Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea tariff hike: Here's how much you can save by recharging before July 3

If you are a prepaid Jio or Airtel subscriber, July 2 is your last day to save money on recharges ahead of the tariff hike on July 3. This means prepaid recharges will continue to be active even if the price is raised or plan is discontinued.

However, this is not possible for postpaid customers. The first telco to announce revised rates was Jio with a 12 to 27 per cent tariff hike on June 27. Airtel followed suit, increasing tariffs by 11 per cent.

ALSO READ: Tariff hike: Should you port to BSNL as Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea revise rates?

Note to Vodafone Idea customers

However, if you are a prepaid customer of Vodafone Idea (Vi), whose tariff hikes will be effective from July 4, we have some bad news for you: There is no option to queue multiple recharges. If you recharge multiple times, only validity will be added in queue, but the benefits will start immediately. For revised prepaid and postpaid tariffs of Vodafone Idea, click HERE.

How to save on Airtel recharges?

If you are an Airtel subscriber, please note that not all plans can be clubbed for queuing recharges. There are two types of prepaid plans: ones with daily data limits and ones without. So if your existing plan has a daily data cap, then you can't club a plan without the limit.

According to Airtel support page, "an Airtel customer subscribing to Unlimited calling offer will get accretive validity if the subsequent recharge is done prior to expiry of current recharge, maximum validity accrual can be done for a period of upto 730 days, post which all subsequent accretive recharges will fail."

According to the company, the prepaid plans with tariff rates of Rs 155, Rs 179, Rs 199, Rs 289, Rs 296, Rs 455, Rs 489, Rs 509 and Rs 1799 that offer unlimited voice with fixed data can be clubbed together. Similarly, prepaid plans priced at Rs 209, Rs 239, Rs 265, Rs 299, Rs 319, Rs 359, Rs 399, Rs 479, Rs 499, Rs 519, Rs 549, Rs 666, Rs 699, Rs 719, Rs 779, Rs 839, Rs 869, Rs 999, Rs 1499, Rs 2999 and Rs 3359 that offer unlimited voice with daily data can be queued together.

Another important point to note is that Airtel allows users to extend validity up to 730 days but there is no clarification regarding the number of recharges that can be queued up.

Check Airtel's old and revisde prepaid tariff hikes below:

Check postpaid tariffs rates of Airtel and Jio HERE.

How to save on Jio recharges?

Unlike Airtel, Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio allows users to queue up to 50 recharges, either on a monthly or a yearly basis. However, many users who tried to recharge their favourite plans were disappointed after the telecom operator discontinued its popular 84-day Rs 295 plan and 336-day Rs 1,559 plan. 

Under the 'Affordable Plans' option, only the Rs 155 plan of 28-day validity is available ahead of July 3, when the tariff will increase to Rs 189. However, this plan does not provide 'Unlimited 5G' benefit unlike the discontinued plans.

Check out Jio's old and revised prepaid rates below: