Cell phone contracts

How to get your service fee back

For years, the major mobile phone companies have been charging an annual service fee. Now it could turn out that the fee was wrongly charged. Following lawsuits against A1 and Magenta, the first refunds have been made to customers. The "Krone" shows you what options you now have as an affected party.

A huge avalanche of costs is rolling towards domestic mobile phone providers. Since 2011, the major providers have been charging a so-called service fee of around 25 to 35 euros per year for every contract. The providers emphasized that this was intended to cover services such as a free hotline, free SIM card blocking or replacement or network expansion. Even back then, however, consumer advocates considered the extra costs to be a "basket money".