Reasons why your mobile bill might be higher than usual

Your phone bill may include charges outside of your monthly plan, here we'll explain what they might be and how you can also get an estimate of your next bill to avoid any surprises.

Call and text charges

Some numbers aren't included in your plan and when calling certain numbers you’ll be charged an access charge and a service charge. Chargeable numbers include:

  • 070, 084, 087, 09 numbers
  • 118 (directory enquiries)
  • forwarding numbers (unless the number starts with 0207 or 0208)
  • phone usage outside the UK and ROI (roaming)
  • charges from other companies (third party service providers)
  • charges for Premium Rate Services

You may also get charged for texts that aren't included in your plan:

  • photo messages (including photos, videos and other images)
  • texts inside or outside the EU (known as roaming)
  • text charges from other companies (third party service providers)

Charges for photo messages

Photo messages aren’t included in your standard plan and there’s a fixed price for each one you send. Some devices may classify a text message as a photo message because it includes an emoji, exceeds the character limit or is group text message.

These charges will appear on your bill in the photo messages section. Sending a photo message instead of a text message is down to the device you use, the messaging platform you use and the person you’re sending to. It’s not because of the EE network. If you send a lot of these types of messages you may want to buy an add-on which will give you an allowance every month to send photo messages at reduced rates. To check:

  1. Open the EE app
  2. Go to Manage - Plans & Subscriptions

One-off charges and credits

Occasionally there will be one-off charges and credits on your monthly phone bill that will appear under extra charges. The most common one-off charges are:

  • add-ons like extra data or roaming add-ons when you’re abroad
  • a charge for at least two late payments
  • a bill re-issue charge for providing a printed copy of your bill
  • a payment failure charge for a failed Direct Debit or unpaid cheque
  • an insurance excess fee - the charge applied for your insurance claim in line with the Terms & Conditions for insurance and extended warranty

There may be a remaining contract charge, consisting of:

  • an early termination charge – you'll need to pay this if you're within your minimum contract term and have more than 30 days left until it ends. The amount is calculated from the date you contacted us to cancel your contract until the end of your minimum term
  • a notice period charge – you'll need to pay this if you're within the last 30 days of your minimum term or outside of it. This is based on 30 days line rental from the date you contacted us to cancel your contract

Device charges and credits

If you’ve upgraded, unlocked your device or paid towards a new device on your plan, you may see some one-off charges on your monthly phone bill:

  • a delivery charge to pay towards the delivery of your device
  • an equipment charge, usually shown as the device – e.g. 'pay monthly iPhone 6 16GB gold' with the amount you owe for the device
  • a device unlock charge for when you’ve paid to get your device unlocked
  • an equipment credit: if you’re owed an amount towards your device

Find out more about understanding your bill after an upgrade.

Part charges

You may see partial charges on your phone bill if you make a change to your account partway through your billing month. These partial charges will appear if:

  • you've upgraded
  • you've bought an add-on halfway through the month
  • you've changed your price plan, device plan or phone number
  • you've changed your bill payment date
  • you’ve added another line to your account (phone, tablet, SIM or dongle)

Here are some of the partial charges you may see on your phone bill:

  • a refund of the old plan or your old number (up to your bill date)
  • a charge for your new plan, number or line (up to your bill date)
  • a charge for your new plan, number or line (equal to a month in advance)

Your monthly charging periods should be back to normal next month, provided there are no further changes to your account.

Deposits

 

We might ask you to pay a security deposit depending on the result of your credit check so you can use the EE network or activate certain services on your account. There are two types of security deposits you could be asked to pay: 

  • a registration deposit for when you want to join EE so we can activate your account and you can use the network
  • a feature deposit for when you activate certain services, like Full Roaming, International Call or Premium Rate Calls

Both types of deposit will be quoted on your bill as 'Deposit for Service'. Your deposit will be automatically refunded back to you via your normal payment method once you've established a good payment history with us.

See an estimate of your next bill

You can see a near real-time view of what your next mobile bill is estimated to be underneath your current bill. It includes your plan costs with any discounts, one-off charges and credits and a total cost of any outside-of-plan usage such as calls or app store charges.

If you’ve upgraded or made any changes since your last bill, you’ll also see any applicable part charges or credits.

It’s a helpful guide but may not include all charges / credits if your account has multiple types of discounts, so always refer to your actual bill when it’s produced.

Steps to see an estimate of your next mobile bill:

  1. Open the EE app
  2. Select Manage
  3. Select Billing
  4. Select See your full mobile bill
  5. Look below your current bill and you’ll see Next Bill Estimate.

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