Rip-off Britain - inflation is 5% now?

FoxEye

FoxEye

FoxEye

Caporegime
Joined
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Posts
29,263
Location
Cornwall
Just had an email from my ISP, saying they now intend to increase all their prices by at least 5% every year, starting April 2021. They say this is OK because BT & PlusNet intend to increase their prices by even more than 5%, every single year, from now on.

The official rate of inflation is ~1.3%, from a quick Google (obvs house price inflation is much higher). Also the govt have frozen my pay (public sector) for the next 5 years, probably more like 10.

That means from a start of £30 pm for basic internet (FTTC), I'll be paying £50 pm in a few years (according to the compound interest calc I've just used).

A relative in Spain pays €20 for 600 MB, for Pete's sake. In a few years time we'll be paying £50 for basic internet at less than 1/10th the speed.

**** this country. How the hell can we just be expected to pony up 5% more each year? That's bloody ridiculous.
 
FoxEye said:
Also the govt have frozen my pay (public sector) for the next 5 years, probably more like 10.
.
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It's nice that you think it's not indefinitely. There will be a couple of half inflation pay rises and then the next crisis will hit causing another 10 years of frozen pay.

To answer your immediate problem. Change ISP?
 
Whatever you do don't check your utility bill. The cheapest tariff I can find now is £300 a year more expensive than my current one.

That's much more than a 5% increase.

1/3rd of that increase is mainly due to standing charges.

I was paying circa 10p a day each for both.

Now it's circa 22p a day each for both iirc.
 
Trifid said:
It's nice that you think it's not indefinitely. There will be a couple of half inflation pay rises and then the next crisis will hit causing another 10 years of frozen pay.

To answer your immediate problem. Change ISP?
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If BT and TT are both intending this, you can guarantee the others will too.

Psycho Sonny said:
Whatever you do don't check your utility bill. The cheapest tariff I can find now is £300 a year more expensive than my current one.

That's much more than a 5% increase.
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That too :(

Are we just supposed to pluck the extra money from thin air..
 
FoxEye said:
Just had an email from my ISP, saying they now intend to increase all their prices by at least 5% every year, starting April 2021. They say this is OK because BT & PlusNet intend to increase their prices by even more than 5%, every single year, from now on.

The official rate of inflation is ~1.3%, from a quick Google (obvs house price inflation is much higher). Also the govt have frozen my pay (public sector) for the next 5 years, probably more like 10.

That means from a start of £30 pm for basic internet (FTTC), I'll be paying £50 pm in a few years (according to the compound interest calc I've just used).

A relative in Spain pays €20 for 600 MB, for Pete's sake. In a few years time we'll be paying £50 for basic internet at less than 1/10th the speed.

**** this country. How the hell can we just be expected to pony up 5% more each year? That's bloody ridiculous.
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You're overpaying at £30 pm for FTTC. The average 66Mb FTTC options can be had for £24 pm, and the effective price can be even lower than that if you take advantage of rewards vouchers for switching.
 
Virgin are taking the **** as well, added another £3.50 to my bill and its getting harder to negotiate a decent price come renewal. Sadly no one else comes close to the speeds they offer here.
 
FoxEye said:
Are we just supposed to pluck the extra money from thin air..
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Not unless you're a central bank.
After over a decade of quantitative easing (aka money printing), have the central banks finally inflated something other than asset bubbles?
Since measuring inflation is such a politically sensitive issue, I'm sure official figures will continue to under-report it though.
 
FoxEye said:
If BT and TT are both intending this, you can guarantee the others will too.


That too :(

Are we just supposed to pluck the extra money from thin air..
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You can add everything to the list though.

Council tax is another where I get a worse service every year and they charge a lot more for it.

I used to get weekly collections then fortnightly and now some are monthly or every 6 weeks.
 
