£15 pm increase

[reub777]

Anybody else got an email stating a £15 per month increase from 1st April or is it a joke email ????

[Derek918]

I've not had the email yet but it will come according to Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert newsletter, an average of 13.8% increase for most customers will be hitting us from April/May. It will be time to move on once I receive the notification.

[BringBackHub2]

27.2% here. Suppose it makes RPI + 3.9% look not so bad after all…

Ridiculous. By the time you know with certainty what an RPI linked rise is, you are contractually obliged and if you are on something like the CPI linked State Pension, it’s eating away at your standard of living even before energy companies, supermarkets, the council and the water company want extra too. If you are in poor health, you can’t just magic up the money because you were told in February that you would need it in April.

There are people getting no rise or even less money than they were before, just grateful to still have a job.

I have objected to inflation linked rises on principle since they began, although I knew that the day would come when everyone did them as soon as Ofcom allowed it. They don’t think of unintended consequences, it seems.

Virgin have now shown that they are just like all the rest. Just because you are allowed to do something, it doesn’t mean that you HAVE to. There is no other word for a 3.9% rise in a period of deflation than disgusting, and that’s exactly what this change of terms will do. 

[Alex_RM]

Hi reub777, Derek918, BringBackHub2,

You will receive a personalised communication that will detail the specific change to your monthly charge. Price increases will vary as it will be specific to the service(s) you have.

Your individual price rise will be specific to the service you have. Overall, the average price rise is 13.8%. Some price changes will be lower and some customers will be excluded completely.

Alex_Rm

[wb2222]

hi got a letter from Virgin a increased of £12 starting in April 2023 for my package as a pensioner i will have look around for better deal.

[Andrew-G]

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@BringBackHub2 wrote:

27.2% here. Suppose it makes RPI + 3.9% look not so bad after all…

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What makes you so sure?  Your 27.2% increase is because VM offer fixed discounts, ie £x per month off standard rate.  The bigger your discount, the higher the increase is.  And this means next year's RPI + 3.9% is going to be calculated as a cash increase and be applied in the same way.  

VM currently quote the introductory offer for the Big Bundle at £29.99 a month, and the undiscounted price is £65 a month.  From VM's point of view that's not 53.8% discount, that's a fixed £35.01 discount.  If the standard rate changes, your underlying price gets increased, and then VM keep taking off your £35.01.  So a 13.8% increase - assuming that's the rate VM apply to this bundle - on £65 will be an extra £8.97, when that's applied to the £29.99 bill, what that customer pays is going up by 29.9%.  Since VM like to keep standard pricing in round numbers, the actual increase varies a bit on each bundle, but the effect is much the same as outlined here, maybe you are on the Big Bundle.  Now see what happens next year:   

If we guess RPI is 6.1% between now and early next year, then that's a 10% rise to the basic price.  For anybody still "in contract" for the Big Bundle deal by that time, then the maths are as follows:

March 2023: Discounted rate £29.99.  New price is (£65.00 x 1.138) - £35.01 = new discounted price £38.96, new standard price £73.97, effective price rise 29.9% 

March 2024: Discounted rate now £38.96.  New price is (£73.97 x 1.10) - £35.01 = new discounted price £46.36 (new standard price £81.37), effective price rise 19.0%

I suppose 19% is indeed a better increase than 29.9%, on the other hand (a) the 19% is on top of the 29.9%, and (b) at least this year you can leave or renegotiate - due to the new T&Cs next year customers will have to take the increase like it or not.