EE to DOUBLE some out-of-bundle charges - and you're unlikely to be able to leave penalty-free

If you've not got one of its international calling packs, calls to Ireland and the Channel Islands are rising from 50p/min to £1, while calls to other parts of Europe are also rising by 50% from £1/min to £1.50/min.

It's introduced more changes affecting pay-monthly customers who use up all of their inclusive allowance, whereby the cost of calls to standard UK landlines and mobiles will rise from 50p/min to 55p/min, while the cost of picture messages and international calls is also going up.

To cut your mobile costs and see how you could pay as little as £5/mth, see our guide.

Which prices are going up?

Here's a full list of the changes which come into effect on 25 June.

• Calls if you go beyond your allowance are going up to 55p/min (from 50p/min). This applies if you’ve used up all your monthly inclusive allowance and make calls to standard UK landlines, mobiles and voicemail.

• Calls to numbers starting 08,09 and 118 are going up to 55p/min from 50p/min.

• Picture messages are going up to 55p from 50p.

• International calls to Europe from the UK are going up to £1.50/min (currently £1/min).

• Calls to Ireland and the Channel Islands are going up from 50p/min to £1/min.

• International calls to the rest of the world from the UK are going up to £2/min from £1.60/min.

• International texts from the UK are going up to 55p (from 35p).

Most WON'T be able to leave penalty-free

While Ofcom rules let you escape penalty-free if your monthly tariff's increased and you weren't warned at sign-up, sadly the same protection doesn't apply to out-of-allowance price increases. Only customers with material detriment (those whose total bill value after adding the new out-of-bundle allowance rates exceeds 5% of the bill value) are allowed to terminate the contract.

EE says that the small number of customers who are materially affected will be notified proactively about their right to terminate their contract.

An EE spokesperson said: “We are contacting some of our pay monthly mobile customers to inform them of changes we are making to the cost of calls made outside of their allowances from 25 June. We don’t take the decision to increase prices lightly, and this is the first increase to mobile out-of-bundle costs since 2016, and even after these changes our pricing is comparable to other mobile operators. We’re committed to providing our customers the best experience, service and value, and these small changes help us to continue to invest in the services we provide to our customers.”