The official rate of inflation (say 1.5%) is calculated in a way to make it seem low, and does not even include house prices, which is everyone's major expense. The real rate of inflation is running much higher, say 8-10%. Have you noticed for example, that the price of food is going up? The government and the Bank of England (a private company) are trying to pretend that the real rate of inflation is low. The true definition of inflation is increase in the money supply, and the Bank of England has been printing billions to keep the private banking sector afloat. They don't want the general public to realise this, so they massage the price inflation figures (price inflation is a result of true inflation, i.e. money supply increase). Expect real inflation to really start kicking in soon as the consequences of the billions in money printing filter through to everyday prices. If you have savings, you can attempt to protect them with inflation-hedge investments such as Bitcoin (fixed supply currency), physical gold and physical silver, although gold and silver prices are also heavily manipulated by the banks via the paper futures market.

In summary, it is best to call for hard money, i.e. where money cannot be printed out of thin air by the Bank of England, by either Bitcoin being used as a reserve currency (fixed total supply), or a return to a gold standard, where Sterling is readeemable for a particular weight of gold. Then the total supply of money is fixed, and consumer price inflation won't be able to happen.
 
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We are OK Jack - Wife has just been informed her private pension has gone up by 0.01p per month. Glad we are baby boomers
 
Use price comparison sites and shop around - do this for all your utilities and you'll probably find some savings that eclipse the price rises had you just stayed with the same supplyers for years.
 
dowie said:
Use price comparison sites and shop around - do this for all your utilities and you'll probably find some savings that eclipse the price rises had you just stayed with the same supplyers for years.
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Not true at least for utilities.

Cheapest quote was £300 a year more expensive than currently paying.

I managed to get access to a special deal through a newsletter to one that's only £207 more expensive per year so cancelled the switch and trying to get that approved now.
 
dowie said:
Use price comparison sites and shop around - do this for all your utilities and you'll probably find some savings that eclipse the price rises had you just stayed with the same supplyers for years.
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it's a ball ache to switch internet providers though and there's not really much choice it seems unless you go with one of the mobile phone companies that does a router with a simcard inside it.
seems like they are cheap but probably not good for anything low latency like gaming
 
radderfire said:
The official rate of inflation (say 1.5%) is calculated in a way to make it seem low, and does not even include house prices, which is everyone's major expense. The real rate of inflation is running much higher, say 8-10%. Have you noticed for example, that the price of food is going up? The government and the Bank of England (a private company) are trying to pretend that the real rate of inflation is low. The true definition of inflation is increase in the money supply, and the Bank of England has been printing billions to keep the private banking sector afloat. They don't want the general public to realise this, so they massage the price inflation figures (price inflation is a result of true inflation, i.e. money supply increase). Expect real inflation to really start kicking in soon as the consequences of the billions in money printing filter through to everyday prices. If you have savings, you can attempt to protect them with inflation-hedge investments such as Bitcoin (fixed supply currency), physical gold and physical silver, although gold and silver prices are also heavily manipulated by the banks via the paper futures market.

In summary, it is best to call for hard money, i.e. where money cannot be printed out of thin air by the Bank of England, by either Bitcoin being used as a reserve currency (fixed total supply), or a return to a gold standard, where Sterling is readeemable for a particular weight of gold. Then the total supply of money is fixed, and consumer price inflation won't be able to happen.
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Pretty much this. The only way to win the game is to opt out of it - convert your worthless coupons into real money like gold, silver, and bitcoin. Liquidate them only as needed to pay for food, bills, taxes, etc.

As for this ISP nonsense, OP should shop around. ISPs might be friendlier to a new customer than an existing one. Same logic as insurance companies - you have to shop around for a new deal every year.
 
arknor said:
it's a ball ache to switch internet providers though and there's not really much choice it seems unless you go with one of the mobile phone companies that does a router with a simcard inside it.
seems like they are cheap but probably not good for anything low latency like gaming
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How is it a ball ache? I switched mine last week, new router arrived a few days before switch I woke up on the day of the switch and my internet was down so I swapped the routers over and two minutes later everything is up and running. My internet is twice as quick I’m paying the same each month and I have just over £100 in vouchers and cash back due. I’ve swapped supplier every 12-18 months for about 10 years and the process has matured to the point where I don’t think twice.
 
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