EE New Phone Contracts

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EE's cheapest 24-month plan is £22 a month for 5GB of data on No Frills, and its handset deals start from figures like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8's “From £51 a month”, with “£81 in month 1 (incl. £30 upfront)”. What makes that tile unusual is the next two lines on it: “£53.50 from 31 March 2027” and “£56 from 31 March 2028”. EE prints the price you will be paying in two years' time, in pounds and pence, before you click anything. Very few sellers of anything do that, and it deserves saying first.

The scale behind the tariff is BT Group's. Its half-year results to 30 September 2025, published 6 November 2025, put the Consumer postpaid mobile base at 13.9 million customers, with 61,000 net additions in the half, monthly churn of 1.0% and average revenue per user of £19.30. Consumer revenue was £4,684m and EBITDA £1,274m, and a quarter of the division's customers — 25.9%, against 23.1% a year earlier — now buy both broadband and mobile from it.

One structural point belongs up here, because it changes what you are signing rather than merely what you pay. On most of EE's handset deals the phone is no longer inside the contract at all. It is bought on a separate interest-free credit agreement called Flex Pay, and the Z Fold8 tile states the shape of it without dressing it up: “48 month loan + 24 month 125GB Essentials airtime plan.” Two agreements, two Direct Debits, and two different lengths — the loan outlives the phone contract by two years.

Two agreements, two lengths, one phone

Flex Pay is EE's name for buying the handset on credit rather than folding it into the tariff. EE's help pages describe it in plain terms — it “lets you spread the cost of a phone through a separate credit agreement”, and “your airtime plan and Flex Pay agreement are separate agreements”, billed separately with one Direct Debit for each. The credit is at 0% APR, you choose how much to put down at the start, and the more you put down the lower the monthly figure. EE is named as the lender. There is no charge for clearing the balance early: “You can repay your Flex Pay balance early at any time and there are no charges for doing so.”

So far this is better than the alternative. An interest-free loan with a free early settlement and a deposit you set yourself is a genuinely consumer-friendly way to buy a £1,000 phone, and it keeps the cost of the handset out of the figure that rises every spring. The complication is the term. The Z Fold8 tile pairs a 48-month loan with a 24-month airtime plan, and EE's help page confirms the mismatch is deliberate: once the airtime minimum term ends you can switch plans or drop to a rolling monthly deal, “even if you're still making payments under your Flex Pay agreement”.

Work the Z Fold8 through and the advertised number stops being the useful one. Starting on 2 November 2026, month one costs £81, months two to five £51, months six to seventeen £53.50 and months eighteen to twenty-four £56. That is £1,319 over the 24-month minimum term against the £1,224 that “from £51 a month” implies — £95 more — and at the end of it the loan still has 24 payments left to run. EE does not print the split between the airtime and the device on the tile, so there is no way to calculate the size of that remaining liability from the advertisement. That figure is the single most important number in the deal and it is the one number the tile withholds.

Two further mechanics are worth having before you order. You may withdraw within 14 days of receiving the device, but you then have 30 days to repay the outstanding device balance, so withdrawal means finding the price of the phone rather than simply walking away. And if you want time to read the paperwork, EE will hold the offer for up to 48 hours.

£2.50 or £4: the annual step follows how you bought the phone

EE abandoned inflation-linked increases after Ofcom required price rises to be stated in pounds and pence, and its own announcement of 16 January 2024 put it as offering “a clear and simple view of any changes in ‘pounds and pence’”. The replacement is not one number. EE's prices explained page sets out a grid of flat annual amounts keyed to the date you signed:

• SIM only and airtime plans: £1.50 a year for contracts taken between 10 April 2024 and 30 July 2025, £2.50 for contracts from 31 July 2025.
• Handset plans: £1.50 a year for contracts taken between 10 April and 9 September 2024, £4 for contracts from 10 September 2024.
• Connected devices — laptop, tablet, watch and mobile broadband — £1.50 a year from 10 April 2024.
• 4G and 5G home broadband: £1.50, then £3 from 9 September 2024, then £4 from 31 July 2025. Fixed broadband runs £3, then £4 from 6 August 2025. EE TV is £2.
• Anything bought before 10 April 2024 is still on December CPI plus 3.9%, which came to 7.9% in 2024 on CPI of 4%.

