Fido increasing some customer bills by $5

A thread on Reddit has shared that some Fido subscribers on bring-your-own-device plans are having their monthly bills increased by $5.

Some users are complaining that it’s linked to a free 30GB offer that they received a few weeks ago, which changed their terms and conditions, but others are saying they got the bill increase before the free 30GB add-on was even added to their account.

MobileSyrup reached out to Rogers, which owns Fido, to learn more about the increase.

In our experience, all carriers raise prices from time to time, and it’s extremely rare to find plans without fine print allowing the carriers to raise prices over time.

One user on Reddit decided to call Fido to try to get the increase reversed. The agent offered to move them to Rogers with the same amount of data and a $5 cheaper price. The user said “it feels like a trap,” but I would say always go for the lowest offer, stay on a month-to-month plan, and switch carriers often. The one thing I would watch out for is the signup fees. Those are now around $75 at most carriers.

The price increases seem to vary, with a single subscriber reporting that their bill has only increased by $4.

You can lock in a price if you are on a contract when you finance a phone with a carrier, but notably, one of the people in the Reddit thread said they’re on a contract, so they recived a $5 increase and a $5 bill credit at the same time, which implies that as soon as their contract is up, their price will go up by $5 like the BYOD customers.

It’s worth noting, however, that contracts don’t always guarantee prices will stay the same. Many providers only guarantee the discount in a contract while allowing increases to the base plan price.

There have been a few different price increases from Rogers and Fido in recent months. The duo raised prices by $3/mo back in April, and Rogers has been threatening various fees for customers who still use the company’s 3G network ahead of the July shutdown.

Source: Reddit