O2 to Hike the Cost of Out-of-Bundle Services from August

O2 customers who exceed their monthly allowance will face steeper prices from August, the mobile operator has confirmed.

The changes will only impact pay-monthly or SIM-only customers who exceed their allowance for texts or calls or use services outside of their bundle, like calls to premium numbers. The monthly cost of their plan won’t otherwise increase. Additionally, PAYG customers won’t be impacted by the changes.

From 2 August 2021, O2 will hike the cost of standard UK texts outside of allowances from 15p per message to 30p.

Access charges to premium 0870, 0845, 09 and 118 numbers will increase from 55p/minute to 65p/minute. The cost of calls of 076 numbers will also rise, from 55p/minute to 65p/minute, but the cost of calling an 05 number will drop to 35p/minute from 55p/minute.

If you want a summary paper bill, rather than the emails sent as standard, you’ll need to fork out £2, up from £2. The cost of itemised paper bills, issued on request, will similarly rise, from £1.50 to £2.50.

Late paying your mobile bill? You’ll be hit with a £6 charge from August, up from £3.

A spokesperson for O2 said: “After reviewing our out of bundle and additional services pricing, we’re writing to customers to advise that the cost of some optional extras is changing. Customers will only be impacted if they choose to use these services—their existing tariff, and any Bolt-On or personal allowance, remains the same.”

O2 confirmed that some customers will be able to exit their contracts without penalty over these changes. It doesn’t clarify which customers this applies to but says it will contact them. 

However, even if you don’t incur early cancellation charges for ducking out of your contract, you will need to pay off the cost of your handset in full, which could run to hundreds of pounds, depending on your device and the amount of time left on your contract.

If you’re regularly exceeding your allowance for calls or texts each month, it makes more economic sense to switch to a package with more generous or unlimited allowances. You can generally upgrade your plan with O2 at any time for no additional cost.

O2 drew headlines in June when it announced it will cap free mobile roaming in Europe to 25GB per month from 2 August. Any data used beyond that allowance will incur a charge of £3.50 per GB. Some news organisations reported the data cap meant O2 was scrapping free mobile roaming in Europe entirely as a result of Brexit, as EE controversially did. 

However, fair use policies have always been part of the “Roam Like at Home” scheme, and O2’s competitors have already had them (Vodafone’s is 25GB per month and Three’s is 20GB, falling to 12GB from August). Additionally, the caps will only impact the fraction of customers with data allowances of more than 25GB or unlimited plans.