Despite a small drop in prices for mobile plans in 2024, the trend seems to be reversed this year. Some operators even take advantage of a well -established technique to raise their prices.
Imagine: you have a good day when suddenly, an email or SMS is displayed on your phone to stipulate that the price of your mobile or internet package will soon increase. Inevitably, it puts a hit, but know that these increases are completely legal. And if they can surprise you, you could have seen them coming!
Indeed, a good number of operators do not relieve to use certain techniques quite cunning to succeed in increasing the price of your monthly payments, without almost upstream communication and especially without formal agreement on your part. However, legally, a telephone or internet operator can only increase the price of your package if it informs you beforehand. So how are we so often (and more and more often) in front of this email or SMS putting us in front of the fait accompli?
In general, increases in the price of a mobile or internet package are justified by operators. Sometimes a difficult economic context is mentioned (such as inflation for example), but often, there is a question of adding new options that lead to adjust the price of your contract. And this is where a subtle technique has spread for a few years at some operators, to increase the price of a phone package or an internet box.
Thus, if you receive an email or a playful SMS from your operator announcing the increase in debit or storage on your package, distrust. On our mailbox, this message was displayed in particular a few months ago: “Good news Julian, your internet speed has moved up a gear ! ” Good news indeed at first glance, but which mostly triggers a less joyful suite.
A few months later, another email arrived indicating that the price of our internet package had been adjusted. In justification: the current economic context and the increase in data and performance of our Internet box. The machine was well oiled and the increase perfectly justified.
Can we oppose this technique? Yes and no. Sometimes, when your operator is an improvement in your contract (debit, storage, etc.), there is an option to refuse these increases. It is also possible to contact your operator by phone, mail, email or via your customer area to discuss it.
If however, at this precise moment, it is not possible to refuse the increase, your operator is required to offer you another offer or to terminate your current offer free of charge when an increase in the price is planned. Be aware, however, that you only have 4 months from the date of receipt of the mail/SMS/E-mail of the price increase to show you.