumer protection law. Our advertising has also said ‘tariff prices may go up' since January 2013.

My mistake. It wasn't OFCOM that linked the maximum price rise to the RPI.

It was the contract that everyone with O2 signed.

You agreed to it in advance.

Little point moaning about it afterwards

Just because they can, doesn't mean that they should, I've been with them for 16 years, since it was all BT Cellnet, I'm off in September out of principal.

If you use a lot of data then you'd be better off on three anyway.

I've got two Samsung Notes, works is on O2 and my own is on Three, the amount of times I am searching for something on my works phone and then fire up my own phone, unlocking and then opening browser and then searching and it still beats the O2 phone is nearly constant.

Just because they can, doesn't mean that they should, I've been with them for 16 years, since it was all BT Cellnet, I'm off in September out of principal.

That's fine, your choice obviously.

I was talking more about angry emails with threats of small claims court really.

pePPeR. I have no idea what you just said.

Just because something is in a contract doesn't make it legal, especially if the product is sold as a "fixed price contract". As the Ofcom 'guidance' says:

A1.14 These examples of the application of this guidance are for illustrative purposes:
• Example 1: discretionary price increases
The subscriber agrees and enters into a 24-month contract for services on terms that the core subscription price will be £10 per month. The contract also contains a term to the effect that the CP may increase the agreed core subscription price by up to a certain amount, percentage or index-linked level (such as RPI). Ofcom is likely to treat any exercise of the discretion to increase this agreed price during the fixed minimum term of the contract as a modification meeting GC9.6’s material detriment requirement.

Still, for the sake of a small amount of money/large amount of greed O2 will be losing a decent amount of money from my contract. I'll suck it up until the end of the contract then I'm off. My money, my choice.

Just because something is in a contract doesn't make it legal,

In general that's true, don't think its relevant here though.

especially if the product is sold as a "fixed price contract". As the Ofcom 'guidance' says:

As I understand it, those guidelines only apply to contracts signed after Jan 23 2014.