Read the first two lines together and the consequence is clear. A buyer who takes the handset inside the tariff is signing up to £4 a year; a buyer who takes the same handset on Flex Pay is signing up to £2.50 a year, because the loan is a fixed-sum credit agreement whose instalments cannot be increased. Over a 24-month term beginning in November, with rises landing on 31 March 2027 and 31 March 2028, the first route costs £104 in increases and the second £65 — a gap of £39, on identical hardware.

The rise is not negotiable and EE says so. Clause 7.6.2 of the pay monthly network terms of 16 January 2026 lands it on 31 March during the minimum term, clause 7.6.3 moves it to 1 March afterwards, and clause 7.6 states that the increase “will not give You the right to terminate this Agreement during the Minimum Term without paying a Cancellation Charge”. Clause 13.3 does give a consumer 30 days to leave without a charge when EE changes the terms in a way that “is not exclusively to Your benefit” — but the annual increase is carved out of that by the clause above it. Out-of-bundle charges rise separately, by 5%, on the same date.

What price certainty costs, worked to the month

EE does sell a way out of the escalator. Alongside each tariff it publishes a fixed price version, which under clause 8.1 does not have its plan charge increased during the minimum term. In the SIM-only price guide the premium is a flat £3 a month at every level: Unlimited on No Frills is £27 non-fixed against £30 fixed, Essentials £32 against £35, Essentials Plus £36 against £39, All Rounder £42 against £45 and Full Works £48 against £51, while 25GB Essentials is £25 against £28.

Three pounds a month over a 24-month term is £72. The question is whether £72 buys more than £72 of protection, and because the rise is a flat amount landing on a fixed calendar date, the answer depends entirely on which month you sign. A plan starting in April meets only one increase before the term ends, so it loses £30 to rises and the fixed version costs £42 more than it saves. A plan starting in November loses £65. One starting in January loses £75, in February £80, in March £85.

In other words the fixed-price plan pays for itself in three months of the year — January, February and March, when a buyer is about to walk straight into the first increase — and costs money in the other nine. Signed on a November start date it is roughly £7 worse than simply accepting the rises. That arithmetic assumes the £2.50 step holds for 2027 and 2028, which EE does not promise; the wording commits only to telling you the amount at the point of sale.

There is a second limit on the idea, and it falls on the people a fixed bill would help most. The fixed-price range in the SIM-only guide has no 5GB row at all, so the cheapest plan that can be price-protected is £28 a month for 25GB on Essentials, against £22 for 5GB on No Frills. Price certainty therefore costs a budget buyer £6 a month, or £144 across a two-year term, and brings data they did not ask for. The fixed-price tables also carry no Full Works Plus column and no 30-day option.

Upgrade Anytime stops at the Flex Pay door

Upgrade Anytime is EE's early-upgrade product, and the fee structure is published: in the first six months of a plan there is a “£200-£600 early upgrade fee depending on what device you have”; between six and twelve months it is “between £100 and £300”; after twelve months there is no fee at all. The window runs from day 15 of the plan until 30 days before it ends, and in those final 30 days you can upgrade with no fee and keep the old handset.

The eligibility list is where it matters. Upgrade Anytime needs a 24-month Essentials Plus, All Rounder or Full Works handset plan. No Frills, Essentials and Flex Pay plans are not eligible, and moving onto one of them forfeits the benefit. So the cheaper half of EE's range cannot upgrade early, and neither can anybody who took the interest-free loan — which is to say anybody who took the version with the lower annual increase. The Z Fold8 deal quoted at the top of this page is excluded on both counts: it is a Flex Pay plan, and its airtime tier is Essentials.

