Mobile phone price increase

[mthorpe2]

Just had my latest bill for my mobile phone it has gone up £2 from last month without any notice from Talk Talk with no increase in any of the allowances

It started up as a free service

200 minutes, unlimited texts and 500mb of data when they started charging £3 it is enough for me to get by on as I hardly use data outside the house and don't use the phone very much

Now it's gone up I will be looking elsewhere as the Vodafone signal rarely goes above 2 bars here will see what anyone else is offering for a fiver

Sent a message via help box yesterday still waiting for a reply 

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Thanks for the update.

[Gondola]

Nice.

I appreciate your time to let me know. Thank you.

[mthorpe2]

Just had a look on my latest bank statement and can confirm only £3 was taken out on the 4th Oct so feel free to close the thread 

[mthorpe2]

Bill due to be paid next week on the 4th will wait and see what amount gets taken out 

[Gondola]

OK, sounds like the agent knows they've made a mistake by ending the discount and is reversing the £2 overcharge. But you'll need to get that clarified.

[mthorpe2]

Just rang up couldn't hear very well what she was saying but the gist was they had ended the discount missed a bit then something about the decision being reversed if you have already paid you will be refunded £2 if I heard correctly that is 

[mthorpe2]

Thanks for that seems pretty clear cut will try ringing Mon see how I get on 

[Gondola]

Hi mthorpe2 

I'm also a TalkTalk Mobile customer on the £3/m tariff for what was known as the TalkTalk Mobile Essential SIM.

The Essential SIM was bundled in to the initial broadband package and initially charged at £5 per month with a £5 broadband customer discount that was reduced to a £2 discount in July 2018.  TalkTalk did negotiate deals with O2 at the same time for customers wanting to move mobile service provider but those deals ended in 2021. Also in 2021 TalkTalk negotiated a new deal with Vodafone for the TalkTalk Mobile MVNO service to continue as that was still generating £3 million in profits albeit down from the previous year of £7 million in profits.

The customer contract for TalkTalk Mobile service is separate to the broadband contract but the TalkTalk terms and conditions are, in my opinion, very clear.

TALKTALK MOBILE TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. To take mobile services from us, you, or someone at your address, must take telephony or broadband services from us. As we give you discounted charges for this (the TalkTalk Mobile service), if this situation changes, we may increase your charges to our standard rates.

In my case, our address does still have broadband services from TalkTalk upgraded to Full Fibre. Therefore, until TalkTalk Mobile notify cessation of service or removal of the discount by giving 30 days' notice I would not accept any change to the TalkTalk Mobile billing. I believe my £3 per month contributes to TalkTalk Mobile still being operational because I'm a fairly light user. Heavy users may not be considered profitable.

Is the address registered with TalkTalk Mobile the same address as your current TalkTalk Broadband contract? If so, I would call TalkTalk Mobile on 0345 172 0044 option 1 and ask why the TalkTalk Terms & Conditions do not apply. I'd be interested in the answer.

[mthorpe2]

Will have a look later on comparison sites  though probably stuck here for the time being 

ASDA do a talk and text deal but they are Vodafone as well 

[Gliwmaeden2]

I agree - communication should have been more conspicuous (if it did happen at all!).

It's really hard to check pricing on Talktalk these days as, for most facts and figures, you actually need to be signed into My Account to check details. It's not even mentioned in the sales page small print. 

Notices about increases used to be easier to find, in the legal section, linked at the foot of the page. For now the only prominent price increase information is about the fact of the CPI+3.7% in April.

There's not much out there for low mobile data users - perhaps the companies are trying to compete with the Broadband FTTC and FTTP services more these days, and they offer massive quantities of data for an amount that effectively undercuts the ISPs - but useless if you are in an area with a poor signal. 

They will have their own CPI + x% April increase too, in contracts, @mthorpe2.

There are still some PAYGO options out there, which might suit your usage better.

[mthorpe2]

It would have been nice to be informed that it's being increased rather than find out from the bill

I was upgraded last November and my next contract ends next May so perhaps they are finishing it completely?

[ferguson]

@mthorpe2 

You will struggle to find anything else under a fiver, save for Lebara perhaps, but they use the Vodafone network. Your best bet is to check the comparison sites. 

[Gliwmaeden2]

They seem to have allowed it to apply discounted until there's a renewal  / upgrade, @mthorpe2.

It's been at the full £5.00 for over a year, as people come off legacy deals.

[mthorpe2]

Just seen someone else has posted the same in the mobile section on here the £2 discount has now finished usual Talk Talk lack of communication at play

(1st I knew of the full fibre upgrade was an Openreach Engineer turning up one morning)