Martin Lewis' 5 digit code for O2, Three and Vodafone customers to avoid price rise

Martin Lewis has repeatedly urged O2 customers to give the network 'a bloody nose' by ditching it following its announcement of mid-contract price rises higher than it promised.

And now, newly merged Vodafone-Three has followed suit and announced it is also increasing its mid-contract prices for customers signing up from November 9.

Fortunately, customers who are facing higher bills can use a tried and tested Martin Lewis approved method to find how to leave their contract within 30 days if they are facing a price rise, including by sending a free text to a five-digit number.

Under new Ofcom rules which were introduced earlier this year, mobile firms were banned from increasing prices mid-contract by inflation-linked percentages, and instead told they must give customers a figure in pounds and pence for any mid-contract price rises at the outset of a contract.

But O2 found a loophole which allows it to increase this price rise by giving customers 30 days to cancel if they refuse the new increase.

Vodafone Three has instead opted to increase the mid-contract price rises for those who sign up after a certain date. Customers with 4GB of data who took out a new contract after November 9 will pay a £1.80 mid-contract price increase, instead of the previous £1, whereas pre-existing customers keep the same £1 rise, and those on larger data plans will pay a £1.90 rise.

Martin Lewis told his ITVX viewers last Tuesday, after O2's price rise but before Vodafone-Three's: "When companies behave like this, and increase our costs in a way no-one should have or could have expected, the way that we need to deal with them, is we need to give them a corporate bloody nose and increase their costs by them losing customers and brand and reputation, to prevent them doing it again, and to prevent all the other mobile and broadband and pay TV services doing it. So don't just leave for yourself - leave for everyone else too."

For those looking to switch, Martin has told customers to find the best deals by doing a price comparison 'by finding the cheapest SIM that fits your needs', says Martin. Generally, the best deals come from price comparison websites with promotional deals on top of the tariffs and whole of market comparisons, such as Martin's Money Saving Expert website.

Step three is find a virtual network and find a cheaper price on the same signal. This is because many mobile firms actually piggyback off a larger network. There are only four real networks, and two of them have just merged. Vodafone, Three, O2 and EE. Every other network just piggybacks off the big four's signals. But firms like Smarty (uses Three) and Tesco Mobile (uses O2) are the same signal and network, just at a cheaper price.

Martin told podcast listeners back in June: "The last step in the process once you know where you want to shift your mobile phone custom to is to text PAC to 65075. It's free. What that does is request your porting authorisation code from your existing mobile phone provider, that you can give to the new one, so you can move your number across.

"But often when you do this, if you're out of contract, your existing provider will say, please don't go and will often include in that an offer to keep you. It's virtually a way of haggling, so sometimes people go 'oh I won't bother they're now offering £20 a month off'.

"So if you're very cheeky, and while I prefer you do all four steps, if you're out of contract, just text PAC to 65075, pretend that you're leaving and see if they offer you a better deal to stay. Let me know how it goes."

An O2 spokesperson said: "As acknowledged by Ofcom in its letter to providers last week, its rules do not prevent companies from increasing annual price changes - for example, to invest in improving networks for customers. A price increase equivalent to 8p per day is greatly outweighed by the £700m we invest each year into our mobile network, with UK consumers benefitting from an extremely competitive market and some of the lowest prices compared to international peers.

"We appreciate that price changes are never welcome, but we have been fully transparent with our customers about this change, writing directly to them and providing the right to exit without penalty if they wish."