Communications regulator Ofcom are helping to give customers a fair deal by cracking down on 'unfair' phone and broadband charges.
Internet and telecoms firms will soon have to cease levying extra charges that regulator Ofcom deems unfair.
This announcement comes in response to many consumer complaints about the additional charges frequently imposed for paying bills by cash or cheque, making payments late or simply choosing to end a contract early.
Any extra charges must be "demonstrably fair", says Ofcom and the draft guidance covers bills and charges for home phones, mobile phones, broadband and pay TV.
While Ofcom does not propose to outlaw all such charges, it claimed that all charges must be "prominent and transparent", keeping customers in the know about any potential charges they may face in the future if they decide to get into a contact with them.
"For consumers to get an all round fair deal they need to know the full costs of the services they are buying," said Ofcom's chief executive Ed Richards. "Our proposals will encourage companies to be open and straightforward about additional charges where they feel it is necessary to include them and not use this as an opportunity to collect extra revenue".
Ofcom's new rules will apply not only to bill collection charges but also to charges for collecting failed and late payments. Ofcom states that consumers must be made more aware of these additional charges and should only be applied once the customer has had a "fair chance" to pay the bill.
Ofcom also wants to apply the same argument to charges for breaking a broadband or phone contract by ending it early. "A consumer who ends a contract early should never have to pay more than the payments left under the contract period" Ofcom said.
Once Ofcom's final guidance is published later this year, telecom firms will have three months to comply, or face legal action under the 1999 Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations.
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