Mobile customers being overcharged

LoyaL mobile phone customers are being charged up to £38 a month for handsets they’ve already paid for if they remain on expired fixed deals, a consumer group warned.

Citizens Advice found three of the four largest mobile phone providers — Vodafone, EE and Three — continued to charge customers extra for a handset after it had been paid off as part of their fixed deal.

The advisory service said the networks were overcharging these loyal customers an average £22 a month and up to £38 for contracts with high-range handsets such as the iPhone 7, the Galaxy S8 or Xperia XZ Premium, and warned that consumers could find themselves paying £46 a month extra for the iPhone8 256GB model.

Many mobile phone users take out a contract with the cost of the new handset included in the overall price of the fixed term deal, with the majority paid off on a monthly basis over two years.

At the end of the fixed term contract consumers can stay with their network on the same contract, take out a new contract or switch to another provider. But Citizens Advice found that customers of Vodafone, EE and Three who stayed on the same contract when their fixed term deal ended were still charged the same as when they were paying for the handset.

The study found those aged over 65 were the most likely to be caught out, with 23% of this age group on a handset-inclusive deal remaining on it for more than 12 months past the end of the fixed contract, compared with 13% of under-65s. Overall, 36% of people with a handset-inclusive mobile phone contract stayed on it beyond the fixed period, with 19% staying in the same contract for more than six months afterwards.

Citizens Advice has called on all providers to reduce their customers’ bills when they stay in the same contract past the end of a fixed deal to reflect the expired cost of the handset. It wants providers to separate out the handset cost from the service cost to give clarity.

A Three spokeswoman said: “Whenever a new customer signs with us, we make the end-date of the contract term very clear. We encourage all Three customers to contact us if they would like to change their plan at the end of their fixed deal.”

A Vodafone UK spokeswoman said: “Wherever possible, we contact customers nearing the end of their contract to offer them a range of options.”

EE said: “We send customers regular updates about their options before and after they reach the end of a contract.”