The cost of living crisis has become a buzzword for 2023 and is something that many businesses could sum up as ‘challenging’ if nothing else. Through 2022 and into 2023, increases in the cost of everyday goods because of record-breaking inflation has made running a business a very expensive affair and as a result is putting huge amounts of pressure on small businesses nationwide.
Businesses are now working hard to try and control their finances through the remainder of 2023 – something which could prove to be crucial over the coming months in the wake of the annual April price hike, which is set to see phone, broadband and TV service providers increase their fees by up to 17.3%, potentially affecting millions of personal and business customers, further increasing their living costs.
According to Money Saving Expert (MSE); BT, EE, O2, Plusnet, Shell, Sky, TalkTalk, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone will be increasing their prices by up to 17.3% in the spring, even to customers who are mid-contract. It’s typical for such service providers to increase their prices each year in response to inflation by using either the consumer prices index (CPI) or the retail prices index (RPI). Typically, when inflation is low, so are the price hikes, however the past 12 months have seen inflation hit record-breaking highs and therefore both CPI and RPI calculations are significantly higher this time around.
This, combined with the extra 3% - 4% increase that providers add on to the CPI and RPI calculations means that this year, some suppliers will be charging customers up to 17.3% more for their mobile, broadband, TV or other telecoms-based service.