Martin Lewis demands a BAN on sneaky price hikes by mobile & broadband firms in challenge to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt
MARTIN Lewis has demanded a BAN on sneaky price hikes by mobile and broadband firms in challenge to the Chancellor.
The Money Saving Expert has repeatedly called for above inflation mid-contract hikes to be banned.
And during ITV‘s The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, he presented the issue to Jeremy Hunt.
Martin said: “Broadband and mobile firms, in the middle of people’s contracts, are hiking prices 3 to 4 per cent above inflation.
“It meant last year rises of 17 per cent. My guess, you don’t have to say whether or not, is this year it will be 7 per cent coming in this April.
“Hikes above inflation rises is both terrible for consumers and terrible for you because it’s inflationary.
“Why don’t we just ban them from doing that. Can you not stop that please Chancellor?”
Hunt, who will deliver a spring budget in March, replied: “Well, I’ve heard you talking about this before Martin.
“When you’re a broadband provider you obviously do have staff whose costs go up and some of those costs you have to feed through your bills.
“But a lot of your costs are actually the costs of a network which once it’s in place doesn’t go up at all.
“If you write to me with the evidence that you’ve got of that from your viewers.
“Let me write to the Competition and Markets Authority who are a body that look into these things independently of politicians.
“Let’s get to the bottom of it.”
Martin urged his viewers to get in contact using #MartinLewis or martinlewis@itv.com.
It comes after Which? warned that broadband customers could pay £150 more than expected due to “unpredictable” mid-contract price rises in 2024.
The consumer group analysed hikes from top providers on their 18 and 24-month deals.
BT and EE customers who took out a contract in January 2023 could see some of the highest average price hikes of £147.43 and £147.31.
Vodafone and Plusnet customers could see rises of £122.38 and £117.87 respectively.
TalkTalk customers could see a smaller hike of £76.09 on average over the course of shorter 18-month contracts.
Virgin Media did not use inflation-linked price hikes in 2023 but some customers’ prices did increase by an average of 13.8 per cent due to ad hoc price rises, according to Which?.
Which? argues that it is unfair for consumers to be signed up to deals which do not give them certainty about how much they can expect to pay over the course of their contract, and then face exit fees if they want to leave early.