For a Flex Pay customer the route out is settlement rather than upgrade. EE's own help page is explicit: “If you're upgrading, any existing Flex Pay agreement must be paid off before you can take out a new one.” On a 48-month loan reaching the natural upgrade point at month 24, that means clearing two years of remaining handset balance in one payment before a new phone can be ordered.

The Upgrade Anytime terms themselves are version 3, dated 15 January 2025, and they say nothing whatever about a Flex Pay or device credit balance — the exclusion appears on a help page and not in the contract. They do require the new plan to carry a fresh 24-month minimum term and a data allowance at least equal to the old one, exclude plans holding a PERK or a student discount, and impose a damage fee where the traded-in handset will not power up, cannot make or receive calls, shows “fading and/or missing pixels, cracks or bleeding on the screen”, carries water damage, or still has Activation Lock enabled. The returns bag has to be used within 14 days or an early upgrade fee is added to the bill regardless.

The charges that sit outside the allowance

EE's standard and non-standard price guide, effective from 7 October 2026, is where the bundle ends. A call outside the allowance is 98p a minute with a one-minute minimum, a text 22p, a picture message 98p. Buying data at the end of a bill cycle costs £5.00 for 250MB, £12.50 for 1GB, £15.50 for 2GB, £20.50 for 5GB and £31.50 for 10GB — the 250MB option works out at twenty pounds a gigabyte and the 10GB option at £3.15, so the cheapest top-up is the dearest data on the card by a factor of six.

Roaming is £2.72 a day in the EU and EEA unless the plan or an add-on includes it, with weekly passes at £16.50 and a twelve-day pass at £27.50. Outside Europe a day costs £6.00 in Zone 1, £8.00 in Zones 2 and 3 and £16.00 in Zone 4, where the pass carries only 10MB of data. Step outside a pass and the standard rate is £2.46 a minute and 98p a text. European use is subject to a 50GB fair-use ceiling even on an unlimited plan, after which the surcharge is £0.0036 per MB, or about £3.69 a gigabyte. International calls from the UK are 25p a minute to zones 1 and 2 and £4.64 a minute to zones 3 to 6, which covers the United States, Australia and India; a satellite call is £7.75.

The administrative charges are modest but real: £7.68 for a late payment, £5.00 for a failed one, £2.50 a month for an itemised bill, £2.56 to reissue a bill, £1.50 for a replacement SIM and £35.74 to change your number. Online billing and unlocking a handset are free. If service is suspended or disconnected for more than 60 days, clause 6.5 allows EE to require a fresh credit check as well as a reconnection fee.

Leaving early is costed in the same guide: EE totals the outstanding monthly charges for the remainder of the minimum term excluding VAT, takes 4% off, then adds VAT back. Thirty days' notice is required under clause 9.1. On a £54 Full Works plan abandoned with twelve months to run that is a little over £620, and on a Flex Pay deal the device balance sits on top of it.

Two performance limits are set by tier rather than by usage. No Frills is capped at 10Mbps, Essentials and Essentials Plus at 100Mbps, and All Rounder, Full Works and Full Works Plus are uncapped, with Full Works Plus adding prioritisation of up to five times. Once a capped allowance is spent, Stay Connected Data keeps the line alive at 0.5Mbps. Heavy use of an unlimited plan may be slowed above 600GB a month, and clause 4.7.1 of the network terms treats calling or texting more than 300 different numbers in a month as improper use — on tariffs sold with unlimited calls and texts, that is about fourteen new contacts a working day.

Insurance, and which ombudsman hears which half of the bill

EE sells Full Cover and Damage Cover alongside the contract, and the terms document available from 12 February 2025 names the risk carrier properly: Chubb European Group SE (UK Branch), registered company number 450 327 374 RCS Nanterre, FS Register number 820988. Accidental damage and breakdown claims are unlimited; loss and theft are capped at two claims in any 12-month period. Breakdown cover starts where the manufacturer's warranty ends and carries no excess, and a battery is replaced only where the device is undamaged and capacity has fallen below 80% of its original specification.

