Virgin Mobile is increasing the price of its pay monthly tariffs by 2.5% next month, but only for customers not protected by Ofcom's new rules.
Virgin Mobile is hiking the cost of its pay monthly tariffs by 2.5% - in line with May's Retail Price Index - from next month.
The price of calls, texts and data outside a monthly tariff allowance will stay the same, but the overall cost of the contract will go up. You can find out how much more you’ll pay for your tariff using a calculator set up on the Virgin Mobile website.
But not all customers will be impacted by the rise.
Around 800,000 who signed up or upgraded before 23rd January 2014 will be affected and will see the price change reflected on their bill from 22nd July. However, those that signed up or upgraded after 23rd January 2014 won’t see a change as they are protected by new rules.
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Why the price rise doesn’t affect everybody
This year Ofcom introduced new rules for mobile, landline and broadband customers, enabling them to leave a fixed contract penalty-free should a provider hike charges mid-term.
However, these new rules only apply to contracts taken out after 23rd January 2014, so customers who took out fixed deals before aren’t protected by the regulator’s ruling.
[SPOTLIGHT]Virgin Mobile has been careful to target those left unprotected by the new regulations to make them pay more. The company's dodge of new Ofcom rules follows similar moves from O2 and EE earlier this year.
In contrast Vodafone has recently pledged to offer all its fixed contracts at a fixed price from now on - not just those that signed up after Ofcom's rules came into effect.
Jamie Heywood, Director of Virgin Mobile defended the move saying: “Our terms and conditions are clear that changes may be made in line with the Retail Prices Index for customers who joined before 23rd January 2014."
He added: "Virgin Media customers enjoy some of the best value mobile tariffs around. To help us continue to invest in the best mobile service and exclusive benefits such as inclusive insurance and free calls, we’re making a small increase to our pricing.”
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What to do if you are impacted by the changes
If you're one of the 800,000 hit with a rise Virgin Mobile says you can cancel your contract, but you'll have to pay cancellation charges, which will vary depending on the deal you are on.
An alternative is to use Ofcom’s general guidelines, which state a customer will be able to leave penalty-free if a price rise is of ‘material detriment’ to them.
If you can argue this is the case for you, then you may be able to escape the contract without penalty.
Virgin Mobile has to provide a response within eight weeks, but if you're still not happy with what the company says, you can take your complaint to the communications ombudsman CISAS.
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