Everything you need to know about the RPI Increase
Retail Price Index (RPI) is a measure of inflation published monthly by the boffins at the Office for National Statistics. It's based on average price increases across the country over the last 12 months, and lots of industries and businesses use it to decide if they need to adjust prices. That includes us.
If you've upgraded or purchased a new 24-month plan with iD on or after 1st March 2018, your monthly line rental charge will be adjusted in line with the RPI rate of inflation each year. Your out-of-bundle charges won't be affected though. They're safe.
The RPI is announced in February, and your bill is adjusted two months later in April.
So, how much will your increase be? Well, this year's RPI was published on 19th February 2021. It was 1.4%.
| Old monthly line rental (incl VAT) | % increase | New monthly line rental after RPI is applied (incl VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| £9.99 | 1.4% | £10.12 |
| £14.99 | 1.4% | £15.19 |
| £19.99 | 1.4% | £20.26 |
Note: If you're on an iD plan purchased before 1st March 2018, your plan costs won't be affected by the RPI price increase.
Need more info? Check out clause 12.23 of your iD Mobile terms and conditions. It's all there.
The RPI is a measure of inflation. The figure is based on hundreds of items we spend money on, and it tracks changes in the cost of these items over time. It combines around 180,000 price quotes for over 650 representative items in 150 different areas across the UK. This is known as the 'basket of goods' and is regularly updated to reflect changes in the things we buy. Examples include food, drinks, clothing, cinema tickets, furniture, cars, public transport, holidays, telecoms, electricity and water.
The published RPI rate between January 2012 and January 2019 has ranged from 0.7% to 4.1%.
The annual rate of inflation shows how much higher or lower prices are compared with the same month a year earlier. So if the inflation rate is 3% in January, for example, prices are 3% higher than they were 12 months earlier. Or, to look at it another way, we need to spend 3% more to buy the same things.
We compare this to the annual change recorded in the previous month to get an idea of whether price rises are getting bigger or smaller. If the annual rate has risen from 3% to 4% from one month to the next, prices are rising at a faster rate, if the rate has fallen - say from 3% to 2% - prices of the things we buy are still higher, but haven't increased by as much.
For further information, including RPI figures and publication dates, go to www.ons.gov.uk