The excesses are published, though they take some finding: £75 on damage, £100 on loss and theft rising to £125 for mobiles and laptops, and a discounted £25 where a phone needs a screen repair only. A courier exchange costs £50 and is closed to SIM-only customers and to Apple customers in the first 12 months of an airtime plan. Cancellation is free within 14 days of receiving the documents provided no claim has been made, and after that takes effect from the next payment date with at least one day's notice.

A split contract splits the complaints route too, which is worth knowing before something goes wrong. Clause 15.9 of the network terms points airtime disputes at Ombudsman Services; clause 15.10 applies to finance agreements only and points those at the Financial Ombudsman Service. The insurance sits with the latter as well, and a referral there must be made within six months of EE's final response. One phone, one monthly bill, and three different places a dispute can end up depending on which part of it you are arguing about.

Where EE's own paperwork disagrees with itself

None of the figures above was hard to find. Reconciling them was, because several of EE's own live pages have not kept pace with its pricing.

The annual increase is the clearest case. EE's prices explained page gives the cohort-aware answer of £2.50 for mobile contracts from 31 July 2025, its Samsung landing page prints £2.50, and the SIM-only price guide states it outright — the monthly plan price “will increase by £2.50 on 31 March each year”. But the help article on annual price changes still lists £1.50 for SIM only and airtime with no cohort date attached, and the page inviting pay as you go customers to switch to a monthly SIM still prints “by £1.50 for Wifi, SIM Only, Airtime and Connected Device plans”. Three pages say one thing and three say another; only one of the six explains that the difference is a contract date, and the two carrying the old figure are pages a new buyer is more likely to land on than the price guide.

The length of the device loan is the second case, and here EE gives three answers. Its explainer at devices/device-credit-agreement says “You pay it back over 24 or 36 months”. Its comparison of Flex Pay against EE Finance gives the term as 3 to 48 months. And the live handset tile sells a 48-month loan. No figure is published here for the longest term a buyer can actually be given, because the provider's own pages do not agree on what it is.

The plan prices themselves are the third. On 20 August 2026 EE published two plan terms and price guides using the same eight plan names. The Flex Pay version prints one price per tier — Unlimited at £32 on No Frills through to £59 on Full Works Plus, with 5GB at £25, 25GB at £29 and 125GB at £30. The standard version prints ranges for the same tiers — 1GB £13 to £63, 5GB £16 to £72, 25GB £19 to £81, 125GB £25 to £99, and Unlimited from £23 to £105 on No Frills up to £47 to £129 on Full Works Plus — with the instruction to “check your order confirmation for your monthly plan price as at the start of your plan”. The ranges begin below the single prices and end far above them, both documents call the figure the monthly airtime plan price, and neither says which applies to whom. No single price for an EE tariff is printed here as a result.

Smaller things in the same vein. The SIM-only plan terms and price guide listed among currently available plans is dated 7 August 2025, fifteen months old, while the handset guides beside it were refreshed in August 2026 — which is why its £22 for 5GB sits £3 below the Flex Pay guide's £25, a gap that is almost exactly one £2.50 annual step. The current charges guide is linked as “from 7 October 2026” over a file named for the eleventh. And the Upgrade Anytime terms are nearly two years old and silent on the product that disqualifies half the range from using them.

One figure could not be established at all. EE's complaints volumes are published by Ofcom rather than by EE, and that release could not be read on the date of writing; the number is therefore absent from this page rather than estimated. BT Group's newer results release would not open either, so the customer and churn figures quoted above are the half-year to 30 September 2025 and are a year old.

Figures were taken from each provider's own published terms on 2 November 2026. Variable rates can change at any time — confirm the current rate with the provider before applying.