Cap on what mobile providers can charge if your phone's stolen
If your mobile phone is stolen you'll soon be protected from footing the bill.
Mobile phone users are to get more protection from sky-high bills as a new price cap is introduced for stolen mobiles.
You will pay no more than £50 of a bill if your phone is stolen, Culture Secretary Maria Miller confirmed today.
Providers will also need to tell customers if they plan to increase prices half-way through a contract and give them the option of leaving early without penalty.
Mobile phone cap
Four providers - EE, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone - have agreed to the new rules, which will give customers greater protection from mobile phone ‘bill shock’. The cap will be brought in next spring and applied to the bills of phones which are reported lost or stolen.
Miller also repeated earlier proposals by Ofcom to make mobile phone, landline and broadband contracts more transparent.
Guidelines on this subject were published by Ofcom in October. It said that you should be allowed to leave a contract without penalty if the fixed price goes up midway through the contract. The rules also apply to those on pay-as-you-go packages if something changes in the monthly bundle, such as an allowance being reduced.
“Families can be left struggling if carefully planned budgets are being blown away by unexpected bills from a stolen mobile or a mid-contract price rise.
“This agreement with the telecoms companies will deliver real benefits to consumers and help ensure people are not hit with shock bills,” Miller said.
Roaming charges
Further action will also be made to eliminate roaming charges by 2016.
The current EU Roaming Regulation has brought down roaming charges. What's more many providers have begun offering cheaper calls when outside of the UK.
But the Government said it wants to go further and banish all roaming charges in the EU in the next two years.
Consumer Affairs Minister, Jo Swinson, said: “We want to make it cost the same to ring Brighton from Barcelona as it does to ring Brighton from Birmingham”.
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How to protect yourself from mobile phone theft
Until the new laws come into force there are several things you can do to protect yourself against a huge mobile phone bill if your phone is stolen.
The most important thing is timing - as soon as you realise a phone is lost or stolen you need to report it to your provider.
Adding a password to your phone, keeping it out of sight and downloading tracking applications are also useful ways to deter thieves.
Most home contents policies will cover items such as mobile phones, but always check the small print to make sure what is and isn’t covered. It may be the case that your phone needs to be separately listed on the policy before it’s covered, but this is still likely to be cheaper than taking out a standalone mobile phone policy.
Compare home insurance policies
More on mobile phones:
Virgin Media hikes prices by 6.7%
Sky to hike line rental costs by 6.2% in December
EU mobile roaming costs cut again with ban to follow
Why it never pays to stay loyal to broadband, TV and phone companies
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