T-Mobile hikes pay monthly prices, no contract cancelling

T-Mobile is increasing the price of its monthly contracts by 3.7 per cent, blaming "rising costs" for the hike and stating that customers can't use the jump as a chance to opt out of their contracts early.

The increase in charges will take effect from 9 May. In a statement sent to CNET UK, the purple-hued network said, "The increase is a result of the rising costs of the business, linked to inflation, as well as our desire to continually invest in our network."

T-Mobile, which is twinned with Orange under the ludicrous Everything Everywhere banner, insists that call, text and data rates won't be changing.

The network has set up a website detailing the changes, and a price calculator for figuring out how much extra you'll be paying. That calculator seemingly only works if you enter the precise amount you're paying each month though, otherwise you're told, "You entered a price we don't currently charge", which is handy.

If you're paying £15 per month, in the future your bill will change to £15.55. Those paying £20 now will be forking over £20.74 in the future, and those paying £30 will now be handing T-Mobile £31.11 every month.

You won't see an increase if you're on one of T-Mobile's latest pay monthly plans like You Fix or The Full Monty, as those contracts already take the price increase into account. You won't see an increase if you renewed since February 2012.

Can I cancel my contract?

Unfortunately it doesn't look like you'll be able to use the price hike to duck out of your contract early, as the percentage increase isn't above the rate of inflation, which is 3.7 per cent as of February. As T-Mobile states on its site, "Our pay monthly terms and conditions allow us to increase charges up to the Retail Price Index (RPI) figure in any 12 month period."

The price jump follows a similar move by Orange in November, which hiked its monthly costs by 4.34 per cent -- a move that helped Orange take home the prestigious 'most-complained-about' award in a recent Ofcom report.

Are you on T-Mobile? What do you think of the increase? Let me know in the comments, or over on our Facebook wall.