Earlier this year, Virgin Media announced it would make a change to its terms and conditions – from April 2024 it will introduce inflation-based price rises that mean the amount its customers pay for their broadband will increase every year.
But we’re concerned Virgin Media’s terms are an attempt by the firm to both have its cake and eat it. As well as applying aggressive inflation-linked annual mid-contract price rises, it’s also maintaining the right to hike bills further at any time.
That discretionary price rise clause has been part of Virgin Media contracts for some time, but the new terms also allow for annual price rises based on the retail price index (RPI) rate of inflation plus an additional 3.9% while removing the right for affected customers to cancel without paying substantial exit fees.
We believe these clauses amount to unfair contract terms and could be in breach of the Consumer Rights Act by creating a ‘significant imbalance’ between the rights Virgin Media has granted itself and those of its customers.
I just signed up to them. I have a cool off period to cancel but the offer was so good. Found it through uSwitch. £90 credit and free installation and setup. They’re 60% cheaper than what I was paying with BT. Figure that even with RPI increase it’ll still be cheaper over the life of the contract .
Yeah, I got a great deal (it was £100 in Amazon vouchers but they gave me it in credit upfront, so I was in profit for the first couple of months) and if they can get close to that again it still might be worth it but the calculations are trickier.