If you were not informed at the time of purchase that the price would most certainly be going up, you have the option to terminate your contract with your landline provider if they decide to increase their costs.
The act of terminating a contract
Landline phones agreement
Cancelling a contract while it is still inside its cooling-off period is, in most cases, the only way to ensure that you will not be charged a fee for breaking the agreement.
According to the Consumer Credit Act, you have a cooling off period of fourteen days in which you can cancel a credit arrangement if you decide you no longer wish to be bound by the terms of the agreement.
Before the 23rd of January 2014, there were no rules in place that would have permitted you to cancel your contract due to price increases that occurred while you were still under contract.
If you discontinue your service before the end of the minimum term of your contract and the contract was initiated prior to January 23, 2014, you will be required to pay an early termination charge. These can reach quite lofty heights.
Check out our comprehensive article on how to get out of a contract for additional information.
Increase in cost? Cancel without incurring any fees.
Customers are permitted to terminate their mobile, landline, or broadband contracts without incurring any fees if the prices of those services are increased in the middle of their term by a provider; this is the case, for instance, when there is an increase that is greater than the rate of inflation.
As long as you do so within the first month after getting the letter notifying you of the price increase, you are free to get out of your contract and switch to a different provider.
If, on the other hand, your landline service provider has already notified you about upcoming increases in their terms and conditions and those increases are in line with the RPI, you won’t be allowed to quit if you are still bound into a contract with them. In the event that you do decide to leave, you will be required to pay an exit charge.
It is possible that you will be released from your obligation to make payments if the minimum term of your contract has not yet been met. You need to make sure that you ask your provider how much notice you are required to offer in order to do this.
Contracts for mobile devices and RPI
Landline service provider
Your landline service provider may have the ability to increase the monthly cost of your fixed contract by an amount equal to the rate of increase seen in the Retail Price Index (RPI).
KEY INFORMATION
Just what is the RPI?
Best connection
The Retail Prices Index (RPI), commonly referred to as the headline rate of inflation, is published by the government on a monthly basis. This index displays the annualised rate of price increase as a percentage. The most recent RPI numbers can be found on the website maintained by the Office of National Statistics.
